68 Best Sights in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

A good launching-off point for your Gros Morne visit. The thoughtful displays and videos about the park make this a good place to familiarize yourself with the park and what it has to offer.

This is the spot where Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for Britain in 1583, much to the amusement of the French, Spanish, and Portuguese fishermen in port at the time. They thought him a fool, a judgment borne out a few days later when he ran his ship aground and drowned. The small park is a good vantage point to watch the boats come and go and a nice spot to stop for a rest. Kids love the bronze Newfoundland and Labrador dog statues you can sit on. With benches placed among the greenery in an amphitheater-style formation, this is a pleasant place to enjoy family-friendly concerts. Enjoy free lunchtime and afternoon performances by some of the best musicians in the city through July and August.

If you are using the Port aux Basques ferry, this park is 10 km (6 miles) from the port and makes a good first or last stop, particularly if you're on a camping trip. Rich in natural flora, this is a nesting site for the piping plover. One of the hiking trails leads to waterfalls on Little Barachois River; another, with views of Table Mountain, includes fitness stations. The long, sandy Cape Ray Beach is good for swimming and sunbathing—its day-use area has picnic tables and fireplaces, and there are about a hundred campsites.

Built deep into the earth with only the entryway protruding aboveground, this geological shrine is literally embedded in Signal Hill, itself made up of 550-million-year-old rocks. (The province's oldest rocks date back 3.87 billion years.) There are exhibits on the solar system and how Earth took form. Step on an oil platform in the ExxonMobil Oil & Gas Gallery, and learn about how oil and gas are formed.

A passenger ferry operated by this company leaves Fortune (south of Grand Bank) from late April through December. Through July and August, there is daily service (with twice-daily service some days), but the schedule thins out rapidly in the shoulder season so check the schedule and plan ahead. The crossing takes roughly an hour; one-way is about C$65 (45€), round-trip is about C$110 (73€), but rates are set in euros so check the website and exchange rate close to your travel date.

Among the few Newfoundland lighthouses you can climb (55 steps), this 1876 structure on a 300-foot cliff inspires gasps with its panoramic view, which includes whales and icebergs at the right times of year. For those who choose not to go inside, the lighthouse serves as a departure point for picturesque walking trails. The nearby Long Point Centre has a fascinating collection of local artifacts.

Stretching all the way from the southwest coast to the Northern Peninsula, a distance of about 400 km (250 miles), the Long Range Mountains form the northernmost extent of the Appalachian Mountains. Their highest point, southwest of Corner Brook, is 2,670 feet, and the range encompasses the Gros Morne National Park and several provincial parks. Jacques Cartier, who saw them in 1534 as he was exploring the area on behalf of France, noted that their shape reminded him of the long, rectangular-shaped farm buildings of his home village in France. Among the mountains, small villages are interspersed with rivers teeming with salmon and trout.

The gardens at this 110-acre natural area include rock gardens, a Newfoundland historic-plants bed, peat and woodland beds, an alpine house, a medicinal garden, a native plant collection, a vegetable garden, a crevice garden, a shade garden, a dried-flower garden, and a compost demonstration garden. There are also five pleasant walking trails. You can see scores of rhododendron varieties here, as well as many kinds of butterflies and the rare hummingbird hawkmoth.

At this provincial historic site you can slip back in time more than a century to the era when mercantile families ruled tiny communities. Next door the counting house has been restored to the 1820s and the retail store to the 1900s. An interpretation center traces the history of Trinity, once a hub of commerce.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, this is one of the most significant fossil sites in the world at 575 million years old. Fossils of more than 20 species of ancient organisms are found in the mudstones here, and almost all of them represent extinct groups unknown in our modern world. Mistaken Point is 152 km (94 miles) south of St. John's via Route 10. Access to the fossils is by guided hike only. Tours are offered daily at 1 pm from the Edge of Avalon Interpretive Centre in Portugal Cove South and include access to an exhibit at the Visitor Centre. Tours generally take from 3½ to 4 hours and include a 3-km (1.8-mile) one-way hike across the barrens toward the ocean to the fossil site. Call ahead to ensure availability and to check weather conditions. Proper footwear is required.

While you're here, travel 8 km (5 miles) farther along the road to Cape Race Lighthouse, famous for receiving one of the first SOS messages from the Titanic.

The home of F. Gordon Bradley, a proponent of Confederation, has been restored to its 1939 appearance, the better to chronicle the days leading up to Newfoundland becoming a province of Canada a decade later. The house was built in the 1870s, when it was a fishery plantation. Interpreters lead tours of the plantation house known as the Bradley House.

Newfoundland's first craft cidery, producing cider and pét nat (sparkling wine) for businesses around the province, has a tasting room where visitors can enjoy the products on-site along with a charcuterie board or seasonally appropriate pairings like grilled cheeses or hot chilli. Watch for pop-up events with visiting chefs. Visitors can sit outside in a a miniature orchard, and a weatherproof dome allows for a charming outdoor experience in summer and winter. In the off-season, the tasting room continues to open for Saturday afternoons. 

This store is crammed from wall to wall with Newfoundland-related stuff—reputedly more than 16,000 items. The three-level store is full of books (including rare ones by Newfoundlanders and about Newfoundland, as well as volumes about ships and sailing), art, crafts, music, antique furniture, and collectibles.

An intriguing collection of live and preserved insects, spiders, and scorpions from six temperate zones is housed here, and there's a glass beehive with 10,000 honeybees. The verdant greenhouse is home to hundreds of live tropical butterflies. A walking trail leads through woodland to the Humber River and Rocky Brook—you have a good chance of spotting beavers and muskrats from the viewing deck. Check out the gift shop, which sometimes stocks lollipops with edible dried scorpions inside. Picnic tables provide a nice spot to stretch and rest. The insectarium is a one-minute drive off the Trans-Canada Highway at Deer Lake; turn north onto Route 430, also signed here as Bonne Bay Road.

Newfoundland ponies are a part of the Island's cultural history and heritage. Netta LeDrew, founder of the sanctuary, can tell visitors of the work this breed did hauling capelin in from the stages and plowing the fields. But the ponies under her care know no such rigors; these sturdy little beauties are a part of a rescue and breeding program. You can come and meet them and appreciate their picturesque lives with their devoted caretaker, a brand new barn, and plenty of space to graze and roam.

This 200-year-old building with stone barrel vaults is where the renowned Newman's Port was aged. According to legend, a Newman and Company vessel loaded with port wine was driven off course by pirates in 1679 and forced to winter in St. John's. Upon its return to London, the cargo was found to have improved in flavor, and after that the company continued to send port to be matured in these wine cellars. The vaults are now a historic site, with guides who interpret the province's long and unique association with port. A small taste of port comes with admission.

Two kilometers (1 mile) east of L'Anse aux Meadows is Norstead, a reconstruction of an 11th-century Viking port, with a chieftain's hall, church, and ax-throwing area. Interpreters in period dress answer questions as they go about their Viking business (albeit in sneakers). A highlight is the Snorri, a reconstructed viking knarr that sailed from Greenland to L'anse Aux Meadows in 1997, re-creating Leif Eriksson's voyage.

Just down the highway from the visitor information center, this museum provides an expansive view of Gander's and Newfoundland's roles in aviation. In addition to viewing the aircraft collection (including a World War II–era Lockheed Hudson and a Voodoo fighter jet) and some photographs, you can climb into the cockpit of a real DC-3. 

A slender isthmus tethers this peninsula to the west coast. About 20 tiny communities retain a French and First Nations heritage, but other than that it's largely undeveloped, with a wilderness interior and a rocky coastline. There are superb ocean views from Cape St. George, and some rewarding hiking trails.

This museum pays tribute to the life and work of fishermen in Twillingate, whose livelihood was determined by annual lottery, which assigned the top fishing area or prime berth. Visitors are awed by actual reconstructions of two whale skeletons, as well as an underwater camera and an iceberg gallery. There's also a blacksmith shop, an aquarium, an observation tower, and a crafts studio. The facility's owner, David Boyd, aka Captain Dave ( captdave.ca), conducts boat trips to fish for lobster and cod or to watch whales and icebergs.

This sail-shape building contains a bright and lively museum celebrating the province's connection with both land and sea. Exhibits include boats, ship models, and artifacts from the 1800s to the present.

No one knows the origin of the name of this fishing village, one of the oldest parts of St. John's. The town is best explored on foot, as the roads are narrow and make driving difficult. The inlet, known as the Gut, is a traditional outport in the middle of a modern city, though a recent slew of new building permits means it is changing rapidly. It's also a good place to catch sea-run brown trout in the spring. Down on the waterfront is the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation, an open arts-and-crafts studio where you can meet the artists and buy textiles, prints, handmade clothing, and more. It has parking and is a good place to start your walk around the village. The Inn of Olde, Quidi Vidi Brewery, and Mallard Cottage are great stops for food and shelter and, of course, beer and spirits to keep you warm as you explore.

The community of New Bonaventure is about 15 km (10 miles) south on Route 239 from Trinity. It has been the backdrop for two movies, The Shipping News and The Grand Seduction, and for an internationally televised miniseries based on Bernice Morgan's novel Random Passage. At the end of the road, walk a short way, and you'll reach the breathtaking cove now known as Random Passage where the set of the miniseries was constructed and eventually donated to the community as an early 19th-century outpost. You can roam the church, schoolroom, houses, and a fishing stage and flakes (where fish is dried), or sit near the vegetable garden and enjoy the quiet beauty of the cove's meadows and pastures. There are guided one-hour site tours, which include "Joe's Place," the bar featured in The Grand Seduction. The website is updated seasonally with frequent programming and events. The Old Schoolhouse tearoom (open from 9:30 to 4:30) serves house-made fish cakes, pea soup, and light lunches.

On the waterfront, this restored fish merchant's property depicts the history of the commercial cod fishery that prospered here between 1869 and the 1950s.

This 1,640-foot sandy beach offers a pleasant day for families. With a river nearby, you have a choice of swimming in the very cold ocean water or in the more inviting fresh water. For nonswimmers, there's a 2-km (1.2-mile) hiking trail and beautiful views of surrounding rock cliffs. An on-site kiosk sells refreshments and snacks. Amenities: food and drink. Best for: swimming.

Many indigenous animal species—including caribou, lynx, owls, and otters—along with moose, which were introduced from New Brunswick a little more than a century ago, can be seen at this 437-acre wilderness area. An enclosed 3 km (1½ mile) boardwalk that is stroller and wheelchair accessible allows up-close viewing.

The memorial marks the spot where, on December 12, 1985, an Arrow Air DC-8 carrying the 101st Airborne Division home for Christmas crashed, killing 256 American soldiers and civilian flight crew. The site lies just off the highway on a rough gravel road, but it's a must-see. The setting, a clearing in the woods overlooking the grandeur of Gander Lake, is peaceful and moving, and the memorial sculpture, of a boy and girl holding the hands of a peacekeeper, is poignantly rendered.

About 9,000 people a year come to hike this historic footpath, a cliff walk with panoramic vistas of Trinity and the ocean. On the trail you'll see sandy beaches, sea stacks (giant protruding rocks that have slowly eroded over time), seabirds, and, in season, whales, icebergs, and bald eagles. The 5.3-km (3¼-mile) loop trail, which begins in Port Rexton, is not for the faint of heart. It takes about two hours and can be steep in places. There are benches along the way.

This wooden building, the oldest church in the city, is painted blue and trimmed in white in a style consistent with the "jellybean" houses in the neighborhood. The primary section was built in 1836 and, while it escaped damage by the fire of 1846, it is believed to have shifted by six inches in a storm that took place that same year. This led to the further construction of wings to stabilize the original structure. English soldiers used to worship at this church during the early and mid-1800s.