When I was planning for our Nova Scotia / PEI trip earlier this year, I was debating if we should go to Newfoundland too. But the ferry between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland is not only long, it is also very expensive (almost CAD $200 for 2 adults + a car one way). Plus Newfoundland is so big, adding one week to the trip to see Newfoundland is not enough, so we decided to go to Newfoundland on a separate trip, which turns out to be this August / September (one more use out of our Parks Canada Discovery Pass :) ).
Our itinerary was:
Day 1: Fly to St. John's, Newfoundland.
Day 2: To Brigus.
Day 3: To Trinity.
Day 4: To Woody Point, Gros Morne National Park.
Day 5: Gros Morne National Park (south).
Day 6 - 7: Gros Morne National Park (north).
Day 8: To L'Anse aux Meadows (Viking site).
Day 9: Drive back to Deer Lake.
Day 10: Drive back to St. John's.
Day 11: Fly home from St. John's.
Notes and lessons learned:
1. Newfoundland has its own time zone. It is 1.5 hours ahead of Eastern Time. I did not know that until I was researching for the trip.
2. To avoid driving round trip between St. John’s and Deer Lake, some people fly into one city and out of the other. We didn’t do it because we had to transfer one more time if flying into or out of Deer Lake, and we had to pay high car rental one way drop off fee.
3. I booked in late July for our trip a month later. Many of the places we stayed were not my first choice. Recommend you book earlier, especially for Woody Point.
Overall the trip was nice, lots of driving (3300 km in 9 days). Weather was cool, 50/60s and even 70 degrees for high. We did have to turn the heat on one night since it was 40 degrees outside. Had some rainy days which caused us to change plan, but that is typical for this part of the world.
(To be continued)
