“You must go to Newfoundland” we were told by so many on our 2024 Maritime adventures.  It was a place that was not in my adventure playbook, but it has risen to the top of our “Travels with Vinny VanGo” Adventures.   There are so many places of jaw dropping beauty in our North American, but Newfound hiking is amazing for the 60 plus crowd.  I thought Gros Morne was going to be the bees knees, but between the East Coast Trail, the icebergs, the puffins and the whales coupled with the easy to find boondocking and the so friendly people, the last two summer months have been exceptional.  Yes, it’s a bit challenging to get here since after all it is an island, and “The Rock” doesn’t just allow a pull up to any old shore, but if you have the time, it has so many exquisite outings if luxury hotels are not your thing. 

I have written eight Travels with Vinny VanGo Blog posts.  After the first one to Twillingate, I decided to rethink my format and basically put all the unique exceptional experiences right up front.  The goal for my posts is mostly to be a memory for us personally, but also a document of the practical logistics of travelling to places in a VanGoing style.  So now I bunch those details that are less interesting at the end of my posts, but serve to aid anyone else including us who hope to visit Newfoundland in the future.

First, my idea of a perfect place is one in which you can drive or hike to scenic places, learn a bit of history, engage in the culture through music, theater, or art, and chat it up with others at a pub or brewery. We are not those who like to be by ourselves, I am kind of social and enjoy meeting other campers and hearing their unique stories.  I prefer a trail that has a couple people, we are 60 plus and not that we have, but if we fall, it would be nice to have a 2 legged rather than other 4 leggeds with whom to meet up.  We like crashing at a pub or brewery parking lot or camping at a trail head, ready to go after our morning coffee.  

Compared to hiking in other places, so many of the Newfoundland trails start up on the bluffs so it’s not like you have to climb 3000 feet to have a view of a waterfall, the ragged coastline afar, or the crashing waves which are more that 100 feet down a cliff.  All of these are relatively easy to get to, well once you get to “The Rock” – that is a bit more effort than typical.  The summer days are long and my Windy weather App had us doing the evening hikes to avoid the morning/afternoon rain/wind.  We did get lucky and have heard that June is typically a bit overcast/rainy much like the June Gloom on the coast of California.  Yes, we did have some rain and it was a first time ever that we didn’t get out of Vinny for an entire day!  But as far as weather and flying pests, we were quite pleasantly surprised

We only did about 6 of the East Coast trails and not even all the way on most as we didn’t have any Trail Fairies to pick us up and drive us back to Vinny.  The East Coast trail runs for about 200 miles, mostly on the east coast of Newfoundland and was started in 1994 when 25 wilderness paths were linked through more than 30 communities.  National Geographic named it as one of the best adventure destinations in 2012 and it is continually being improved.  It passes through the largest city St John’s as well as other historic districts like Ferryland and Avalon, and other quaint fishing villages.  You can pick and choose where to enter for an incredible day hike along the bluffs that extend in some places more than 100 feet up from the ocean as you walk along enjoying the breeze or the frolicking whales.  

The Icebergs also ranked high on the amazing experiences in Newfoundland.  Upon arrival we went straight for Twillingate where the iceberg finder and Facebook posts said there was lots of sightings.  We had an incredible Friday Harbor Zodiac Tour right out to the “Ice Castle” is what I called it.  On another morning, we awoke at a boondocking site and there was the huge “Motorboat” berg right out the back window.  You could just drive around on Bayview Rd and see them up close.  It was quite magical.  After having a banner year in 2023, there were few in 2024, but we sure lucked out in 2025.  One can go up north to see them as well, and the best thing is to keep connected with Facebook and go in the beginning of June.  Blog Post: Twillingate – Icebergs. 

The Puffins were another fascinating experience.  We opted to do a Spillars Cove Hike in Bona Vista, and these curious creatures seemed to enjoy us looking at them and more continually flew in the area to join the others who were putting on a show for us.  They are so cute and playful and they were only 10 feet in front of us, going in and out of their grass dens on rocky cliffs.  The hike itself was incredible, but add the puffins and it is one of our top hikes of all times.  Then we boondocked at Dungeon Provincial Park which again, right on water with the amazing rock features, and then there were the herd of horses that did lawn maintenance as this was a community pasture area too.  Elliston Puffin Viewing area is the well-known place for seeing puffins, but they are across the cliff on their own island so they are over 100 feet away most times.  This was also the case at Bona Vista Lighthouse.  I was told that if you get there early before the crowds, they come closer and off their island. Blog Post: Bona Vista – Puffins

Whales were also a huge highlight and we saw them in multiple hikes, but St Vincents Beach was the best.  This beach has a steep drop off and whales will follow the capelin fish right up close to the shore where people like us can see them up close as they feed.  Capelin come ashore to lay their eggs. They roll in to shore and then roll out, hence the term the Capelin Roll where the locals scoop them up with nets from surf.  While they are close and trapped, the whales have feeding frenzies and the people on the beach get quite a show.  Blog Post: Southern Avalon Peninsula – Whales

Fogo Island had delightful hikes along the shores and up Heads and through historic fishing villages, famous Fogo Inn, but the East Coast Trail overtook the overall wow.  We really enjoyed camping at Brimstone Head on Fogo,  right on the cove and visiting with the black fox that prowled the area.  The Bang Belly Bistro was also top notch. Blog Post: Fogo Island

Our St John’s experience was also lots of fun and we met really nice people as we frequented pubs and enjoyed the Newfoundland Labrador Folkfest.  It was perfect for driving out to an East Coast Trail hike and then having that well deserved beer at a pub on the way back.  Lots of music in the pubs and it was easy to walk around the downtown area, well except for the hills. Blog Post: St. John’s

“Come From Away” is an emotional roller coaster musical about the City of Gander taking care of thousands of stranded people whose flights got diverted immediately after the 9/11 tragedy as American airspace was closed. This musical has been done all over the world, but we were lucky that it was here in Gander for a couple of years and next year will be the 25^th anniversary of the tragedy, and we got to experience it with the people who were there.  Please watch the YouTube of the musical; it was absolutely excellent.   It was heartwarming and heart wrenching, funny, tragic and truly illustrates the ethics of the people of Newfoundland.  Before jet engines, planes would refuel here before jumping the Atlantic Ocean. During WWII and then tourist travel made this quite huge hub for aircraft and the infrastructure was there to accommodate the aircraft diversion of 9/11.  The people of Newfoundland will always stand out as a people of great kindness.

In Gros Morne National Park, the Western Brook Pond Boat Tour and the Green Gardens Hike stood out, but again there were other hikes that were just as good if not better on the East Coast in my opinion.  That being said, we did not climb Gros Morne Mountain as it was closed for the animal birthing season in May and June, but it might have been a bit too much for us anyway.  Of course, the Visitor’s Center and Campgrounds were top notch here and had Wi-Fi.  We had decided that visiting Terre Nova National Park was not so unique, more like the US East Coast,  so we had decided there were too many other interests to explore. Blog Post: Gros Morne

The Viking Village in L’Anse Meadows was interesting and we had mooseburgers and got introduced to partridge berry pie here which were delicious, but the weather was not so optimal, and the icebergs were far away in June, so we only spent an overnight here at the tail end of the Iceberg Festival that had been going on for almost two weeks. Blog Post: North to Norseland

We had decided to take the shorter 6-hour ferry to Port aux Basque on both journeys as the one from the St. John’s side is two hours longer.  This had allowed us to back track and do any of those places that we had missed.  So in our last week, we are heading West and South.  This has taken us to Chance Cove where we did the most beautiful hike and Oceanview RV park at Leading Tickles which were stunning.  Cape Saint George, looks like the most western spot in Newfoundland, and oh what an incredible boondocking spot at Boutte du Cap Park at the very end with a 5 mile round trip hike to incredible coastal views. On our last day on the ”Rock” we still experienced another unique island coastal environment as we explored the Rose Blanche and Isle aux Morts areas just east of Port aux Basque Ferry.  Blog Post: Westward to Port aux Basque Ferry

Newfoundland Slideshow   (15 min)

The People 

Newfoundland people are the most kindhearted, delightful people. It’s a shame that we all can’t live the “Gander Way.” They are survivors from a historical perspective and enduring the perils of fishing on the tormenting sea, to the harsh winters, and even the seal hunting expeditions of the earlier centuries that developed a tough Newfoundland lineage.  The 32-year cod fish moratorium that began on July 2, 1992 abruptly eliminated a main livelihood.  30,000 people lost their jobs on this day. People in the many harbor towns had seen the decline coming, but this industry was the way of life for 100’s of years.  The decline is evident in many small towns around the province, but boat tours for icebergs, puffins and whales have managed to help rebuild some areas quite well.   In June of 2024 the moratorium was lifted and now commercial fisheries have limited quotas so as to make the cod fish industry sustainable, and fishing tourism as well as small quantity fishing allowable.  One of our favorite Canadian songs is called “Peter’s Dream” and depicts the cod moratorium devastation.  Although many left to find work in other provinces, it seems like many come back to visit or do retirement in the summer months. There are hand-crafted knitted and crocheted items at almost every retail outlet. The Irish influence of music and storytelling is prominent in many areas and there are so many pubs in St John’s that have nightly music of some sort or another.  Newfoundland – A must see Destination.

Information about Newfoundland Travel

VanGoing in Newfoundland – Some general details

Boondocking 

Lots of places to boondock.  One of our favorites was at a trailhead parking area and pubs or restaurants that we had patronized, but asking a local or following One AdVanTure at a Time also was great advice too.   Basically, if “no overnight parking” is not posted you can do it. Asking locals was the best way to find a place.

Campgrounds

I had gotten reservations in Gros Morne, but it seemed like most campgrounds were not totally full, although I guess July starts to get busy, and now we have to go.  Campgrounds generally had nice facilities although some required boiling of water which sometimes had the tan tinge of tannin.  Many smaller areas had water refillery stations in the grocery stores, so we would go in with all our bottles and pitchers that we had, and estimated to be 11 liters and that was a breakpoint of a few dollars to pay.    As RVing is not so popular, LPG refilling must be found at the largest cities if you have something other than bottles.   Many towns seem to have separate RV dumping stations.  

Keeping Connected

Cell coverage in smaller towns was difficult and we experienced 3G coverage meaning voice or text only.  Many of these smaller places had Wi-Fi at pubs/restaurants.  It can be a real problem when you have taken 100’s of photos and videos and you want them to get to the cloud before you drop your phone over a cliff.  And then there was keeping up with my blog. Coinciding with poor weather, sometimes, we found a coffee shop or pub and camped-out there a bit longer than the normal sit time to enjoy the offerings of the business.  But people were friendly and we were mindful not to take up space if they were too busy. Beer and coffee are among our favorites so having one more is not a problem. Almost everybody took tap payment which was handy.    

We tested out the satellite feature of texting when we had no coverage.  Our phone service is through AT & T not T-Mobile who is connected to Starlink.  There was a satellite icon imposed under SOS when we noticed this first. I tried a test text and it told me to get into open space.  When I did, it connected and allowed me to send a text.  No group text and I believe they are limited to 500 characters.  Mackie replied and he said the text indicated it was via satellite and he told me about the 500 characters.  An article I found said that it is available on IOS 18, but if you have the I-phone 14 or higher it is there.

Food

Lots of delicious cod although the predominant frying method got a bit monotonous, but what do you expect from bar food?  Restaurants in small towns can be difficult to find and seem to have more limited open times.  Small Foodland Grocery or Co-Op stores in small towns are perfect and a Sobeys or Dominion in the larger ones have everything you can imagine. 

Roads 

There are a lot of road signs that say potholes which is handy. In general smaller roads were a bit rough, and best traveled during daylight which there is a lot, in these summer months.  We had also been warned over and over again about the moose especially at dusk.  I guess by the middle summer they have already licked the salt off the highways, this is why there are so many Moose warning signs on roads, and many sections of the larger highways have moose fences.  If a sign says “rough road” in Canada, they mean it!  Many of the roads to trail heads are pretty narrow and towing a trailer would not be advised, but there were lots of Class B Vans all over, and we managed to keep all Vinny’s under features intact and no holes in our running board step this time.