There is a palpable vibe of pulsing energy in St. John’s. The historical capital of Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada is a port city that has been welcoming visitors for 500 years.
![Aerial view of Fort Amherst showing lighthouse and water](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1-5Day.jpg)
St. John’s is on the edge of the North American continent. It offers an urban experience that feels like no other. The downtown hugs the harbour and offers the traveller access to a rural experience just minutes from the modern amenities of this eclectic city. You will notice something within minutes of your arrival and even more so when you travel to the quaint villages surrounding the city. A familiarity. You have arrived in a new found land but yet the faces smiling back at you make you feel like you are returning to a familiar place.
Newfoundland and Labrador is an exceptional destination for walking and hiking. With 29,000km of coastline and vast open spaces there are countless coastal and wooded walking trails. The East Coast Trail, 274 km of groomed coastal trail, starts in St. John’s and continues north and south of the city. While enjoying the Atlantic Ocean vistas from the trail you might also witness the migratory path of the humpback whales, seabirds and a grounded mammoth iceberg. Both awe inspiring.
![Photo of plated meal](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2-5Day.jpg)
If you are interested in a food tourism getaway, then do consider St. John’s. As national and International publications have attested with
exuberance, the food scene in St. John’s is a beacon for food lovers because of the delicacies of the land, the sea and uber talented Chefs. Your food journey in St. John’s will be an exploration of the locally farmed and harvested ingredients that have been around for centuries but today are being used with a creativity that speaks to a pride and sense of place.
Colourful is an adjective used often to describe St. John’s. It is a toe tapping town with an abundance of live music and culture rich with storytellers. The Irish lilt and a vernacular that is only found in Newfoundland and Labrador are enchanting. The clapboard houses with brightly contrasting shutters are photographed as much as the whales and icebergs and are the subject matter for many an artisan. But more striking to travellers is the whit, charm and friendly nature of the colourful characters for which Newfoundland is known. It is the tangible and intangible notion of colour that is irresistible.
Day 1
![Photo of Notrth Head TRail stairs and coastline to Cape Spear](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/SignalHill-5Day.jpg)
Arrive in St. John’s. Check in to your hotel and take the afternoon to explore downtown. Or if you are feeling energized do the 1 hour North Head Trail hike out the lower Battery to Signal Hill. Why not start your first night off at one of our award winning restaurants?
Day 2
![Photo of a woman looking out to sea in the foreground and lighthouse in background](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CapeSpear-5Day.jpg)
Take a guided tour for an excellent orientation of the history, legend and lore of St. John’s. Your guide will take you to national historic sites such as Cabot Tower on Signal Hill, and Cape Spear Lighthouse, the most easterly point in North America. Enjoy lunch at The Rooms Café located in The Rooms Provincial Museum, Art Gallery and Archives. The café offers stunning views of city. Then take a couple of hours to explore the museum.
Day 3
![Photo of picnic and a tartan blanket with ocean in background](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FerrylandPicnic-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg)
It’s time to stretch your legs and skirt the coastline on one of the many hikes along the 274km East Coast Trail. Or if walking is preferred, explore the city on the Grand Concourse, 150km of walking trails that connects our parks, rivers, ponds and the Botanical Gardens. Either way you will be taking in a picnic lunch. Lighthouse Picnics is one of Canada’s Signature Experiences. Located in Ferryland about an hour from St. John’s this day will be filled with salt air breezes as you hike the trail and enjoy a delicious lunch by the sea.
If you choose the walking trails, consider the Hibernia Manuels River Interpretation river walk and you will be treated to Lunch on the Rocks.
Day 4
![Photo of a whale's tail out of the water with a sightseeing boat in the background](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/5-5Day.jpg)
Sea legs or sea bottom? A day on the water is always a highlight for travellers. Whether you choose to take a guided tour on a large vessel, a fast moving zodiac, a sea kayaking trip or snorkelling to explore sea caves — Newfoundland is a beautiful island and a day on the water comes highly recommended. In
season you can see whales, seabirds and icebergs.
End this exhilarating day at Canada’s #1 restaurant Raymonds for a dining experience like no other.
Day 5
Depart St. John’s for your return home…or Mix ‘n’ Match and extend your stay. Other highlights for your consideration:
In St. John’s
The Quidi Vidi Village Experience. Just minutes from downtown St. John’s is the picturesque village of Quidi Vidi, a destination within a destination. The old fishing stages, slipways, narrow laneways, and a small harbour known as “the Gut”, all add to its charm. It is a hint of rural Newfoundland and Labrador within the city limits.
![Photo of Quidi Vidi Village seen from the Sugar Loaf trail with family waving to a boat leaving dock](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/QV-5Day.jpg)
Quidi Vidi Plantation is a craft incubation facility, designed to accelerate the growth of emerging artists and their businesses. Various activities are available from simply chatting and watching the craftspeople work, interpretative tours of the facility, to participating in making a craft for you to take home. Quidi Vidi Brewery, an Award winning micro-brewery and home to Iceberg Beer made from 10,000-year-old iceberg water. The QVB won the Gold Medal for its British IPA at the world Beer Championship in 2012. Meet the Brew Master and have a beer
tasting at the brewery.
Johnson GEO Centre located on Signal Hill, featuring Newfoundland as Earth’s Geological Showcase as more than 85% of the building is underground. A permanent exhibit is “The Titanic Story” which reveals the many causes behind that disaster.
MUN Botanical Gardens. Opened to the public in July 1977, the Garden display plants native to the province and cultivate plants suitable to the local climate. The Garden is a resource centre for basic and applied botanical research and education with a particular interest in the flora of Newfoundland & Labrador.
Just Beyond St. John’s
The Colony of Avalon is an archaeological site dating back to the 1600s. It consists of an active archaeological site, interpretation centre, conservation laboratory, 17th century kitchen and three heritage gardens and kitchen, herb and gentleman’s garden.
Island Rooms at Petty Harbour. Fishing for Success provides unique, seasonal heritage guided tours at historic Island Rooms of Petty Harbour. Summer tours include wooden boat fishing with cook-ups, walk-abouts in a fishing community, and guided hikes along traditional pathways used for hunting and gathering. Winter tours include ice fishing, snowshoeing along heritage trails and twine loft knitting.
![Photo of Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve with gannets in the foreground and a boat in the background](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/8-5Day.jpg)
Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve is one of the best and most accessible places in the world to see nesting seabirds. Located about 200 km southwest of St. John’s, Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve also known as “the Cape” is one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s major seabird colonies. During the breeding season, it is home to 24,000 Northern gannet, 20,000 black-legged kittiwake, 20,000 common murre, and 2,000 thick-billed murre. In addition, more than 100 pairs of razorbill, more than 60 pairs of black guillemot, plus double-crested and great cormorant, and Northern fulmar nest there. What makes it so spectacular, however, is that all these birds can be seen from land, as close as 10 metres away.
![Rock face showing fossila at Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/9-5Day.jpg)
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. The area is one of 18 Canadian UNESCO World Heritage properties. Embedded in the planes of Mistaken Point’s tilted and cleaved mudstone and sandstone, exposed by the pounding of the Atlantic waves, are fossils of the oldest creatures—in fact, the oldest complex life forms—found anywhere on Earth. Known to scientists as the Ediacara biota, they are creatures that lived 575 to 542 million years ago, when all life was in the sea. The Reserve is the only place in the world where you can view a 565-million-year-old sea floor that accurately preserves the ecology of these ancient deep sea communities.
![Statue at Cupids Legacy Centre](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/10-5Day.jpg)
Cupids Legacy Centre was built in 2010 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the first English settlement in Canada here in Cupids, on the island of Newfoundland. It houses a state-of-the-art exhibit that illuminates the rich historical and cultural narrative of Cupids and the Conception Bay North area, more than 160,000 artifacts recovered by archaeologists from the Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site, an archaeology field laboratory, a fullservice reception hall, a Family History Resource Centre, a rooftop Faerie Garden, and a Museum Shop.
![Photo of Hawthorne Cottage National Historic Site at night](https://destinationstjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/11-5Day.jpg)
Hawthorne Cottage National Historic Site. Located in the fishing village of Brigus, about a 45-minute drive from St. John’s, is a window to Canada’s maritime past and the life of one of the country’s greatest Arctic explorers. Retrace the daring exploits of Captain Bob Bartlett, commander of more than 20 Arctic voyages in the early and mid 20th century, inside Hawthorne Cottage, his family’s beloved homestead. See rare artifacts from his expeditions and period furnishings as you tour the cottage and explore its heritage gardens.