Newfoundland & Labrador

Perhaps most famous for its language and food, Newfoundland & Labrador is an adventure of its own waiting to be discovered by the inquisitive traveller. Boasting of impressive landscapes, Viking ruins and landing sites of the early explorers John Cabot and Leif Erickson, this land also offers a wide array of sea and land wildlife as well as amazing ocean views and iceberg watching.

  With enough coastline to stretch back and forth across Canada four times over, there's no shortage of places to explore on this island known to locals as "The Rock". Have a stroll along many trails, some along ancient footpaths, through inlets, coves and bays. You'll find plenty of salt box houses, icebergs, whales and seabirds. And likely chances are you'll encounter a moose or two. A spin up the Cape Shore is like an escape to the Emerald Isle, or travel down to Port au Port for a taste of France.

Newfoundlanders are a warm and welcoming people with a vibrant spirit and more colourful sayings and expressions than you could 'shake a stick at'. Known to be the friendliest people on earth, they are undeniably full of quick wit, hospitality, and charm. They have more dialects of English than anywhere else in the world, with their very own encyclopedia and dictionary. The Island language stems from Newfoundland's English, Irish, French, and Aboriginal influences which have done and still do much to colour the cultural landscape. And even the supposedly dead language of Gaelic can still be found if you know where to listen. The multitude of dialects found here has been steadfastly preserved, even if it varies up and down the very same stretch of coast.

With ingredients from their oceans, lakes, rivers, game, plants and gardens they have some of the most unique recipes on earth. Lobster, cod, caribou, salmon and moose. Recipes handed down from generation to generation have created Newfoundland and Labrador's cuisine. Taste recipes you’ve never heard of with names you’ll never forget: Colcannon, Doughboys, Pea soup, Salt Fish and Brewis, Toutons, and Cod Tongues to name a few. Try a Jigg’s Dinner, a staple of traditional Newfoundland ‘scoff’. For dessert try Figgy Duff, a delicious 16th-century pudding that’s a favourite! And how about Salmon Ravioli, Braised Rabbit Pie, Caribou Bourguignon and Bakeapple Cheesecake?

Newfoundland and Labrador is the best place in the world to view icebergs. They can even be viewed from shore on a warm summer’s day. Thousands of these icebergs break off from glaciers along the Greenland coast and are carried south along the Labrador Current before lingering along shorelines. Most are seen in the late spring and early summer which is the best time to go viewing. And as for the wildlife, the bears roam free, as do the moose and the caribou, by the hundreds of thousands. There are 22 species of whales alone, including the world’s largest migrating population of humpbacks. The 35 million seabirds that fill the air above the cliffs can be easily viewed by birders of any experience level. View kittiwakes and gannets, bald eagles, storm petrels and the infamous Puffins.

For more information on visiting this spectacular Canadian island, have a chat with your local travel agent.