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We've compiled the best of the best in Eastern Newfoundland - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Golfing, sea kayaking, fishing, camping, and canoeing are among the activities the 399-square-km (186-square-mile) park supports. You can arrange guided walks at the visitor center, which has exhibits, a small shop, and a decent snack bar–cafeteria.
The visitor center can also provide connections to a local tour company for boat tours and kayaking activities while in the park.
A provincial historic site on the point, about 1 km (½ mile) outside town, the lighthouse was built in 1843 and has been restored to the way it looked in 1870.
If history and quaint towns appeal to you, follow this trail, which is accessible from the Trans-Canada Highway (Rte. 1) on Route 230 or 230A at Clarenville, or at Port Blandford on Route 233. It includes two gems: the old town of Trinity, famed for its architecture and theater festival, and Bonavista, one of John Cabot's reputed landing spots. Clarenville itself is largely a departure point for these more attractive destinations.
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.
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.
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 chili. Watch for pop-up events with visiting chefs. Visitors can sit outside in 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 afternoon.
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.
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 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.
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.
