News

It’s shortly after 6 p.m. early in September. I’m walking on a 4.4 km (2.6 mi.) boardwalk along the coast in Rigolet, the oldest Inuit community in Labrador. This region is part of Nunatsiavut—“our beautiful land”—and is only accessible by ship or plane (dog sled and skidoos in the winter.)

The surge and surface current slosh me around like laundry in a spin cycle. I’m scuba diving on Gadd’s Wall, a precipitous dive site in Bonne Bay, in Western Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park, that just may be one of the top dives on the Rock.

Travelers seeking unspoiled places and culturally authentic experiences now have a valuable new resource in a comprehensive “Geotourism MapGuide” and website for Canada’s Eastern Newfoundland region. The landmark project has taken two years to plan and execute and is a historically significant asset for everyone who visits or lives in the region.

From fabulous food to trendy hotels and jaw-dropping scenery, Travel Editor Jim Byers' offers up great things to do in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Marble Mountain rises 1,700 feet from the Humber River, prized for its salmon (70,000 swim upriver annually) to just below what locals call the Governor’s Balls, two gigunda rocks overlooked by a Doppler radar tower. Views extend down river to Humber Arm and out to the Bay of Islands, framed by the alluring Rubenesque Blomidon Mountains, a line of rounded, downy peaks, all curves and cleavage, descending to the sea.

The perfect place to stay for this western Newfoundland golf adventure is the Humber Valley Resort, and perhaps the best golf to be played on this side of the island is the River Course at the resort. The resort offers both an inn and chalets with seasonal rates. The chalets offer options to house large or small groups with all the comforts of a world-class golf destination.

Forget the Rockies. Winter blahs melt away as you hit the gas on a snowmobile and blast along ancient mountain ridges or wander through pristine woodlands in Newfoundland and Labrador.

A vast network of trails sprawls across more than 5,000 kilometres of natural beauty. It spans the former Canadian National Railway route, follows the foothills of the Long Range Mountains to a glacier-cut fjord in Gros Morne National Park, and crisscrosses Labrador's rolling tundra.

In the 1950s, Canada’s Department of Transport commissioned a modernist makeover for a tiny international air hub in Newfoundland, a design that has proven as timeless as it was trendsetting.

The Labrador Winter Games began in 1983 and has grown to become a sporting event, and a family event that every Labradorian wants a ticket to. Communities come together as one and select their finest athletes to represent them in what is also known as the ‘friendship games.’

When I ask the owner of a very local diner in tiny Port au Choix where the moose came from for the delicious moose burger I’ve just wolfed down, she tells me she hunted it herself. I clearly realize that dining in Newfoundland is not like anyplace else I’ve travelled before.

The perception most of us have of Newfoundland is of a scenic wonder filled with rocky cliffs, green terrain and quaint seaside villages. It is not known as a haven for winter activity, but a visit to Western Newfoundland will obliterate any notion that Newfoundlanders are not just as much fun in the cold as in the sun. Even the province’s jewel, Gros Morne National Park, offers visitors spectacular beauty when the temperature falls below freezing.

It’s that exciting time of the year again. Time to launch two brand new Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism TV ads. The two new chapters of the Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism story, Most Easterly Point and Conversation, highlight the compelling differences that make this province the ideal destination.

CONCHE, Newfoundland - I'm preparing to be drawn and quartered by my friends as we drive a long gravel road on the northeast tip of Newfoundland's rugged Great Northern Peninsula with no idea how far it is to the French Shore tapestries in Conche, an outport of 200 that had no road connection with the rest of the island until 1970.

For an east coast edition of Anna & Kristina's Grocery Bag, we visited Newfoundland and tried moose for the first time. Our guest chef on the episode was Jeremy Charles and he shared his restaurant's signature moose ravioli dish with us. Such friendly folks, those Newfoundlanders!

If you have only a week to travel in Newfoundland, you must explore the Viking Trail.

(What I'm really thinking: Silly you. Why go all the way to Newfoundland and only stay a week?)

Fast forward to 2012. I find myself in the rugged Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, at the historic town of Bonavista frantically trying to channel the vague memories of my salad days on the banks of Berkshire.

On more than one occasion, a day-tripper to Trinity has asked Marieke Gow where her home really is. It’s incomprehensible for some that Trinity — with its heritage buildings, utterly charming stores and residents so friendly it’s easy to assume they might be paid to behave that way — could be anything but a manufactured tourist attraction.

Zita Cobb transformed a dwindling community off the coast of Newfoundland into a creative hub where artists and architects come together to take inspiration from the beautiful landscape.

New Year's Eve at Raymonds restaurant in St. John's, N.L., will feature a luxurious 12-course tasting menu of seafood and wild game crafted by celebrated chef Jeremy Charles.