Where You Will Go

Avalon Peninsula 

 

Nightlife and Wildlife, City Scenes, and Untouched Natural Beauty

As rugged as the rocks of its shores and as friendly as the pubs of St. John's. The Avalon Peninsula is where Newfoundland and North America begin. It's a place where you can photograph herds of caribou or seabird colonies, icebergs, or whales. Spend your nights fine wining and dining or raise a cheer in a pub. Thrust out into the waters of the North Atlantic, this irregularly shaped peninsula once was a part of the European continent that drifted westward 400 million years ago. It was flooded by oceans, scoured by glaciers, and landscaped into an amazing geographical creation with rocks, cliffs, coves, and bays with outnumber.

This fishing and farming environment was started by colonists from England and Ireland who came here as early as the 1600s. Because the Avalon was one of the first areas of the province to be settled, it is filled with tales of the early adventurers who laid claim to this New World and the men from many nations who fished here. All over the region you'll hear legends and lore from the folk that you meet. Museums and historic sites bring history to life.

At Cape Spear you'll find the most easterly point of land in North America, and a restored 160-year-old lighthouse, the oldest in Newfoundland. A stroll along the narrow streets of Brigus or past the brightly-painted homes of St. Bride's will take you to another time. On the top of the peninsula, through the coves and inlets of Conception Bay, every community is a picture postcard of tiny houses surrounded by a spectacular seascape. In every harbour the boats of the inshore fishery float on bright blue waters. Along the Southern Shore and around Cape Race the cliffs rise up from the sea to incredible heights. Inland, thousands of caribou roam the open ground. In the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, just south of St. John's, in St. Mary's Bay and in Placentia Bay, huge whales feed just offshore and vast colonies of seabirds nest in the cliffs.

The Avalon Peninsula offers nightlife and wildlife, city scenes, and untouched natural beauty. Fiddling and festivals, dancing, and storytelling, seafood feasts and Newfoundland Screech are all party of the adventure.