I spent Thanksgiving long weekend with my parents in St. John’s, Newfoundland. What an adventure.
This is my third trip to a new province this year, and I am happy I got to see the farrrrrr East coast of this country.
If you’re interested in how much this trip cost, please click here and see the budget breakdown.
Enjoy the read, sorry it took so long to write it.
Friday, October 6th
Of course it was pouring freaking rain when we left Toronto.
For this trip my parents and I flew with Flair airlines to St. John’s.
If you don’t remember anything else from this post – DO NOT SIT IN SEAT 11A!!! I got seat 11A which is a window seat, but there was no window. So, unless you enjoy landing with no view, except a white wall, do not pick this seat with Flair.
Because I had my mom and dad with me for this trip, we opted to get a rental car. This ended up being an EXCEPTIONAL decision for exploring and also because Newfoundland is the only Canadian province with no Uber. Fun fact.
First place we went to was called Touton Lane. I’m still not entirely sure how to pronounce ‘touton‘ the proper way, but yeah, there.
These little snack-like-sandwich-things were pretty good. Simple. But the highlight was the Mad Catter Cafe that was attached to Touton Lane. For $10 per person you could hang out with kitty cats that need to be adopted, while you eat your toutons. We ABSOLUTELY chose to do that. The cats were so cute, we contemplated stealing one back to Toronto. If you are a cat lover, this is definitely for you.
We eventually (sadly) had to leave the cats and went over to our AirBnB.
The host of this place was so freaking nice, the location was great and it was perfect for the weekend for us three. There was parking, two bedrooms, a nice bathroom and a full kitchen and living room. No complaints at all. You can tell the host put some work into it and made it as cozy as possible. I’d definitely recommend folks staying here. If you want the link to it, click here.
I wish I had more fun stuff to add here, but we walked to Tim Horton’s for my dad, and then took a nap. So serious.
After the nap we made a drive over to Portugal Cove for a beautiful view, and because we hoped we would see some whales. We did not.
But the view was still nice!
This evening, we had reservations at Saltwater Restaurant.
I tried this Screech rum? So good.
We ordered the mussels an an appetizer, they were really good. My mom went for the seafood risotto and I had probably the BEST lobster rolls I have ever tried. Kicker was, I got the last portion of lobster they had in the restaurant for the evening, lucky me.
Saturday, October 7th
This morning we woke up and had plans to drive all over St. John’s to see the sites……. eh. Here comes the fog.
We drove to Signal Hill first, and as you will see from the photos below, it was looking like some Sleepy Hollow shit. So creepy!
We had to pack it in early and drove home to take another nap and pray that the fog would dissolve by the afternoon. The prayers were NOT answered.
My mom and I decided to drive all the way to Cape Spear (about a 30-min drive) and the fog was still thick and heavy like me. However, watching the massive waves crash against the rocks was pretty damn enchanting and scary at the same time. I would recommend going to see these waves when the weather is crummy just to see the sheer wrath of the water.
You watch it and feel so damn small and fragile. Haunting feeling.
Tonight’s dinner reservation was at the famous Portage.
We ordered A LOT at this restaurant, so I will just give you the highlights.
You have to get the mussels, the shrimp dip, the crab, the buns and the tres leches for dessert. Everything else was just OK. But THOSE ITEMS? Wowzers.
My dad doesn’t like any dips really, or even shrimp much, but he absolutely destroyed that shrimp dip. The crab was was so fresh and the tres leches was one of the best I have tried.
I would just say the service at the restaurant wasn’t that great. It took quite a bit of time to get the non-frozen food and the server also forgot a big item we had ordered. That kind of ruined the enjoyment of the meal.
We dropped my dad off to go rest and my mom and I made our way over to Christian’s Pub.
I was about to get ‘Screeched in’.
You totally need to spend the $32.50 and do this while in St. John’s. There was like 30 of us in this bar, all participating in a ritual where we got told stories about the history of Newfoundland, the history of this rum (Screech) and then we had to kiss a frozen cod. Once we completed that, we were considered Newoundflanders. Go us. SO MUCH FUN. YOU HAVE TO DO IT.
I got slightly intoxicated and my mom drove us home, to find us locked out of the AirBnB by my dad, who goes to sleep at like 9pm. Good times.
We eventually got in by banging on the windows. Success.
Sunday, October 8th
This morning I woke up severely hung over, but we had a mission! The sun was out today and we wanted to try and visit Signal Hill and Cape Spear again – without the damn fog.
The difference is so crazy compared to the day before. The views were spectacular from Signal Hill.
Eventually it was time for breakfast/brunch and we had a reservation over at Mallard Cottage.
Just going to repeat here that having a rental car was the BEST idea for this trip. We were able to see so much and get to all the destinations we wanted to quickly.
The area in front of Mallard Cottage is really nice and the inside of the restaurant is very cute. From the outside you would not think there was a beautiful restaurant indoors.
I got the French toast and my mom got the scallops on seafood chowder. Outstanding. Also, our server? 10/10. He was amazing. Best service we got while in St John’s.
Make sure at the end of your meal you get the box of cake. I really liked this concept. There was a table on display with all kinds of sweets (cookies, cakes etc.) and you paid for the box size you like, and then could fill it with whatever you can fit! We sure filled it. Yum.
After brunch we drove back to Cape Spear to see if the waves were looking as crazy as the day before, but without the fog. Yes, they still looked crazy, but more visibility.
Heads up here, go to the bathroom BEFORE you head to Cape Spear during the off-season. Parks Canada has those bathrooms locked up. You will have nowhere to go. Valuable lesson.
I’m really happy our flight wasn’t until 6pm so we could revisit both of these locations and see them with more clarity. What a beautiful city!!! Highly recommend going with someone who has a driver’s license and get that rental car to see and explore. It is so worth it.
I liked St. John’s. It is very cute and the people are lovely.
If you need a nice and quiet getaway for a weekend, you definitely should make the flight out to Newfoundland. It was really cool getting to visit ‘the easternmost point of North America‘.
Hope when you visit, you have better luck with the fog and aren’t as hungover as I was.
- Mirna