Basilica of St. John the Baptist
The Roman Catholic basilica is considered one of Newfoundland's most architecturally important buildings. The Basilica of St. John the Baptist, built between 1842 and 1892, is in the form of a Latin cross, with slender twin towers 46 meters high. Its most notable artistic features are its beautiful ornate gold leaf ceiling and some fine statues. The statue of Our Lady of Fatima in one of the transepts was a gift from Portuguese sailors who were fortunate enough to survive being shipwrecked on the Banks. The basilica is now a National Historic Site.
Puffin and Whale Watching
North America's largest puffin and kittiwake colonies are on Newfoundland's east coast, with more than 90 percent of the continent's Atlantic puffins breeding in Newfoundland. In all, more than two million seabirds come to nest, breed, and feed their chicks on the capelin, the small, herring-like fish that run from mid-June to mid-July.
Whales also follow the capelin and other small fish in their annual migrations into Witless Bay and the waters off Newfoundland's coast, and you are likely to see them even from the shore in June and July. Any boat tour becomes a whale watch, but several firms specialize in finding as many as possible of the 20 species that breach and spout wherever the water is deep enough for them. Several firms in Bay Bulls and Witless Bay offer puffin and whale watching cruises.
A good place to look for whales (and icebergs) from the shore is at the village of Flat Rock, on the Marine Drive north of St. John's.
Memorial University Botanical Garden and Pippy Park
In the large Pippy Park, on the outskirts of the city, Memorial University (MUN) Botanical Garden has themed gardens and trails through different ecosystems, which include a bog, a marsh, and various types of forest. The flower gardens feature extensive collections of native wildflowers and plants, along with display beds of cultivated annuals, perennials, and herbs. In June and early July there is a splendid display of rhododendrons.
Also in Pippy Park, at the edge of Long Pond, is the Fluvarium, an underwater viewing station that year-round gives a close-up view of the fish, insects, and plants that live underneath the water. Rennie's River Trail connects Long Pond, in Pippy Park, to Quidi Vidi Lake, following the river that runs between the two.
Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
Dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the Anglican cathedral on Church Hill (a short distance south of the Catholic basilica) is a National Historic Site and the oldest Anglican Church in Canada. Architect George Gilbert Scott designed the 1847 cathedral, and it ranks among the finest examples of pure neo-Gothic architecture in North America. It also has fine interior furnishings.
After suffering serious damage in two major 19th-century fires, the cathedral was not fully restored until 1905. On summer afternoons, The Crypt Tearoom serves refreshments and home-baked desserts.
Maritime Music on George Street
Newfoundland is a center for traditional Maritime Music, a style characterized by its strong Scottish and Irish influences and by the songs and ballads of sailors and fishermen. Hard to classify, Maritime Music usually features fiddle and guitar and often piano, and although its sounds and rhythms vary, it's a distinctive—and addictive—style that carries a strong sense of its seafaring roots. The place to hear it is on the two-block George Street, the tiny but active entertainment district in St. John's.
That's not the only kind of music you'll hear here, especially during the early August George Street Festival, when top Newfoundland bands gather for five days and nights of music. In October, George Street celebrates Mardi Gras (Newfoundlanders seem to delight in doing things differently) with more music.
But you don't need a festival to find music and conviviality in friendly George Street's restaurants and terraces. The street is closed to traffic in the afternoons and throughout the night (there's no such thing as "closing hours" here).
East Coast Trail
The East Coast Trail is among Canada's most spectacular hikes, over 300 kilometers of developed trails that run along the East Coast of Newfoundland. The developed portion starts north of St. John's at Cape St. Francis and runs south to Cappahayden. There are several different points that access individual sections of the trail for shorter hikes.
Along the towering cliffs and headlands the trail covers, hikers can find fjords, sea stacks, seabird colonies, lighthouses, abandoned coastal villages, whales, icebergs, puffins, archaeological digs (one not far from St. John's) and the world's southernmost caribou herd. From a section of the trail leading from Bay Bulls north to Shoal Bay, you can reach the natural sea geyser, The Spout.
The Harbor and Water Street
Beginning as a pathway for early explorers and settlers, Water Street is the oldest main street in North America. As the commercial center of St. John's, it is still the meeting place for sailors from all over the world and close to where transatlantic cruise ships dock.
The historic district today still has 19th-century buildings, including the Murray Premises, a mercantile building that was once offices and a warehouse for trade and fishing. Built in 1846 and one of the few buildings to survive the fire of 1892, it's a National Historic Site and now houses shops and a hotel.
Along Water Street, Harbourside Park has benches and views of ships, along with occasional performances in the summer and statues of the province's two signature dogs, the Newfoundland and Labrador Retriever.
Also on Water Street is the Railway Coastal Museum, in the historic Newfoundland Railway station, with exhibits on the province's land and sea transportation.
Johnson GEO Centre
Designed to incorporate the surrounding terrain into its exhibit space, the Johnson GEO Center takes visitors beneath Signal Hill and into the 550-million-year-old rock bed. More than a dozen interactive exhibits describe the earth's geologic and cultural history, and Newfoundland life.
One of these, the Amazing Earth Theatre, uses a variety of special effects to travel through time and space to the era when Earth was a molten mass. Other exhibits include those on the future of space, the Titanic, the Solar System, and a special area for younger children. This center has a lot of things to do for children of all ages.
