This most easterly province of Canada is made up of the island of Newfoundland (where over 90% of the population resides) and mainland Labrador to its northwest, separated by the Strait of Belle Isle. With the North Atlantic Ocean at its doorstep, Newfoundland and Labrador (commonly referred to as ‘The Rock’) is home to “Iceberg Alley”, one of the best places in the world to view icebergs. On a sunny day and in season, view these 10,000-year-old glacial giants from many points along the northern and eastern coasts – With varying shapes and sizes and colours ranging from snow-white to the deepest aquamarine.
The meeting of the cool Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream creates an abundance of marine life that attracts thousands of whales (22 species including minke, sperm, pothead, blue, orca, and the world's largest population of humpbacks), and provides rich nesting grounds for millions of seabirds (gannets, puffins, storm-petrels, etc).Inland, keep an eye out for rare birds such as the European golden plover, Northern wheatear, harlequin duck, piping plover, and birds of prey such as hawks, falcons, ospreys, owls, and American bald eagles.
The East Coast Trail is a series of 25 wilderness paths totalling over 336 km (209 mi), allowing you to view ocean splendours from the shore while traversing towering cliffs and headlands, sea stacks, deep fjords, and to visit numerous lighthouses, friendly communities, abandoned settlements, and ecological reserves.
On the west coast of Newfoundland, Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is where you’ll find dramatic fjords, the Long Range Mountains, and North America's northernmost part of the International Appalachian Trail. This is home for more than 120,000 moose (one of the highest population densities in North America), one of the world's largest caribou herds, and some of the continent's biggest black bears.
Continue all the way to the tip of the island and you’ll feel you’ve gone back to the time of the Vikings; L’Anse aux Meadows is home to the earliest known European settlement in the New World – The archaeological remains at have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.
On the mainland of Northern Labrador, Torngat Mountains National Park encompasses a vast, untouched wilderness area and some of the oldest mountains in the world.