St. John’s

Three St. John's days with the Battery trail and Cape Spear

Give St. John's three days: the harbourfront first, walking from Duckworth Street past the Battery's houses and up the North Head Trail to Signal Hill, then The Rooms and live music on Water Street; Cape Spear at first light on day two; and a harbour boat on the third.

Day two, the capes. Drive to Cape Spear before breakfast to watch the first light in North America, and walk the path below the old lighthouse. On the way back, take Fort Amherst Road to the lighthouse on the south side of the Narrows for the view straight back at Signal Hill. After lunch, board a whale or iceberg boat from the harbour piers; in June and July humpbacks feed close to shore.

Day three, trails and Quidi Vidi. Hike a section of the East Coast Trail north of the city, or the Grand Concourse paths through Bowring Park if the fog is thick. Finish at Quidi Vidi, the fishing village tucked behind Signal Hill, with a pint at its small brewery, and keep the last night for the lantern-lit Haunted Hike from the Anglican Cathedral.

Cod cheeks, toutons and gravy-soaked chips on Duckworth Street

Order cod cheeks first, pan-fried or battered, sweet and firm. Newfoundland cooking grew from salt fish, roots and long winters: fish and brewis with scrunchions for breakfast, toutons with molasses at brunch, and a Sunday Jiggs dinner of salt beef and cabbage. Late at night, ask for chips, dressing and gravy.

For the late-night plate, ask for chips, dressing and gravy: fries buried under savoury stuffing and thick brown gravy. Ches's, with branches on Freshwater Road, Topsail Road and Commonwealth Avenue, is where locals go for fish and chips. Duckworth Street holds the cafes, including the Bagel Café with breakfast all day, and the better sit-down dinners. In late summer look for partridgeberry and bakeapple desserts, both wild berries picked on the barrens. Mary Brown's fried chicken, a Newfoundland export now sold across Canada, is still a local habit.

Drink-wise, the bars on George Street run screech-in ceremonies for visitors, a mock initiation with a shot of dark rum and a kiss for a cod. Do it once, laughing.

Fog, icebergs and Regatta Day on Quidi Vidi Lake

The North Atlantic sets the calendar. Winters are long but not brutal: January and February average about -1C by day and -8C at night, with snow, freezing rain and wind that make December (about 174 mm of precipitation) the wettest month. Spring is slow. April still averages only 6C, and May barely reaches 11C.

That cold water is what brings the icebergs. From May into early July, bergs calved from Greenland's glaciers drift down Iceberg Alley, and some ground off Cape Spear or float past the Narrows. Numbers swing hugely from year to year, so check iceberg-tracking reports before you book. Humpback whales and puffins arrive with the capelin in June and July.

July and August are the warm months, with highs around 21C and the least rain of the year, and they hold the city's two big events. The Royal St. John's Regatta, North America's oldest continuing sporting event, is rowed on Quidi Vidi Lake on the first Wednesday of August if the weather allows; the city takes a civic holiday and thousands crowd the lakeside. The George Street Festival fills the pub block for several nights around the same time. September stays mild at about 17C and quietens down, a good month for the East Coast Trail. By October, rain returns and fog settles in for weeks at a time.