by KATE POCOCK
Family Travel InkNewfoundland's Top Ten Family Vacation Experiences
Gros Morne National Park, west coast: the top family recommendation for hiking, scenery, rock collecting, boat tours in the mountainous fjord and exploring. Interpretive center in Rocky Harbour offers an interactive vacation planner. Amazing topography at this UNESCO World Heritage Site with almost desert-like conditions in the southern end and rock and scrub in the northern reaches.
Whale watching and iceberg sighting, O’Briens’ Whale, Berg & Bird Tours, south of St. John’s: two and a half hour tours by boat to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, nesting place to more than 2.5 million seabirds including Atlantic puffins
The Viking Trail, Norstead, near L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site: a coastal port featuring costume-clad Vikings in a typical century-old settlement. Attend a Viking wedding, listen to storytellers, heave an axe at the axe wall, and eat Viking food. Great Viking Feast at Leifsburdur in St. Anthony in a real sod hut with a merry crew of Vikings.
Cape Spear National Historic Site, 11 km south of St. John’s: stand by the lighthouse to watch the sun rise before anyone else in Canada
Trinity: this picturesque fishing village which served as background for much of The Shipping News offers lively moving theatre. The Rising Tide Theatre conducts Few-Founde-Land Trinity Pageant walking tours with costumed actors. Outdoor Shakespeare productions and dinner theatre as well.
St. John’s capital city experience: Visit one of Canada’s newest attractions, the Fluvarium where glass tanks give a close-up view of the life of a river, see the tattoo of military drills at Signal Hill, take a nature hike at the Memorial University Botanical Garden
Icebergs at Twillingate, also known as Iceberg Alley with Twillingate Island Boat Tours
Maxxim Vacations self-drive tours, 7-night Voyage of the Vikings or 5, 7 or 10-night Whales, Birds and Bergs: includes air, accommodation, car rental and admission to a dinner theatre and boat tours
Marble Mountain Ski Resort near Corner Brook for skiing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing and old-fashioned winter fun
The Movie Trail: see where they filmed Rare Birds, The Shipping News and other Television and movie shoots |
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