When people think of visiting the great Canadian outdoors, they think of the misty rainforests of British Columbia, the awe-inspiring Rocky mountains, the great lakes of Ontario. But Newfoundland and Labrador on the far east coast has its own special beauty.
If you want untamed wilderness, head to Gros Morne national park, the second largest in Atlantic Canada, with its spectacular fjords gouged out by the retreating glaciers of the last ice age and its thriving population of moose. If you want history, L’Anse Aux Meadows is the remnant of the oldest western settlement in North America, providing definitive proof that the Vikings got here long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean. If you want wonderful walks, there are more than 200 hiking trails, including the extraordinary Skerwink Trail, where icebergs float by and whales swim right up on to the beach.
Despite the wildness, the visitor can travel in surprising comfort. In St. John’s, I found a food revolution based around the field-to-fork and ocean-to-plate movement, which has made Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital city the most exciting new destination in Canada for gastronomes. That revolution is slowly spreading across the province.
On the Bonavista peninsula, the Bonavista Social Club cafe is run by a disciple of St. John’s super-chef Jeremy Charles, its moose burgers named among the five best burgers in Canada. Even the owners of the Two Whales, a small vegetarian cafe in Port Rexton, grow their own produce. So too does the Fishers’ Loft, a restaurant that offers luxurious rooms and fine dining with a spectacular view of the ocean. The view inside the restaurant can be pretty good, too: when we visited, Hollywood heart-throb Ethan Hawke was one of the diners!
