SIGHTSEEING TOURS | MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024
We’re going to Contact to do business … and have fun! We’re excited to get out and see beautiful St. John’s during Sightseeing Tours, sponsored by Destination St. John’s, which will show attendees some of the host city’s most unique attractions—from waterside breweries to the province’s oldest operating lighthouse.
Become acquainted with the city of St. John’s and its surroundings, including Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America. This is the oldest colonized region in the New World, and your local guide will regale you with its steeped history, legends, and lore—all flavored with the guide’s personal anecdotes and good humor ( for which Newfoundlanders are famous). Enjoy the brilliant vistas from Cabot Tower and Signal Hill, one of the most recognizable skylines in Canada. Walk through a cliffside World War II gun battery, watch for whales and seabirds, and visit the oldest standing lighthouse in North America. Other stops include Quidi Vidi Village, Jelly Bean Row, Government House, the Roman Catholic Basilica, and an orientation of the shops and restaurants in the downtown core. A boxed lunch will be provided.
Are you eager to witness the enchanting puffins of Newfoundland? Set sail to the picturesque Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, where puffins thrive in their natural habitat. Expert guides will ensure an unforgettable encounter with these adorable seabirds. Let’s hope Mother Nature graces us with icebergs, massive mountains of ice that flounder, calve, and roll right before your eyes. The four islands in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve teem with bird life during the seabird breeding season. The reserve contains North America’s largest Atlantic puffin colony; more than 260,000 pairs of the province’s official bird nest here during the late spring and summer. Also appearing in the thousands are Leach’s storm petrels, black-legged kittiwakes, and common murres. You will be on the Atlantic Ocean, so please dress accordingly: A warm jacket, mittens, and a toque (warm hat) are recommended.
EDUCATIONAL OUTINGS | THURSDAY, MAY 23, 2024
Set aside Thursday afternoon for Education Outings, sponsored by Destination St. John’s. These excursions, open to all attendees, give participants an idea of how outings such as these can be incorporated into itineraries for special-interest (or general) groups.
Become acquainted with the city of St. John’s and its surroundings, including Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America. This is the oldest colonized region in the New World, and your local guide will regale you with its steeped history, legends, and lore—all flavored with the guide’s personal anecdotes and good humor ( for which Newfoundlanders are famous). Enjoy the brilliant vistas from Cabot Tower and Signal Hill, one of the most recognizable skylines in Canada. Walk through a cliffside World War II gun battery, watch for whales and seabirds, and visit the oldest standing lighthouse in North America. Other stops include Quidi Vidi Village, Jelly Bean Row, Government House, the Roman Catholic Basilica, and an orientation of the shops and restaurants in the downtown core.
This tour is at maximum capacity at this time.
The North Head Trail is the most popular and, arguably, the most spectacular hike in eastern Newfoundland. Follow the winding “cart path” through the Battery, a historic fishing village that lines the harbor entrance. Cross an inviting and most accommodating family’s “front stoop,” and cinch up your laces for a thrilling and exerting adventure that passes through abandoned World War II bunkers, spans rock clefts, and hugs the cliffs so closely that in places, there’s scarcely room for a chain rail to assist your crossing. There are plenty of stairs, though they are strategically separated by amazing views, an assortment of wild flowers, wild blueberry bushes and the never-ending interpretations of our fascinating geological world. Let your imagination soar as you think of the many nations that shared this island’s fishing resources—and the battles they fought to maintain and protect these very pathways and its entrance to the finest landlocked harbor in the world. The group will finish at Quidi Vidi microbrewery for a well-deserved ale. (Try Iceberg Beer!)
We’ll start at Landwash Brewery, a bright place with a beer hall feel, featuring 18 taps of house beer, as well as cider from the Newfoundland Cider Company, wine from Benjamin Bridge and Rosewood, spirits from The Newfoundland Distillery, and non-alcoholic beverages. We’ll leave Landwash and stop at the YellowBelly in downtown St. John’s. YellowBelly Corner is a testament in stone and masonry to a time long gone. With walls that resonate with the history of Irish immigrants who duked it out in the streets, the building is now home to YellowBelly Brewery & Public House, featuring craft beers brewed on-site. Our tour will finish at Brewdock, a beer bar, eatery, and outdoor beer garden that serves selections both from Newfoundland and Labrador’s flourishing craft beer scene and from Canadian craft breweries. Brewdock is located on the east end of Duckworth Street, a hop, skip, and jump away from the Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland!
Our first stop is at Newman’s Wine Vault, one of the oldest standing structures in St. John’s, dating from between the 1700s and early 1800s. Constructed of brick and stone, the vaults were used to age the celebrated Newman’s Port. The site tells the amazing story of a 300-year connection between wine produced in sunny Portugal, aged in the cool climate of Newfoundland, and sipped by England’s aristocracy. Next we’ll visit the Colonial Building, home to the Newfoundland and Labrador Legislative Assembly from 1850 until 1959. A gem of neoclassical architecture, the building’s grandeur is a testament to the optimism its builders felt about their future. Our third stop is the Commissariat Provincial Historic Site, built between 1818 and 1820 as the home and offices of the assistant commissary general—the supply officer for British forces in Newfoundland. We’ll explore life in St. John’s in the 1830s, when British rule was ending and the town was alive with talk of Newfoundlanders having the right to manage their own affairs.