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St. John's, Newfoundland, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
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Top 10NewfoundlandAtlantic Canada

Top 10 Things To Do in St. John's

Country
Canada
Best months
Jun · Jul · Aug
Population
111K
Language
English
Budget / day
C$185–300
Quick answer

The best things to do in St. John's are Signal Hill and Cabot Tower, the drive to Cape Spear at the eastern edge of North America, The Rooms for the province's museum and gallery, the brewery cove at Quidi Vidi, and a boat from Bay Bulls to the puffin colonies of Witless Bay. Three days covers the city and two coastal day trips. Come between June and August.

St. John's Travel Guide

▶ Video guideOpen the film page (5:42) →

St. John's is closer to Dublin than to Winnipeg, and it behaves like it. The harbour is a near-enclosed basin reached through a 200-metre gap in the cliffs, so the city climbs the hills around it in rows of painted wooden houses rather than spreading out. The coastline starts four minutes from the last pub.

The 10 best things to do in St. John's

Signal Hill and Cabot Tower, St. John's (Wimup)
1

Signal Hill and Cabot Tower

Landmark· Signal Hill Rd, St. John's

The hill guards the Narrows, the only way into the harbour, and has been fortified since the mid 17th century. Cabot Tower was begun in 1898 and finished in 1900, and on 12 December 1901 Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal near it. Go up first: everything else here is visible from it.

Time2 hrs
CostPaid admission
Best atLate afternoon
TipThe wind at the summit is the reason locals keep a coat in the car in July
Map↗ Website
Cape Spear, St. John's (Wimup)
2

Cape Spear

Landmark· Cape Spear Rd, Blackhead, St. John's

Fifteen kilometres east of downtown on the most easterly headland in North America. The old lighthouse was lit in 1836, the oldest surviving in the province, and a wartime battery with two 10-inch guns sits below it. The cliff walk is where people stand for icebergs in spring and whales in summer.

Time2 hrs
CostPaid admission at the lighthouse
Best atSunrise
TipStay behind the railings. The rocks below are wet, sloped and regularly swept by swell
Map↗ Website
The Rooms, St. John's, Canada (Wimup)
3

The Rooms

Museum· 9 Bonaventure Ave, St. John's

The province's museum, gallery and archives under one roof, opened in 2005 and built to look like the fishing rooms where crews once processed a catch. The floors run from the Beothuk to Confederation in 1949. The fourth-floor cafe window is the best indoor view in the city when the fog wins.

Time2 to 3 hrs
CostPaid admission
Best atA fog day
TipThe building sits above the Basilica
Map↗ Website
Quidi Vidi Village, St. John's (Wimup)
4

Quidi Vidi Village

Neighbourhood· Quidi Vidi Village Rd, St. John's

A working fishing cove inside the city, down a steep lane ten minutes from downtown. Quidi Vidi Brewing has occupied the old fish plant since 1996 and brews its Iceberg beer with water taken from icebergs. The village takes an hour to walk and most people stay three.

Time2 hrs
CostFree to walk
Best atLate morning
TipThe lane down into the village is narrow and parking is limited
Map
Open in Maps
5

The North Head Trail

Hike· Battery Rd, St. John's

The best short hike in any Canadian city, and it starts inside a neighbourhood. The trail leaves the Battery, runs the cliff above the Narrows and climbs a long staircase to Cabot Tower. About 1.7 kilometres one way, unfenced in places. Boots, not trainers, and not in ice.

Time1.5 hrs
CostFree
Best atMorning
TipPark at the Signal Hill visitor centre and walk down first
Map↗ Website
Bay Bulls, St. John's, Canada (Wimup)
6

Puffins and whales in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve

Boat tour· Bay Bulls, Newfoundland

Four islands half an hour south hold the largest Atlantic puffin colony in North America, over 260,000 breeding pairs, with humpbacks feeding in the same water. Boats leave from Bay Bulls. Puffins nest May to mid-September, whales run heaviest mid-June to mid-August.

TimeHalf day
CostTour fare
Best atJuly
TipBook ahead in July and August, and take a layer more than the weather in town suggests
Map↗ Website
7

A screech-in on George Street

Nightlife· George St, St. John's

Two blocks of nothing but bars, and where the city sends anyone who has never been. The screech-in makes a visitor an honorary Newfoundlander: a shot of dark rum, a line recited in dialect and a kiss for a cod. Christian's is the oldest pub here and runs the version Bourdain filmed.

Time1 hr
CostPrice of the ceremony
Best atEvening
TipGo early. The street is at its most crowded after 11pm and the ceremonies run all evening
Map↗ Website
Water Street, St. John's, Canada (Wimup)
8

Water Street and the Jellybean Row houses

Walk· Water St, St. John's

Very possibly the oldest continuously used commercial street in North America, though almost nothing standing is old: the Great Fire of 8 July 1892 destroyed the city in hours. The row housing that replaced it is painted in flat saturated colours, which is where the nickname comes from.

Time1.5 hrs
CostFree
Best atAfternoon
TipThe cross lanes between Water and Duckworth are stairs
Map
Basilica of St. John the Baptist, St. John's, Canada (Wimup)
9

The Basilica of St. John the Baptist

Landmark· Military Rd, St. John's

Built between 1839 and 1850 and raised to basilica a century later, an early North American example of Lombard Romanesque Revival. It was sited on the ridge so the twin towers would be the first thing a ship saw through the Narrows. It survived the 1892 fire while the city below did not.

Time45 mins
CostFree
Best atMidday
TipThe Anglican Cathedral is three minutes downhill on Church Hill
Map
Middle Cove Beach, St. John's, Canada (Wimup)
10

Middle Cove Beach and the capelin roll

Beach· Middle Cove Rd, Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove

A rock beach fifteen minutes north, and for a few nights each summer the strangest thing on the island happens here: capelin spawn by throwing themselves onto the shore in their millions, and whales and gulls follow them in. Late June or July, days rather than weeks, and never scheduled.

Time2 hrs
CostFree
Best atEvening
TipWatch local news and social feeds in late June
Map

All 10, mapped

St. John's · 10 spots

St. John's travel FAQ

How many days do you need in St. John's?+
Three days. One covers the city on foot, Signal Hill, the two cathedrals, The Rooms and George Street. The second goes to Cape Spear and the Southern Shore. The third is a boat out of Bay Bulls for the puffins and whales, or a coastal hike. Add a fourth if you want Bell Island or Brigus and Cupids as well.
When is the best time to visit St. John's?+
June to August. Puffins nest from May to mid-September, whales feed close to shore from mid-June to mid-August, and the icebergs run from April into June, so late June catches all three. Almost every festival on the calendar falls in July and August. Winter is windy, snowy and dark, and most seasonal sites close.
Can you see puffins and whales from St. John's?+
Yes. The Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, 30 minutes south of the city, holds the largest Atlantic puffin colony in North America, with over 260,000 breeding pairs, and humpback and minke whales feed in the same water. Boats run from Bay Bulls. Whales are also visible from the cliffs at Cape Spear and from Signal Hill without a boat.
Do you need a car in St. John's?+
Not for the city itself, which is compact enough to walk if you can handle the hills, and covered by Metrobus at a $2.25 cash fare. You do need one for everything outside it. There is no passenger rail anywhere in Newfoundland, and Cape Spear, Bay Bulls, Ferryland and the Bell Island ferry all assume you are driving.
What is a screech-in?+
A ceremony that makes a visitor an honorary Newfoundlander: a shot of Screech, the province's dark rum, a line recited in dialect and a kiss for a cod. Christian's Pub and Trapper John's, both on George Street, run it nightly, and Trapper John's performs one on the hour from 5pm until close.
Where to eat

Best restaurants in St. John's

Six kitchens, from a 200-year-old cottage in the fishing village to an oyster bar on Water Street.
In a heritage cottage
Quidi Vidi

Mallard Cottage

Newfoundland seasonal

A cottage of 1820 to 1840, one of the oldest houses in St. John's, restored by chef Todd Perrin in 2011. Cod, wild game, foraged mushrooms and partridgeberry.

Map↗ Website
Downtown

Bacalao

Nouvelle Newfoundland

Named for the salt cod that built the island and built on provincial ingredients. The room that treats the traditional repertoire as a starting point.

Map↗ Website
Water Street

The Adelaide Oyster House

Oysters and small plates

Narrow, loud and open late, which downtown is rarer than it should be. Oysters, cocktails and a sharing menu. Walk-in only for most of the evening.

Map↗ Website
Downtown

Portage

Modern Canadian

One of the harder tables to get and the one locals name first. Short menu, tight room, and a card that changes with what the province lands.

Map
Quidi Vidi

St. John's Fish Exchange

Seafood and oyster bar

Inside the brewery building at Quidi Vidi, with a raw bar and a view over the cove. The obvious lunch once you have walked down into the village.

Map
Water Street

The Merchant Tavern

Brasserie

A former bank hall on Water Street, high-ceilinged and hard-surfaced, serving a brasserie menu around a long bar. It takes a booking.

Map
After dark

Best pubs & live music in St. John's

Five rooms, and traditional music is playing in four of them most nights of the week.
George Street

Christian's Pub

Screech-ins

The oldest pub on George Street and the one running the screech-in most visitors have heard of. Quieter before nine, when it is a beer and whisky bar.

Map↗ Website
Over 100,000 screech-ins
George Street

Trapper John's Museum n' Pub

Screech-ins on the hour

At the foot of George Street and the self-declared home of the screech-in, run on the hour from 5pm. The walls are the museum half of the name.

Map↗ Website
George Street

O'Reilly's Irish Newfoundland Pub

Live music nightly

Two floors mid-George Street with live music seven nights, weighted to Irish and Newfoundland traditional. Upstairs is where you can hear the band.

Map↗ Website
Water Street

YellowBelly Brewery

Brewpub since 2008

Brewing on site at the west end of Water Street since 2008, and one reason the province has a craft beer scene. Beer upstairs, a stone-walled bar below.

Map↗ Website
Solomon's Lane

The Ship Pub

Local bands

Down an alleyway between Duckworth and Water, and the room the city's musicians and writers have used for decades. Small, unglamorous, good odds on a band.

Map
On foot

Best coastal hikes in St. John's

Five cliff walks, four of them sections of the 336-kilometre East Coast Trail.
The Battery

North Head Trail

1.7 km one way

The cliff path from the Battery to Cabot Tower, hung above the Narrows and finishing on a staircase. The one to do if you only do one.

Map↗ Website
North of the city

Sugarloaf Path

Quidi Vidi to Logy Bay

East Coast Trail path 9, from Quidi Vidi over Sugarloaf Head to Logy Bay. Two climbs of about 150 metres, a 1940s wreck site, and a full turn of view over the city.

Map↗ Website
Deadman's Bay PathSouth side

Deadman's Bay Path

Fort Amherst to Blackhead

The path along the southern jaw of the harbour, from the Fort Amherst lighthouse. A shipwreck on the shoreline and a backcountry campsite at the far end.

Map↗ Website
Cape Spear

Cape Spear Path

Blackhead to Maddox Cove

South from the lighthouse past the wartime battery and along the cliffs towards Maddox Cove. Whale sightings from the trail are routine in midsummer.

Map↗ Website
Bay Bulls Big Pond

Spout Path

Long day, wave-driven geyser

The hardest path within reach of the city, with a payoff you get nowhere else: a wave-driven geyser firing seawater out of the rock. A full day, not a first hike.

Map↗ Website
On the water

Best boat tours & wildlife in St. John's

Four ways to get at the puffins, the whales and the ice.
Bay Bulls

O'Brien's Whale and Bird Tours

Bay Bulls departures

Runs out of Bay Bulls into the Witless Bay reserve, with music on the boat and a crew that has been reading this water for generations.

Map↗ Website
Bay Bulls

Gatherall's Puffin & Whale Watch

90-minute cruise

The other long-running Bay Bulls operator, running a 90-minute circuit on a larger, steadier boat. Worth knowing if anyone is uneasy about swell.

Map↗ Website
Petty Harbour

Petty Harbour Mini Aquarium

Catch and release

Newfoundland's first catch-and-release aquarium, a non-profit with touch tanks and lab demonstrations. Everything goes back in the water each season.

Map↗ Website
Iceberg watching from the headlandsCape Spear and Signal Hill

Iceberg watching from the headlands

April to June

Ice calved off Greenland drifts south on the Labrador Current past the Avalon in spring. No boat needed: Cape Spear, Signal Hill and the road north all face the current.

Map
The record

Best history & museums in St. John's

Four sites, covering the fishery, the garrison, the railway and 400 years of port wine.
Church Hill

Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Gothic Revival

George Gilbert Scott designed it and building started in 1847. The nave burned with the rest of the city in 1892 and was rebuilt inside the surviving walls.

Map
Newman Wine Vaults
Provincial Historic Site
Water Street

Newman Wine Vaults

Late 1700s

Brick and stone cellars of the late 18th century, among the oldest structures in the city. Newman's port was aged here after a storm-driven voyage made it a business.

Map↗ Website
West end

Railway Coastal Museum

In the old railway station

The island's narrow-gauge railway and coastal boats are both gone, and this is where the record of them lives, in the former station. Seasonal, opening for summer.

Map↗ Website
Provincial Historic Site
Quidi Vidi

Quidi Vidi Battery

Built 1762

The French built this gun position in 1762 after taking St. John's; the British held it within months. It opened as the province's first historic site in 1967.

Map↗ Website
Where to walk

Best neighbourhoods in St. John's

Four districts, and the hills between them are steeper than any map suggests.
The BatterySignal Hill

The Battery

On the harbour mouth

Houses stacked where Signal Hill drops into the Narrows, painted every colour and joined by lanes too narrow for two cars. Residential, so walk it quietly.

Map
Harbourfront

Downtown: Water and Duckworth

Rebuilt after 1892

Two parallel streets along the harbour joined by stepped lanes, holding most of the shops and bars. Everything here postdates the Great Fire of 1892.

Map
GeorgestownEast of downtown

Georgestown

The first suburb

The city's first suburb, uphill from the harbour and one of the few areas the 1892 fire missed. The place to look at pre-fire domestic architecture.

Map
North of downtown

Rabbittown

Working city

One of the earliest neighbourhoods built out from the centre, and the least self-conscious part of the city. The everyday version of the Water Street row housing.

Map
Out of town

Best day trips in St. John's

Four trips, none of them more than an hour and a half from the harbour.
Founded 1621
Southern Shore

Ferryland and the Colony of Avalon

1 hr south

Lord Baltimore founded a colony here in 1621, and the dig since is called the best preserved early English settlement in North America. Guided tours run the site.

Map↗ Website
Conception Bay

Bell Island

20-minute ferry

The ferry from Portugal Cove takes 20 minutes and no reservations. The draw is the No. 2 Mine tour, 650 feet down into an iron ore mine under the sea floor.

Map↗ Website
Southern Shore

Petty Harbour

20 mins south

The postcard fishing village, twenty minutes to walk and an easy afternoon. The mini aquarium is here, and so are ten zip lines over the water.

Map↗ Website
Brigus and CupidsConception Bay

Brigus and Cupids

1 hr 15 west

Two villages on the far Avalon. Cupids holds John Guy's colony of 1610, the earliest English settlement in Canada. Brigus is the prettier of the two.

Map
What's on

Festivals & annual events in St. John's (2026)

Time your trip around the city's biggest dates.
Apr

Iceberg season

Ice calved from Greenland drifts down the Labrador Current past the Avalon from April into June. No schedule and no guarantee.

Jul

Sound Symposium

A biennial experimental music festival. Its signature is the Harbour Symphony, horns of the ships in port playing a score.

Jun

The capelin roll

Not a festival but the event the city turns out for. Millions of capelin roll onto the beaches in July, with whales behind them.

Jul

Shakespeare by the Sea Festival

Outdoor performances through July and August around the city, including Signal Hill. Bring a blanket and a windproof layer.

Aug

George Street Festival

The bar street closes for a week of concerts. The largest ticketed music event in the city and the busiest week downtown.

Aug

Royal St. John's Regatta

Rowing on Quidi Vidi Lake, first recorded in 1816 and held the first fair Wednesday in August. A civic holiday drawing 50,000.

Aug

Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival

Traditional music and storytelling in Bannerman Park in early August. George Street's counterweight, in daylight and on grass.

Dec

Mummers Festival

A revival of the Christmas house-visiting tradition, with disguise workshops, kitchen parties and a parade in December.

Getting around

St. John's transport & airports

How to arrive and move around the city.
YYT

St. John's International Airport

Inside the city, a short drive north of downtown, with domestic connections and seasonal transatlantic service. Metrobus route 14 serves the terminal; taxis wait at arrivals.

Map↗ Website
City buses

Metrobus

The city bus network. The adult cash fare is $2.25 and drivers carry no change. M-Cards are sold at City Hall and the Avalon Mall.

Map↗ Website
24 hours

Taxis

Several companies run around the clock. Meters start at $3.75 and the airport run downtown is quoted in the mid twenties. Call rather than hail outside the core.

No passenger rail

On foot and by car

Downtown is compact and walkable, though the hills between Water Street and the Basilica are steep. There is no passenger rail on the island, so anything beyond the city needs a car.

Map
Traditional food

Must-try dishes in St. John's, Canada

The classics to order before you leave.
Fish and brewis, St. John's (Wimup travel guide)

Fish and brewis

Salt cod and hard bread, each soaked overnight then cooked together and finished with scrunchions.

Jiggs dinner

Salt beef boiled with cabbage, turnip and potato, with pease pudding. The Sunday meal in most households.

Toutons

Bread dough fried in pork fat until dark and crisp, served with molasses. The standard breakfast here.

Cod tongues

The muscle from the base of the cod's jaw, floured and fried with scrunchions on top. It divides people.

Scrunchions

Salt pork fat cut small and fried until it crackles, then spooned over fish, brewis or chowder.

Partridgeberry

A tart red berry picked on the barrens in autumn, turned into jam and sauces. Sharper than a cranberry.

Bakeapple

The cloudberry, amber and low on the bogs, and hard enough to pick that a jar costs real money.

Screech

The dark rum the province drinks, and the centre of the screech-in ceremony on George Street.

St. John's fact sheet

St. John's at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Canada
Region
Newfoundland and Labrador (Avalon Peninsula)
Population
110,525 (city, 2021 census)
Founded
Harbour in European use from the early 16th century
Nickname
The City of Legends
Language
English
Currency
Canadian dollar (CAD)
Time zone
UTC-3:30 (UTC-2:30 in summer)
Calling code
+1 709
Airports
St. John's International (YYT)
Power
120V, type A/B plugs
Emergency
911
Ideal length
3 days
Getting around
On foot downtown, by car beyond
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • Newfoundland keeps its own half-hour time zone, the only one left in North America, from its years as a separate dominion.
  • Cape Spear is the most easterly point of North America. Its lighthouse of 1836 is the oldest surviving in the province.
  • Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless transmission on Signal Hill on 12 December 1901: the letter S, sent from Cornwall.
  • The Great Fire of 8 July 1892 destroyed the city in hours and left 11,000 homeless. Nearly every downtown building postdates it.
  • Among Canada's major cities, St. John's is both the foggiest, at about 124 foggy days a year, and the windiest, averaging 24.3 km/h.

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