Savour It All

I decided on a Monday to go to Newfoundland and Labrador, hopped on a plane on Wednesday night and arrived Thursday morning without having done much more than a stitch in time of research. It all worked out.

When we got off the plane and I walked straight to the Tourism Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) kiosk. The friendly ambassador set me straight in a manner of minutes. How long would we be here? What do we like to do? What were we hoping to see? She had an easy laugh, a kind smile and made a great first impression for her province. Within minutes we were loaded with maps and the well laid out NL tour book that proved invaluable over the eight days of our stay.

Top of our list of things to do in NL was hiking so I’ve posted on some great hikes we did in Terra Nova National Park, and on Fogo Island, Bonavista Peninsula and at Signal Hill in St. John’s. In fact, I think my top tip for travelling in NL would be to bring your hiking boots!

Read on for other fun ideas, and places to stay and eat in St. John’s. Hopefully my sharing will help you launch your own vacation on “the rock.”

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If you hike to the four Fogo Island Arts’ Studios in one day, you’ve walked 10,000 steps. The kind and helpful Todd Saunders, designer of the studios and umpteen other unforgettable contemporary architecture structures around the globe, shares this encouraging fact with us after we tell him that’s what we’re off to do on this fine day on Fogo Island, NL.

We met Saunders on the trail down from the Fogo Island Inn to the main road. I smiled and said, thank you for imagining this place, when I recognized him. He stopped to chat a bit and we learned he’s building five homes at Ghost Lake, Alberta not far from our home in Calgary for a project called Carraig Ridge.

Despite being ranked in the Top 100, 10 or 5 contemporary architects in the world, depending on the source, Saunders says all he cares about is working with kind, nice people. When he finds out that I am in food tourism, he pitches the idea of collaborating for a pop up dinner at Carraig Ridge. Needless to say, I’ll be following up on that idea.

Today, though, we leave behind his life altering achievement, Fogo Island Inn, and head to the four International Arts Studios he designed for Fogo Island Arts’ artists in residence program.

As a little background, “Fogo Island Arts is a residency-based contemporary art venue for artists, filmmakers, writers, musicians, curators, designers, and thinkers from around the world.”

Come on along and you’ll see what make Saunders’ designs for this pop with their purpose.

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Above all else, Newfoundlanders are outdoorsy folk. While many have lives tied to the sea, there are as many more snugly fastened to the shores, moors, bogs and boreal forest. You see their love for this woodsy way of life in the care they take in building and maintaining the island’s many trails. Why in Newfoundland and Labrador, you can even hike to one of the corners of the flat earth. More on that later.

This post will share photos and tips for the first of several trails I enjoyed while touring the Northeastern corner of Newfoundland. I’ll cover the other hikes and walks in upcoming posts. The posts to watch for are as follows:

1. Signal Hill to Quidi Vidi and back to St. John’s harbour via Chain Rock Battery
2. Newman Sound Coastal Trail in Terra Nova National Park
3. Fogo Island Arts Studios and a bonus: The Brimstone Head Trail
4. Skerwink Trail, Bird Island in Elliston and Cape Bonavista on the Bonavista Peninsula

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