St. John's Travel Forum

I was born in Newfoundland of American parents. We left when I was 3 and have never had the opportunity to return...until now. My husband and I have reservations in August. We will be there 2 weeks and plan to add about a week to get there and get home. The question is...where are good places to stay? We would like to stay for the 2 weeks in the same place..like an efficiency unit and explore from there.

Also..since my husband is a musician..and we both play some at that...where can we go to hear some music???,...I'se the Bye...Kelligrews Soiree... etc. Those are some of the songs I grew up with.

Thanks for any info.

SueJulene

We spent 2 weeks last summer in Newfoundland. We covered from Port A Basque to St. Anthony's down through Gros Morne Prvincial Park and accross to St. John. A really good web site is the Government one.
http://www.gov.nf.ca/tourism/welcome/default.htm
They cover everything and where right on with all we wanted to do and see. We also stayed in Bellevue Beach at a place called the Fiddlers Green.
http://www.bellevuebeach.com/
It's run by a husband and wife....mainly the wife. They have cabins with fridge, stove, living room, 2 bedrooms right on a cove off the Ocean. Easy to get too about 2 minutes off the Hwy. and exactly 1 hour west of St. John's. Great clean place too stay in the Avalon Pen. area. Check out there web site and the story is that they own property that could be another Lans' Meadows...they have found artifacts from the Vikings and turned them over to the Canadian Government. Up in St. Anthony's we stayed at a bed & Breakfast on an Island in a light house keepers home.
Good luck

In St. John's you go to George Street. It is a pedestrian street with numerous bars offering various types of music. I don't know which of them offer mainly Newfoundland music but you can stroll around the street and then find them. NB If you are going on a weekend night parking is hard to find. Perhaps better to leave the rental car where you are staying and take the Metrobus or a cab.
In smaller communities many local bars will have music.
There are private apartments available as well as self contained one or two bedroom houses right in St. Johns. Some good B&B's also. I don't have the websites for these but if your parents are Newfoundlanders, they may have heard of "The Downhomer" magazine. It has all kinds of ads in it for places to stay. You can get complimentary copy, and have a look by going to http://www.downhomer.com

I know a fair bit about the place because I have been there maybe 4 or 5 times - I forget how many.

I never knew anyone who didn't LOVE it - well yeah there was one guy. He and his wife went during mid-March one year, and she was travelling around doing business much of the time, so while he liked it, he was a bit bored. If they'd gone at a better time I am sure he would have loved it too.

Sorry, I just reread your post and saw that your parents were Americans. No matter, it appears they loved the place anyway if you grew up singing those songs!!!

Thanks for your replies! Is it reasonable to think of driving to St. John's for the evening from Fiddler's Green at Bellevue Beach? We had actually been looking at Comerford's at Holyrood. My folks were in Nfld 2 years ago and mentioned the fog and moose a lot.. They are older, but said they felt much more comfortable just staying at their B&B after dusk. We are slightly younger.. still enjoy some nightlife..althought not the top 40 covertune bar scene. We can get that at home if we want it... really looking for some traditional Newfie music or bands that play original music. I'd also be interested in how and where to go about fishing. Are there headboats out? We'll be staying on the Avalon Peninsula for the whole 2 weeks.

Sue Julene

Just reread my own post.. no kidding my folks are older...silly way of writing there...LOL

hey, there are plenty of b&bs in st. john's, you won't need to rent a place an hour outside the city (and probably won't want to drive it every night). for trad music, just hit erin's pub, o'reilley, birdie molloy's or any other trad bar on george st. there's a whole slew of them.
what kind of fishing do you want to do? deep sea? cod jiggin? I think one of the tour boats (scademia I've heard does it) down at the harbourfront might take people out and let them fish, although last time I went I had to get a temp license to fish cod (but that wasn't on a tour boat).
enjoy your stay!

Me and the wife where in St. Johns last September and enjoyed the h*** out of the night life. We are big on Scottish and Irish chunes and recently started listening to a Newfoundland band (you've most likely heard of) called Great Big Sea.
We cought grteat trad on George street. Cant remember the pub names though(see,we had a great time!).
Guinness everywhere by the way...
Enjoy St. Johns!

My husband and I wanted something like an apartment that we could call home for 2 weeks. I did lots of calling and emailing about places in St. John's and found that most of the B&Bs wouldn't work as well since my husband has had a knee replacement and we needed to avoid so many steps and needed a bed larger than double...6'3" hubby..

Anyway, we've settled for a place that might be a bit out of the city, but it will allow us the freedom to explore the peninsulas also. We're probably headed for the Brigus Blueberry Festival to check out music and we heard about Ship's Inn on Wednesday nights.
We were able to hear Great Big Sea here in the States last year..they were GREAT!!

Thanks for all the replies.. we are surely looking forward to some photography, writing words..and music, fishing and hearing more music!!

Fishing... I just got my first fly rod..that would be fun. I would love to get a cod, but what about the moratorium on them? WE caught cod in Maine 2 years ago..and cusk too. I'd love to go out on a boat into the ocean to fish..just drop a line and see what comes up. We also will try fishing in some streams or rivers or ponds..but we need to find out which rivers are scheduled salmon waters so we don't get into any legal troubles. We surely want to do what is right.

One suggestion would be to spend a week in the greater St. John's area and another in a more rural area. Even the Avalon can take 2 weeks to see everything! Here is a link to a sight that provides furnished/equipped accommodations in St. John's, Conception Bay North and central Newfoundland.
www.newfoundlandstays.com