St John's NF, not St John NB question

[LiftLockCouple]

I finally decided on what to do in St John's and I think it will be great. We booked a half day private excursion with a guy who is a photographer and his father who is an author and historian. They are picking us up around 8:30am and finishing around 12 noon.

 

We plan to go to Cape Spear, St. John’s, Signal Hill and Petty Harbour and stop at at number of locations for photo's and historical overviews. I think it will be great, the company is called far east photography and tours and the owner is Maurice Fitzgerald. Any of you folks from NF know about his tours? He seems real nice and has a 12 passenger van with A/C so we should be quite comfortable with only 8 of us as passengers. We plan to spend the afternoon wandering around downtown so that will also be fun.

 

Thanks again for all your help and insight.

 

Mike

 

This sounds great Mike. I am sure you will have a great time. I will be shocked though if the AC in the van gets turned on. Matter of fact don't turn it on, roll down the windows and breath Newfoundland. It is good for your health.

Enjoy !!

[MMDown Under]

1)

 

My boyfriend would suggest you rent a car (there is a car rental place within a two minute walk of where you will dock) and go for a drive around the bay to look at the cute bay towns - this is something we do pretty regularly when we have good weather.

 

Enjoy your visit, and let me know if I can answer any questions! I just moved here 16 months ago, and I love it.

 

We are a couple of retired seniors. I am currently researching a visit to Newfoundland in August or September.

 

We are considering trying to rent a truck camper/slide on or a car for at least a fortnight. Because of the distance across the island, we are thinking of a week on each coast, with maybe the bus in between.

 

Would love to see the cute bay towns, as well as cute puffins.

 

Would appreciate any suggestions from locals.

 

We are also planning on doing the boat trip from Montreal to Magdalen Islands.

[Motorman23]

1) The ship will dock on the downtown side of the harbour - you will be approximately a two minute walk from Water Street which is the main drag downtown. I don't think I have ever seen a ship dock on the other side of the harbour.

 

2) The big tourist attractions in the St. John's area are: Signal Hill, Cape Spear, the Rooms, walking Quidi Vidi Village (an old fishing village within the St. John's limits), walking the Battery (an area in St. John's where the houses are built into the cliff) and walking the downtown/historic ares. If you are more interested in art than museums I would recommend private galleries, rather than the Rooms.

 

3) shopping - yes there are shops downtown within easy walking distance of the harbour, but the shopping in NL is not generally thought to be great, plus there is a 13% tax. Bars/restaurants - St. John's has lots of great places and lots of crummy ones. What kind of place are you looking for? Bianca's on Water Street is very good, but kind of fancy (and it has better atmosphere in the evening rather than at night) and the latest darling on the dining scene is Bistro Sofia on Water Street - it's a good lunch or dinner spot. Yellow Belly Brewery on Water street is a brewery with pub food - they can't get the food right, but the beer is good and the atmosphere is great. Gypsy Tea Room is also good, but more of a dinner spot than lunch. The restaurant in the Rooms has the best view in the city, but the food is fairly standard.

 

4) I really can't think of anything off the top of my head. My boyfriend would suggest you rent a car (there is a car rental place within a two minute walk of where you will dock) and go for a drive around the bay to look at the cute bay towns - this is something we do pretty regularly when we have good weather.

 

Enjoy your visit, and let me know if I can answer any questions! I just moved here 16 months ago, and I love it.

 

Dear Delbie, well we got back from our trip two weeks ago and had a great time. The weather in St. John's was low 70's and it was a sunny day. We also were there for 8hrs not 4 (me bad). We went on a 4 hr tour with a local photographer (Maurice Fitzgerald) and his Dad (Jack) who was a local author/historian/newspaper reporter. We went to signal hill, petty harbour, Cape Spears, The Battery. We ended up eating lunch in a small local restaurant called Velma's. It was quite good with seafood chowder and fresh bread and I had a local beer called Black Horse beer which I enjoyed. We then walked around water St which had all the doors open for our ship. We had a great time and found the people of NF to be very nice and welcoming. I was able to get some great photos of St John's (although we did have fog for a while), it is a very scenic location. Here is a link to my slide show, St John's is at the end. http://www.photoshow.com/watch/hr7he6gX?language=enu

 

Thank you for your responses.

 

Mike