For most travellers, there are two ways to get to the island of
Newfoundland, by
airplane and by ferry. A few years
ago, an adventurer did get to
Newfoundland from
Nova Scotia after 21 hours of windsurfing (he encountered doldrums), but that was
an exception. Most tourist websites approach Newfoundland from the air, but
visitnewfoundland.ca approaches Newfoundland from Port aux Basques, the only year
round Newfoundland ferry port. Apart from the obligatory information about arriving in
Newfoundland by car or RV, there's a good map of the whole island with driving times (always
a rarity on maps), lots of images which are changed frequently, links to the most
visited attractions in western Newfoundland, and pages and pages of links to cultural
and natural history themes such as Newfoundland's extinct native people, Newfoundland
music, coins and postage stamps, gardening, geology, orchids, and trees. There's even
a picture of one of the first moose to be introduced to Newfoundland in 1904.
Newfoundland is one of the few places on Earth where you can see icebergs from your
car, and a link to a website that pinpoints local icebergs is a joy to see.
Visitnewfoundland.ca is a little weak on the most populous parts of Newfoundland, but
that appears to be changing as more and more images and links appear each month. Apart
from Gros Morne National Park, which is obviously the jewel in the crown of
Newfoundland, there's quite an emphasis on the Vikings (the Norse) who arrived on the
northern part of the island around 1000 AD. For those who are only interested in a
brief summary, don't miss the 'interesting facts about Newfoundland' file. Did you
know that there are no homeless people in Newfoundland? I wonder why, but apparently
it is indeed true. Finally, for the techies out there, visitnewfoundland.ca links to
clustermaps. You can take a look at a world map and see the locations of all the
visitors to visitnewfoundland.ca. It's obviously a popular website.