Pick up at airport and short orientation tour of St. John’s. We use this time to introduce you to your upcoming vacation highlights.

Overnight Location: St. John's

Today, the world is your oyster! Get your zoom lenses ready as we trek along the Southern Shore on what is fondly referred to as The Irish Loop. Wide expanses of rugged beauty await you, as towering cliffs, wave tossed beaches, bogs, and barrens hug the Atlantic coastline. On sunny days, you can see across the land and ocean horizon for endless miles. On foggy days, a sense of calmness prevails. Breezes from offshore, where the warm southern Gulf Stream meets and mixes with the cold northern Labrador Current, creates a mystical journey as you meander towards the Edge of Avalon Interpretation Centre in Portugal Cove South.

We are headed to our province's most recent UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here, you will explore 580–560 million year old Ediacaran fossils of the oldest, largest, complex life-forms found anywhere on earth on the wave-scourged bedding planes of Mistaken Point. Once your fingertips trace over the imprints of the embedded fossils, the 25 minute drive from the Centre to the trail head and gentle to moderate 30 minute hike to the fossil surfaces makes it all worth while! Diving gannets, cavorting whales, and sunning seals are often sighted offshore as you venture along the coastline trail.

The Southern Avalon region exudes a unique energy. Like each of Newfoundland and Labrador's isolated outport communities, there is a strong, distinctive cultural history tied to the land and the sea. Open up your senses to the rare interactions waiting to be experienced. Feel the salt spray on your face at Cape Race, where on April 14, 1912, the distress signals of the Titanic were received. Shipwrecks were an unfortunate occurrence on the rocky shores of this area as well; hence the name ‘Mistaken Point’. The tale of the infamous ‘wreck of the S.S. Florizel’ off Cappahayden is waiting to be heard. Capture the perfect memory of the beautiful subarctic ‘Eastern Hyper-oceanic Barrens’. Seek out Woodland caribou, moose, seals, Willow ptarmigan, Short-eared and Snowy owls, Horned larks, alpine-arctic wildflowers, more icebergs, our provincial flower the carnivorous Pitcher plant, and so much more!

Overnight Location: Trepassey

More leisure time in St. John’s until we get you to the airport.