I work for various travel companies on cruise ships and doing land based tours and one of my favourite groups to work with is Wildland Tours which operate out of St. John's, Newfoundland. They run small group tours based on the amazing natural landscape and seascape of Newfoundland and Labrador. They have won numerous awards for their tours and have been in business for many years. The photos here are from a recent trip I ran for them in Gros Morne National Park. The photo at the left is of Western Brook Pond, one of the standout attractions of the park. Click Wildlands for more photos from this recent trip.

This area has numerous attractions that would appeal to a wide range of visitors. This area has the only documented Viking site in North America, some of the best iceberg viewing in Newfoundland, loads of moose, nice hiking trails and the Grenfell Interpretation site in St. Anthony. We were there for the recent Iceberg Festival spanning June 12-June 21,2009  and had a grand time. We listened to  Newfoundland music, saw loads of bergs and were blown away by the whales and moose. There is lots to see and do in this area so if you missed it this year be sure to take it in next year. Click on Iceberg Festival for more pictures on this year's event

This festival ran from June 5-7, 2009 and featured numerous hikes and other activities like ziplining, boat tours and caving tours. Next year promises to be bigger and better. But if you missed this years event ...you can always do these activities through the summer and fall. There is lots of hiking in the local area and the views are some of the most spectacular in the Eastern Canada. Be sure to try the new Appalachian Trail near Corner Brook and the trails near Bottle Cove will leave you awestruck. Click on Hiking Festival for more pictures of this years event. Click on http://www.westernnl.com/  for more activities going on in this area. Click Hiking Fest for more pics

The latest addition to activities in the Corner Brook area are the new ziplines at Marble Mountain.  Marble Zip Tours opened in August 2008 and in just a few weeks they have seen hundreds of people soar across Steady Brook  gorge. There are 6 zip lines all together and they start easy enough but they the real excitement starts as you start to "fly" over Steady Brook Falls suspended by a safety harness under a tightly stretched cable. These zip lines are super safe since their cables can support 16,000 lbs each and one acts as a backup. The tour takes 2- 2.5 hours and in our group we had people from New Jersey as well as Corner Brook and Vancouver. The longest zip in 800 feet long and at times you almost 250 feet above Steady Brook. They are open year around and for more information contact www.marbleziptours.com and click ZIP for more pictures.  

We recently visited the Bonavista Peninsula and were very impressed. We visited in early June and hiked the Skerwink Trail (one of Canada's top 3 trails according to Travel and Leisure magazine), saw loads of icebergs and explored the small communities that dot this shoreline. Must sees include Elliston (root cellar capitol of the World), Bonavista with its lighthouse and replica of the Matthew, the historic buildings and shops of Trinity and the Random Passage film set. We stayed for our weekend trip at the Fishers' Loft Inn which is a 4.5 star Inn in Port Rexton. For more information contact: www.bonavista.net    For more pictures click Bonavista

We hadn't visited St. John's for many years and when we had the opportunity recently we jumped at the chance. St. John's has some great new places to visit like the Rooms (art gallery, museum and archives) and the Geo Centre with its superb Titanic exhibit. And it is always a treat to visit Signal Hill and Cape Spear (the most easterly point in North America). This year (2008) has been a banner year for icebergs and we saw icebergs at almost every turn. A must trip is O'Brien's Boat Tour in Bay Bulls to see the puffins, kittiwakes and icebergs up close. For more information contact www.destinationstjohns.com and for click St. John's for more pictures.