Newfoundland-and-Labrador Travel Guide
If you have but one atom of adventure in you, you'll know it after a few minutes poring over a map of Newfoundland and Labrador. Your electrons begin to pulse madly. Your heart races. All those isolated harbors! All those miles of remote lakes! And those extraordinary names that dot the map: Jerry's Nose, Snook's Arm, Leading Tickles, Heart's Delight, Happy Adventure, Chapel Island, St. Bride's, Mistaken Point, Misery Hill, Breakheart Point, Cape Pine, Shuffle Board.
Newfoundland and Labrador might be the Eastern seaboard's last best place. (These two distinct geographic areas are administered as one province, so sometimes the phrase "Newfoundland and Labrador" refers to a single place, sometimes to two places.) Wild, windswept, and isolated, the province often reveals a powerful paradox. Although the landscape is rocky and raw -- at times it looks as if the glaciers had receded only a year or 2 ago -- the residents often display a genuine warmth that makes visitors feel right at home. Tourists only recently started arriving here in any number, and long-time residents more often than not like to chat, offer advice, and hear your impressions of their home. Travelers who are usually reluctant to ask questions of locals for fear of embarrassment usually drop their hesitation after an encounter or two.
An excursion to The Rock -- as the island of Newfoundland is commonly called -- is magical in many ways. Not only in the extraordinary northern landscape and the gracious people, but also in the rich history that catches many first-time visitors off guard. This is where European civilization made landfall in the New World -- by both the Vikings and the later fishermen and settlers in the wake of John Cabot's arrival here in 1497 -- and you'll find traces of that rich legacy at almost every turn. Although other parts of North America might claim an equally historic lineage, there are few places in the New World where one feels as if not a whole lot has transpired since the first settlers sailed into the harbor some centuries ago. History isn't buried here; it's right on the surface.
One last note: There's some to-and-fro among travelers about how to accent Newfoundland. Correctly done, there's a little bit of emphasis on the final syllable, but it's subtle. Here's a trick. Recite this bit of doggerel: "You just won't understand, 'Til you've been to Newfoundland." Now drop everything but the last word.
