How Getting Stuck in Newfoundland Was the Best Thing That’s Happened to Us

We’ve road tripped across North America several times, but have always skipped over Newfoundland because it’s not easily accessible by car. Last year, we set a road trip goal to travel through all provinces and states in Canada and America. We only had a few places left to visit; Delaware, Colorado, Alaska, Newfoundland and PEI. We had quite the road trip planned to concur our goal.

To get to Newfoundland, we chose to fly there from the Halifax airport, and just rent a car while we’re there.

Being from the west coast, I would never have known this, but Newfoundland is quite a busy place during the summer months with lots of conferences and large amounts of tourists, making it hard to rent a car. After searching and searching, we finally gave up and rented a u-haul pickup truck to road trip the island in. It seemed to be our only option, and now makes for a funny road trip story.

We picked up our truck, and off we went exploring the southern part of the island. We spent the day around the Colony of Avalon, exploring old fishing villages, lighthouses and historic towns. Late in the afternoon, a huge cloud of fog settled into the town we were exploring.

We were on our way up to a popular lighthouse, when we chose to turn around because we were finding it hard to see the road with all the fog. The road was very narrow, and we had a hard time turning our truck around. We eventually got the truck stuck on the hillside while trying to turn around. After a good 20 minutes of trying to get unstick, we gave up and walked to town in search of help.

Lucky for us, we were able to flag down a car. The man happened to be a doctor out doing house calls when he drove upon us. Dr. Morry used his truck to pull us out from the hillside, and after chatting with him for a little while, he told us he had an empty basement suite that we could crash in overnight.

Here’s what’s great about connecting with locals:

We spent several hours chatting with Dr. Morry about Newfoundland history, the local people in Ferryland, local artists and life in general living in Newfoundland. It was an amazing cultural/travel experience for us, and you really don’t get that kind of travel experience without connecting with local people.

The following morning we hit the road to continue on with our journey. Dr. Morry fed us breakfast, and gave us some great travel tips and suggested places to spot icebergs and explore while in Newfoundland. Wonderful hospitality from a complete stranger!

To this day we cherish our memories made in Newfoundland, and can’t wait to head back someday.

Travel note: to get to Newfoundland you can either fly – 1.5 hours from Halifax to St John’s via WestJet, or take the ferry. The ferry takes around 12-14 hours and costs around $800 roundtrip.

Have you been to Newfoundland before?