WE all love a short break – a mini-holiday discovering somewhere new without having to use loads of annual leave.
Well, now there’s a new destination that promises great food and beer and some equally fine bucket-list experiences including whale-watching and icebergs.
St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada is less than a five-hour flight time from the UK and the most easterly point of North America.
I visited on the inaugural WestJet flight from Gatwick and spent a few days sampling what the city and surrounding area have to offer — and it’s a lot.
Sitting on the coast and surrounded by pine forest, St John’s is the capital of the Newfoundland and Labrador province.
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The city centre is compact and easy to get around on foot, yet just a short distance from rugged hills and rocky coves where the Atlantic Ocean smashes against the shore.
The countryside is wild and unspoilt. If you’re after an active break, it’s perfect for hiking, with the East Coast Trail stretching more than 200 miles — but it’s the animals and icebergs that have to be the biggest draw.
I stayed at Cliff’s Edge Retreat, which commands panoramic views over Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, one of the best places to watch whales.
Their timber-clad cottages boast floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony — many with hot tub. They also have well-equipped kitchens and comfy bedrooms.
I swear I could live there year round, but June to August are the best months to see humpback whales.
The reserve is visited by thousands of puffins over the summer — they build their nests in burrows on the uninhabited islands.
There are also seal colonies, and millions of seabirds that call it home year-round.
Your best bet for seeing an iceberg is between late May and July.
When the weather starts to warm, the ’bergs break off from glaciers in the Arctic and Greenland, drifting through the ocean and along Iceberg Alley which stretches from Labrador to the south-east coast of Newfoundland, until they eventually melt.
Some of these can be monsters, towering above houses on the coast, and you can spot them from the shore or from a boat.
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Witless Bay is a great place to see them, but you can also view them from Cape Spear, just outside St John’s.
Back in St John’s, there’s lots to discover. I stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton, which offers views of the calm harbour — once home to a vibrant fishing fleet, and sheltered from the rages of the Atlantic by The Narrows entrance-way.
There’s more than a lilt of the Irish accent here, with many locals descended from Irish as well as English, French and Basque fishermen.
Now, though, any boats are likely to be taking tourists to spot whales and icebergs, or servicing the oil platforms hundreds of kilometres offshore.
Explore downtown and see the brightly painted houses of Jellybean Row, or head to The Rooms to learn about the city’s indigenous and colonial past, its natural history and its support for the Allied Forces’ operations in Europe during World War One.
For shopping, visit Water Street. You’ll find clothing and souvenir shops, many selling hand-made gifts and traditional knitwear. I loved the trigger mitts.
Unlike regular mittens that have a separate space for your thumb only, these have an extra space for your forefinger — your trigger finger — when hunting.
Kissing a cod
George Street is the party place for a night out — full of great pubs, many with live music.
I’m from Newcastle and it reminded me of the Bigg Market on a Friday night, although apparently George Street is jumping most nights of the week.
It’s also the place where “come-from-aways”, as the locals call visitors, get “screeched-in” and become an honorary Newfoundlander, which involves reciting a few lines of a speech, knocking back Screech Rum and . . . kissing a cod.
Despite the moratorium introduced in the 1990s after massive overfishing, cod is still king in St John’s. You can get cod and chips in almost every restaurant and it is delicious.
This is a truly beautiful place and I’m already planning my return trip
Seafood is also big here and not expensive. Portions are hearty and high quality, while restaurant staff are friendly and always helpful.
A pint of beer will cost you on average $8 (£4.60) and a glass of wine $11 (£6.30).
Make sure to visit the taproom of the Quidi Vidi Brewery, east of St John’s in the fishing village of the same name, and sample their Iceberg Beer. And, yes, it really is made from icebergs.
You can take a taxi to Quidi Vidi from downtown St John’s for around $15 (£8). Or there’s also a hop-on-hop-off bus during the summer that stops there.
Excellent restaurants include Vu on Duckworth Street and St John’s Fish Exchange on Water Street.
Further out, Arbour in Bay Bulls and Fork in Mobile can be reached in around 35 minutes by taxi.
I reckon I packed a couple of weeks’ worth of visit into the short time I was there — this is a truly beautiful place and I’m already planning my return trip.
As short-break destinations go, I reckon you would have to look very hard to find somewhere to beat it.
