Newfoundland, 7 days, self-drive + ferry
Newfoundland doesn’t get mentioned in the same breath as Banff or the Cabot Trail, and that’s exactly the case for going: icebergs drift past St. John’s every spring, humpback whales feed close enough to shore to watch from a kitchen window, and the province’s outport villages have a weathered, salt-worn character mainland Canada doesn’t quite have.
Days 1–2: St. John’s
Start in the jellybean-row houses of downtown St. John’s, then walk Signal Hill for the harbour view and, if you’re there May through July, scan the water for icebergs drifting down from Greenland on what locals call Iceberg Alley. Cape Spear, a short drive out, is the actual easternmost point of North America.
Days 3–4: Bonavista Peninsula
Drive two hours north to Bonavista’s working harbour and lighthouse, and time it for whale season (June through August) when humpbacks and minkes feed close enough to watch from the rocks. Elliston, just up the road, has a puffin colony you can walk right up to without a boat.
Days 5–7: Gros Morne National Park
The long drive west earns a UNESCO World Heritage site: the Tablelands, where the earth’s mantle is exposed above ground, and a boat tour through Western Brook Pond’s fjord-like gorge — Newfoundland’s answer to the Rockies, quieter and far less crowded.