Several years ago we took a trip to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. It was wonderful. Everything about it was great. We loved the scenery, the food and the people. Basically, we loved everything. We even loved the tour of Louisbourg we took during the tail end of a tropical storm that had made its way up the coast. We didn’t have great weather the whole time we were there but the trip was still amazing. We even fantasized about moving there, buying an old house and fixing it up. But then we remembered the winter weather “ back east” and we backed off on that dream. But the trip did make us think about visiting Newfoundland.

So, we’ve been reading up on Newfoundland. The province has a great tourism site. We spent hours on our iPads, checking out the itineraries the site suggests. We researched flights and talked about the best time to go. We went to NS, NB and PEI at the end of June. It wasn’t the best time to go. Many of the attractions weren’t up and running, and as I’ve already mentioned, the weather wasn’t great. So, we settled on August for our trip to Newfoundland, and we started planning in earnest.

All of the sites say that Newfoundland is a desired location and you should book everything before you go, as the resources on the island are limited. We read stories about people who couldn’t get rental cars or who couldn’t find accommodation. So, we took all the information we had and planned a two-week vacation. We would start in St. John’s, work our way up to L’Anse aux Meadows and then go back to St. John’s. There aren’t many alternative routes, and so we would be revisiting many of the same towns on the way back. With the route planned, we started looking at accommodations.

Well, the people online weren’t kidding. Some of the inns and B and B’s showed no availability in August of next year. Now, we realize that not all of the vacancies are posted online, but it did tell us that if we left it too long, we might have to scramble to find lodging. The rooms on the north of the island were going faster than Dale could look them up. He’d be looking on a site at an available room only to have it suddenly be booked by someone else. He got up, got his credit card and we started looking in earnest. He’d be booking one site while I checked out accommodations in other locations on other sites. Thank goodness for iPads!

So, we have booked accommodations in St. John’s (one at the beginning of the trip and a different one at the end), in St. Anthony (which is the town closest to L’Anse aux Meadows) and in Rocky Harbour (in the Gros Morne National Park). We were unable to book anything in Gander. All of the accommodations there have not yet released their availability for August 2019. We expect those dates will become available soon, as July 2019 bookings were possible.

We are excited about the trip. There aren’t any direct flights, well, there are flights that stop enroute but we don’t have to get off the plane,so that’s kind of direct. However we do it, it’ll be a long flight. It will be nice not to have to go through American security and to buy things in Canadian dollars. Packing will be interesting. All the sites say to forget fancy clothes; pack warm,waterproof items that can be layered on and off as needed. Well, we have a year to get what we need.

I’ve already typed up our itinerary, with a calendar to show where we’ll be on any given day. Some of the drives between location are long, over 5 hours, but others are short so we should be able to get in a lot of sightseeing. We should definitely see picturesque harbours, brightly painted houses and Vikings. We may see puffins and whales. I don’t think we’ll see icebergs. When next I write about this trip, the photos will be ones we’ve taken, not stock ones from the internet.

Something funny happened the day after we booked. I got a call from Newfoundland. The man on the phone was concerned that the online booking site had doubled booked a room. His inn was full and he couldn’t honour our reservation. I said we had booked for 2019. He checked again, and yes, it was for next year. He was relieved. He apologized and he said he would see us next year. Yes, yes he will. I wonder if he’ll remember the phone call.