Travel + Accommodations

Newfoundland is a popular tourist destination with a short travel season. We’d encourage you to book travel and accommodations (and a rental car, if you choose) as early as possible for the best prices.

We are cognisant that a destination wedding is a significant cost. If you are having trouble finding any reasonably priced accommodations or flights, please let us know and we will try to help!

(FYI: St. John’s is hosting the Canada Games between August 8-25. This may raise hotel and car rental prices if you’re looking to stay in the area after the wedding during those dates.)

Getting to Newfoundland

By air

Air Canada, West Jet, and Porter all fly to St. John’s. (Be careful to book your flight to St. John’s, Newfoundland—not Saint John, New Brunswick. It wouldn’t be the first time somebody has shown up in New Brunswick thinking it was Newfoundland.)

Air travel can be somewhat unreliable due to Newfoundland’s notoriously temperamental weather. We generally book a buffer day on either end of travel when possible.

By car (& ferry)

For those of you that are considering road-tripping, be warned that it’s probably a 4–5-day journey from Toronto, including a sizeable ferry ride from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland.

Reservations for the ferry are strongly recommended—especially in high tourist season.

If you’re keen to do it, ferries depart from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to either:

  1. Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The ferry to Port aux Basques takes ~7 hours, but it leaves you on the western side of Newfoundland. The drive from Port aux Basques to the St. John’s area then takes about 9 hours. However, arriving in Port aux Basques sets you up well for visiting Gros Morne National Park, which is incredible and well worth it.

  2. Argentia, Newfoundland. The ferry to Argentia takes ~16 hours, but the drive to St. John’s is only about 1.5 hours.

Car rentals

The wedding itself is in Bauline, Newfoundland—roughly a 20-25 minute drive from St. John’s.

***You will not need a car to get to the wedding. On the day, buses will travel from a centralized (TBD) location in St. John’s (with stops in nearby towns, as needed) to the venue in Bauline. Buses will then return at roughly 11 PM and 1:30 AM.

That all said, many of Newfoundland’s great sights are outside the city and best explored by car.

Major car rental providers

All the major car rental companies operate in St. John’s, including:

  • Alamo

  • Avis

  • Budget

  • Enterprise

  • Hertz

  • National

  • Thrifty

Turo

In the past, we have had success with Turo, which is essentially Airbnb for cars. It’s generally more affordable. However, you will likely need to get from the airport to wherever the Turo is located if you go this route.

Accommodations

The Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland

The Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland in downtown St. John’s is offering 15% off the daily rate for wedding guests, subject to availability. Use promo code W14 at Marriott.com/yytsi to get the discount.

Detailed instructions for how to input the code when booking can be found here.

Alternative accommodations

Without a car:

For those of you that won’t have access to a rental car, we’d recommend staying in downtown St. John’s so that you can enjoy the city by foot.

> Hotels

We can’t attest to the quality of the below hotels, but their location will set you up well to explore the city:

  • Alt Hotel by Le Germain (4-star)

  • JAG Hotel (4-star)

  • Sheraton Hotel (4-star) (see above)

  • The Inn by Mallard Cottage

  • Delta Hotels St. John's Conference Centre (4-star)

  • DoubleTree by Hilton Harbourview (3-star)

  • Hilton Garden Inn St. John’s (3-star)

  • Courtyard St. John’s (3-star)

  • The Murray Premises (3-star)

  • The Franklin Hotel (3-star)

> Airbnbs & Rentals

St. John’s has many Airbnbs and Vrbos. Feel free to ask us about neighbourhoods and locations if you have questions.

With a car:

> Hotels outside of downtown, but manageable with a rental car:

These are some cheaper hotel options outside of the downtown core. These are not walkable. If you do have a rental car, you could easily drive to downtown St. John’s in 15-minutes or to Bauline in 20-minutes from many of these:

  • Best Western Plus Suites (4-star) – airport hotel; not walkable

  • Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Aiport (3-star) - airport hotel; not walkable

  • Holiday Inn Conference Centre (3-star) – closer to downtown, but still not very walkable

  • Capital Hotel (4-star) – highway hotel; not walkable

  • Hampton Inn & Suites (3-star) – highway hotel; not walkable

  • Ramada by Wyndham St. John’s (3-star) - highway hotel; not walkable

  • Fairfield Inn & Suites St. John’s (3-star) - highway hotel; not walkable

  • Sandman Signature St. John’s Hotel (2-star) - highway hotel; not walkable

> Airbnbs & Rentals

If you will have a car and prefer to stay at an Airbnb, Vrbo, or other rental, you could consider staying outside of St. John’s in one of several historic communities that are nearby:  

  • Bauline - This is where Anne & Jim live. Not Bauline East; that’s far away!

  • Pouch Cove - A small fishing community that’s near Bauline

  • Flat Rock - A small historic fishing community that’s near Bauline

  • Portugal Cove & St. Philips - Yet another small fishing community that’s near Bauline

  • Torbay - A slightly larger fishing community that’s near Bauline