Why would anybody want to come to a place that some call the Edge of the Earth? There are hundreds of reasons, but if we could boil it down to just one, it might be this: you might never find another place that makes you feel at the same time lost and found. It’s the place where things just happen. Where the unexpected is the norm, just slightly off-kilter with the rest of the world. And where the people and the beauty of this land stay with you long after you’re gone.

There’s enough coastline wrapped around this place to stretch its way back and forth across North America four times over (29,000 kilometres to be exact). Sprinkled with guts, inlets, coves, and bays with historic towns and fishing villages, complete with spectacular views.

Travel back to the 16th century, when Basque whalers processed blubber that lit the lamps of Europe. Or go back 9,000 years to the days of the Maritime Archaic and Beothuck Indians. Or visit L’Anse aux Meadows, a UNESCO world heritage site where Eric the Red and the Vikings dropped by in 998 AD.

Ten thousand humpbacks pass by our shores every year, chasing ten thousand year old icebergs. More than 35 million seabirds fight for your attention at some of the world’s largest and most accessible seabird colonies in North America.

Stretch out in one of the world’s last great frontiers – Labrador, or ‘The Big Land.’ It’s more than 300,000 square kilometres of pristine wilderness, including the Torngat Mountains National Park and the abandoned Moravian settlement at Hebron.

Renowned for our poetry, humour, song, and creativity. Our hospitality, quick wit, and charm. We’re the first to show you a good time, in a place where you’ll see the first sunrise in North America. And the last to send you home at night.

There are places on this earth that continue to live on inside of you. Places that drift magically in and out of your consciousness when you least expect them, but often times when you need them most.

Places like the many tickles and coves, guts and bays where brightly painted saltbox houses of sunflower yellow, lime green, and aquamarine cling to the cliffs. And remind you that houses are characters too, deserving of more than an unremarkable shade of beige.

Where the stories, tales, and traditions come with an abundance of old world charm, coloured by Irish, English, French, and ancient Aboriginal influences. A legacy of where we come from and how we came to be.

Long after you’ve left this place, as you sit down for a meal of ‘frozen this,’ or ‘take-out that,’ you’ll fondly remember the time you courageously lapped up a dish of cod tongues with scrunchions, or doughboys with moose stew, over lively conversations with people from places like Cupids, Hearts Desire, Paradise, and Sweet Bay. And forever after, a laugh just isn’t the same if sore ribs and a full belly don’t come with it, part and parcel.

Because if anything, this much is true: once you’ve travelled here, you’ll never again be far from the edge of the world. For history has proven that, like a barnacle fastened to the hull of a tall ship, this place, and all of its wonders big and small, has a tendency to stick to you long after you set sail.

It’s hard to say what’s more breathtaking – the wildlife of Newfoundland and Labrador or its natural habitat. They are both, without a doubt, spectacular and humbling. You’ll find plenty of species, in plenty of places, no matter where you find yourself. All within reach.

Jagged rock walls that soar 5,000 feet out of the North Atlantic. 29,000 kilometres of coastline with towns and villages nestled in and around hundreds of coves, guts, bays, and tickles. Soaring mountains that were once far beneath the ocean floor. Mysterious bogs blooming with pitcher plants or orange with bakeapple, also known as cloudberry. It’s here where you’ll find the unexpected, the unspoiled, and the unforgettable.

There’s no question about it: you will never have to go looking for wildlife around Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s home to 22 species of whales, porpoises and dolphins, including 10,000 humpbacks that breach within easy view from our coastline, 35 million seabirds all fighting for your attention, and thousand-pound moose that casually graze by roadsides and barrens.

There are six botanical gardens, which boast a rich and rare variety of arctic and alpine plants. Go back to university at Memorial, home to North America’s most eastern botanical garden, and study 110 acres of specialized species, a premier rock garden, and a nature reserve.