St. John's travel guide

Canada · Top sights · trending spots

St John's is the oldest city founded by the English in North America and the easternmost in it, with wooden houses painted in hard colours climbing the hill above a narrow harbour.

Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal on Signal Hill in December 1901. Cape Spear is the continent's eastern tip. Icebergs drift past in late spring, whales follow in summer, and visitors are inducted with a shot of rum.

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Top 10 sights in St. John's

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

Cape Spear
The easternmost point of North America, with a lighthouse of 1836 that is the oldest surviving in Newfoundland. Gun emplacements from 1941 are cut into the headland, built when U-boats were operating in these waters; whales pass close in June and July.
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© No machine-readable author provided. Tolivero~commonswiki assumed (based on copy · CC BY-SA 3.0
Signal Hill
The hill above the harbour at St John's, where flags were flown to announce arriving ships. Cabot Tower of 1900 stands on top, and it was here that Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in December 1901.
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© Paul from Hacketts Cove, Canada · CC BY-SA 4.0
Basilica of St. John the Baptist
The metropolitan cathedral of the Catholic archdiocese, finished in 1855 in a Romanesque manner with twin towers, and one of the largest churches in North America when it was built. It stands on the ridge above the harbour and is visible from every approach by sea.
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© Aconcagua · CC BY-SA 3.0
Cabot Tower
A stone tower on Signal Hill begun in 1898 to mark four centuries since John Cabot's landfall and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Marconi picked up the first transatlantic wireless signal, the letter S sent from Cornwall, beside it in 1901; it now anchors the Signal Hill national historic site.
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© Mahmoud Haddara, Ph.D., P.Eng. · CC BY-SA 4.0
Masjid-an-Noor, Newfoundland
A mosque at St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, the first built in the province.
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© The original uploader was Jcmurphy at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0
Railway Coastal Museum
A museum in the old Newfoundland Railway station on Water Street, covering the narrow-gauge line that crossed the island until 1988 and the coastal boats that served the outports.
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© David P Janes · CC BY-SA 3.0
The Rooms
A cultural centre opened on 29 June 2005 above the harbour, on ground once held by Fort Townshend. Its steep gabled blocks, modelled on the fishing rooms of the outports, hold the provincial art gallery, archives and museum under one roof.
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© SingleIntegral · CC BY-SA 3.0
Fort Amherst
A headland on the south side of the Narrows, fortified from the 1770s and named for William Amherst, who retook St. John's from the French in 1762. A lighthouse and Second World War gun emplacements survive, two 4.7-inch guns still on their mountings; the site was listed as a national historic site in 1951.
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© Silverchemist · CC BY 3.0
Quidi Vidi
A fishing village folded into a narrow inlet known as the Gut, on the edge of St. John's. The Royal St. John's Regatta has been rowed on the lake beside it since 1816, on the first Wednesday of August when weather allows; the Quidi Vidi Battery of 1762 stands above the entrance.
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Johnson Geo Centre
A geological interpretation centre on Signal Hill at St John's in Newfoundland in Canada. It is named after the philanthropist Paul Johnson and opened in 2002, built into the 550-million-year-old rock itself.
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Popular tickets & tours in St. John's

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Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
The mother church of Anglicans in Newfoundland, its parish founded in 1699 after Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville's French force burned the town in 1696. At least six wooden churches stood here before the present Gothic Revival building, designed by George Gilbert Scott.
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© Original uploader was Jcmurphy at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
National War Memorial
A First World War memorial in the centre of St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. It stands at King's Beach on Water Street, where Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for England in 1583.
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© Newfoundlander&Labradorian · CC BY-SA 3.0
Bowring Park
A landscaped park in the Waterford Valley, given to the city by the Bowring family in 1911 and opened by the Duke of Connaught in 1914. Its bronze Peter Pan, cast from the mould of the one in Kensington Gardens, stands above the duck pond.
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© Newfoundlander&Labradorian · CC BY-SA 3.0
Pleasantville, St. John's
A district east of St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, immediately north of the centre. Blocks of flats run from north of Quidi Vidi Lake to Newfoundland Drive.
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Find dates you can go →

Top 10 sights in St. John's

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

Cape Spear

The easternmost point of North America, with a lighthouse of 1836 that is the oldest surviving in Newfoundland. Gun emplacements from 1941 are cut into the headland, built when U-boats were operating in these waters; whales pass close in June and July.

Tiqets

Klook

Signal Hill

The hill above the harbour at St John's, where flags were flown to announce arriving ships. Cabot Tower of 1900 stands on top, and it was here that Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in December 1901.

Tiqets

Klook

Basilica of St. John the Baptist

The metropolitan cathedral of the Catholic archdiocese, finished in 1855 in a Romanesque manner with twin towers, and one of the largest churches in North America when it was built. It stands on the ridge above the harbour and is visible from every approach by sea.

Tiqets

Klook

Cabot Tower

A stone tower on Signal Hill begun in 1898 to mark four centuries since John Cabot's landfall and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Marconi picked up the first transatlantic wireless signal, the letter S sent from Cornwall, beside it in 1901; it now anchors the Signal Hill national historic site.

Tiqets

Klook

Masjid-an-Noor, Newfoundland

A mosque at St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, the first built in the province.

Tiqets

Klook

Railway Coastal Museum

A museum in the old Newfoundland Railway station on Water Street, covering the narrow-gauge line that crossed the island until 1988 and the coastal boats that served the outports.

Tiqets

Klook

The Rooms

A cultural centre opened on 29 June 2005 above the harbour, on ground once held by Fort Townshend. Its steep gabled blocks, modelled on the fishing rooms of the outports, hold the provincial art gallery, archives and museum under one roof.

Tiqets

Klook

Fort Amherst

A headland on the south side of the Narrows, fortified from the 1770s and named for William Amherst, who retook St. John's from the French in 1762. A lighthouse and Second World War gun emplacements survive, two 4.7-inch guns still on their mountings; the site was listed as a national historic site in 1951.

Tiqets

Klook

Quidi Vidi

A fishing village folded into a narrow inlet known as the Gut, on the edge of St. John's. The Royal St. John's Regatta has been rowed on the lake beside it since 1816, on the first Wednesday of August when weather allows; the Quidi Vidi Battery of 1762 stands above the entrance.

Tiqets

Klook

Johnson Geo Centre

A geological interpretation centre on Signal Hill at St John's in Newfoundland in Canada. It is named after the philanthropist Paul Johnson and opened in 2002, built into the 550-million-year-old rock itself.

Tiqets

Klook

Trending now

Based on 2025 Wikipedia pageviews — popular places beyond the top 10.

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

The mother church of Anglicans in Newfoundland, its parish founded in 1699 after Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville's French force burned the town in 1696. At least six wooden churches stood here before the present Gothic Revival building, designed by George Gilbert Scott.

Tiqets

Klook

National War Memorial

A First World War memorial in the centre of St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. It stands at King's Beach on Water Street, where Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for England in 1583.

Tiqets

Klook

Bowring Park

A landscaped park in the Waterford Valley, given to the city by the Bowring family in 1911 and opened by the Duke of Connaught in 1914. Its bronze Peter Pan, cast from the mould of the one in Kensington Gardens, stands above the duck pond.

Tiqets

Klook

Pleasantville, St. John's

A district east of St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, immediately north of the centre. Blocks of flats run from north of Quidi Vidi Lake to Newfoundland Drive.

Tiqets

Klook