Guide
Getting wheels at the doors
Every route on this site starts at a terminal door and assumes you have a car when you walk out of it. In 2024 and again in 2026 the province was reported short of exactly that. This page does not fix supply. It says what exists at each door, what the rental agreements forbid, and, new on every route page, what the map says about the road surface, which is the one rental question nobody else answers.
The site names no rental company. Both airports publish their own lists and those pages are linked from the pins above; when a counter changes, their page knows and this one does not. The exception is the peer-to-peer platform, which is named because it is a fact of the province’s market that CBC reported, not a recommendation.
Where to go, and how to get there
Gander International Airport (YQX)
The airport's own parking and transport page lists the rental counters on site, and it is the page to read rather than this one, because counters change and this page does not know when. The same page states that a limited number of accessible vehicles with hand controls are available and asks for arrangements at least 48 hours ahead with the rental agency.
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Deer Lake Regional Airport (YDF)
Deer Lake keeps a dedicated rental-cars page listing the agencies at the terminal, each with its own contact details, and a separate ground-transportation page for taxis, shuttles and charters. Read both; the split is the airport's, and the ground page is where the alternatives to a rental live.
This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
Before you go
These change. We link the people who keep them current rather than copying numbers that go stale here.
Summer supplyPeak months, worst at St. John's
This is a reported shortage, not a feeling. In April 2024 CBC reported that rental companies shrank their fleets in the pandemic and could not replenish them, and that a Trinity Bay inn was already taking cancellations from guests who could not find a car. In June 2026 BNN Bloomberg quoted a rental-industry analyst saying vehicles at St. John's for May, June and July had sold out months earlier, and the provincial tourism department called access to car rentals an important issue. Neither report measures Gander or Deer Lake; nothing we have read does. Book the car before the flight and treat the two doors as small fleets.
Check it now →Peer-to-peer carsSince the 2022 season
Turo is the car-sharing platform CBC reported launching in the province ahead of Come Home Year 2022. Per that report, the platform's insurer covers the car during delivery and the reservation under a commercial policy, so the owner's personal policy does not respond then; Turo takes a commission that funds it; and the insurer warned that infractions during a rental can still affect the owner's own policy. Cars are private and there is no counter, so pickup is whatever the host arranges. Whether any car is listed near either door on a given day is something only the platform can show you.
Check it now →Gravel and your agreementEvery drive, every season
Hertz Canada's rental terms, section 5(d), list 'use off paved roads or on roads which are not regularly maintained' among the reckless conduct that costs you the damage waiver and the liability protection in the agreement. It is the one set of Canadian rental terms we could read in full; it is quoted here, not recommended. Read the agreement you sign before leaving the lot. Every route page on this site now carries a block headed 'Paved or not, per the map': the share of the drive OpenStreetMap tags as paved, any stretch tagged unpaved with its distance from the destination, and the share the map does not describe either way. A road with no tag is unknown, not paved.
Check it now →Motorhomes and campersTypically the summer season
At least one provincial operator publishes a meet-at-arrivals handover at St. John's, Gander and Deer Lake, with a walk-through of the vehicle at a designated area near the airport, and the peer-to-peer RV platforms list private campervans and trailers around Deer Lake and Gander. The province's tourism directory carries the operators; season, fees and what roads a motorhome may use are theirs to state.
Check it now →Snowmobiles and side-by-sidesSleds in winter, machines the rest of the year
Several west-coast operators rent and guide snowmobiles and side-by-sides out of the Deer Lake and Corner Brook side; the province's directory lists them under snowmobiling. This site names none of them. The snowmobiling guide covers where the measured railbed routes run and what the season looks like.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
The map says what a road is made of; 511 says what it is like today. Check it before leaving the airport, whatever you are driving.
Check it now →
Questions people actually ask
Do I need a car at all?＋
For every destination on this site, yes. The daily coach across the island calls at Gander airport and at Deer Lake town, and reaches no island, ferry terminal or park; the landing guide has the detail.
Is Turo any good here?＋
It is real and it is small. CBC reported the launch in 2022 and how the insurance works; what it cannot tell you is how many cars are near Gander or Deer Lake on your dates, and neither can we. Treat it as the thing you check when the counters are sold out, and read the host's listing for its own rules before assuming anything about gravel.
Which drives on this site touch gravel?＋
Each route page answers for itself, from the map: a block headed 'Paved or not, per the map' shows what OpenStreetMap tags as paved, what it tags as unpaved and where, and what it does not describe. Trailhead approach roads are where gravel actually lives, and those are not yet measured; the trail pages say how far the trailhead is from the door, not what the last road is made of.
Can I take a rental on the ferries?＋
Ask the counter, and read the agreement you sign. Hertz Canada's published terms say nothing about ferries either way, and we have not read a Newfoundland-specific clause from any counter, so this page will not tell you it is fine. The ferry pages link the province's schedules; the car's rules are the company's.
Can I pick up at one door and drop at the other?＋
One-way rentals exist as a category at the counters, and the fee is the company's to state. With Gander and Deer Lake nearly four hours apart by the measured drive, the honest plan is to fly into the door nearest the first thing you want to see and out of the door nearest the last, and to price the one-way before booking flights, not after.
Every figure on this page was checked against its source on September 6, 2026.