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from the airport.

Arrival door · by sea

Driving from Port aux Basques ferry terminal

You come off the boat with your own car, so the drive starts the moment the ramp goes down. (Yes, the site is called From the Airport. The boat counts.) Of the 69 places on this site, 2 are nearer Port aux Basques than any airport or other ferry. The table below says where the rest are nearer from.

Heading to Cape St. Mary's? The Argentia ferry lands 852 km closer. See Argentia → or compare them all

On foot off the boat? DRL Coachlines' one daily coach to St. John's leaves from the Marine Atlantic terminal, calling at Corner Brook, Deer Lake, Grand Falls-Windsor, Gander Airport and Clarenville on the way. Tickets on the bus, cash only. It reaches no island and no national park. DRL's times and fares → Every other time on this page is a drive.

Wind before you leave the terminal. The first stretch of the Trans-Canada north of the terminal, between Port aux Basques and the Codroy Valley, is Wreckhouse.

  • “Environment Canada includes a separate 'Wreckhouse wind warning' in its forecasts.”
  • “When wind gusts in the Wreckhouse exceed 80 km/h, the message board reads: "High Wind Advisory, Wind Gusts Exceeding 80 km/h, Trucks Advised to Pull Over."”

Check Environment Canada's forecast for Port aux Basques and 511nl.ca before you drive off. Quoted from CBC News, 2 April 2024.

When to come? Best months for icebergs, whales, puffins and warm weather →

Getting here is the long part

The crossing
7 hours
North Sydney, Nova Scotia, 178 km of water
When it runs
Year-round, daily service
The other door
Argentia is 16.5 hours — Mid-June to late September, up to three times per week

The shorter crossing of the two, and the only one that runs through the winter — which is most of why the island's road freight comes this way.

Argentia · 16.5 h →Deer Lake272 km by roadNorth SydneyPort aux Basques · 7 h
North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques: Marine Atlantic gives it as about 7 hours over 178 km of water, year-round, daily service. Off the ramp you are on the Trans-Canada (Route 1), the green line, which runs the length of the island. Deer Lake is 272 km by road from the terminal, measured door to door. The grey line is the other crossing, to Argentia (about 16.5 hours, mid-june to late september, up to three times per week). Ferry lines and roads are as OpenStreetMap maps them (way/119443515; relation/1732843); the hours and the season are the operator's own figures, not ours.

Marine Atlantic's own published route figures, read 2026-10-02. No departure time or fare is copied here — those are theirs and they change. Their route page →

Sailings, fares and the season are Marine Atlantic's to state and change. Marine Atlantic →

Plan the whole trip from the ramp

The planner treats Port aux Basques like any airport: arrive here, leave from any other door, with your days laid out on the road between.

Measured drives from this door

9 of them. Every other place this door reaches is in the tables below, with the figure, whether or not it has a page of its own yet.

What Port aux Basques is closest to

Measured door to door, the same way as every drive on this site, on 2026-10-10.

And where another door is closer

Places another door is closer to. The right-hand column is the distance that matters.

Eating before you drive: 13 places the open map records in Port aux Basques →

Compare every destination from every airport and ferry · every measured drive

Port aux Basques is a way in, not a base. The crossing is the short one: seven hours, year-round, every day, against sixteen and a half for Argentia, three months of the year. After it comes a long drive. Corner Brook is 222 km up the Trans-Canada, and most places are nearer another door.

Going with someone?

Hear when iceberg season looks worth the trip

One or two emails a year: where icebergs are showing up, and which drive gets you there.

Pressing Email me signs you up for iceberg-season email only, never shared. Unsubscribe any time. From From the Airport, 582 St. Clair Ave W, Suite 326, Toronto, ON M6C 1A6, [email protected]. More about it.