Argentia ferry terminal → Harbour Grace
Argentia ferry terminal to Harbour Grace
- Distance
- 96.2 km
- Drive time
- In your maps app ↗
Use another map app
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You arrive by ferry — North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Argentia
Marine Atlantic gives this crossing as about 16.5 hours over 518 km of water, mid-June to late September, up to three times a week — against seven hours year-round and daily into Port aux Basques. People choose it for where it lands them. Check Marine Atlantic for sailings and fares.
Operated by Marine Atlantic. The drive below starts where the boat lands.
Crossings & current schedule →Faded lines are other drives from Argentia ferry terminal into this area: Brigus (78 km), Clarke's Beach (78 km), Heart's Content (107 km), St. John's (133 km). Each splits off where its line leaves this one.
Stop 1: Fitzgerald's Pond Provincial Park
A Provincial Park Reserve, not a provincial park with a campground. ParksNL defines these as pre-1997 parks whose campground was deproclaimed and privatised, with the rest kept to protect natural features, and says park reserves have no visitor services. Water and trees, no washroom. It sits on the route and costs no extra driving.
Directions →Show on map: Fitzgerald's Pond Provincial Park ↑Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · WazeStop 2: Danny Cleary LookoutDetour
A viewpoint OpenStreetMap records on the way into town, named for a Harbour Grace man. No source describes what it looks out at. It is listed because it is on the approach.
Stopping here adds 2.6 km to the drive.
Directions →Show on map: Danny Cleary Lookout ↑Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · WazeStop 3: Spirit of Harbour Grace
A 1943 Douglas DC-3 that served in North Africa in the war and later flew freight between Stephenville and Goose Bay until 1988; Air Labrador's owner donated it to the town in 1993 as the Spirit of Harbour Grace, for the town's part in early transatlantic flight (explorenewfoundlandandlabrador.com). The airfield is a separate site in the same town: the province's tourism listing says locals built that strip in 1927, transatlantic flight attempts used it between the wars, and Amelia Earhart left from it on her successful solo crossing in 1932.
Stopping here adds 0.2 km to the drive.
Directions →Show on map: Spirit of Harbour Grace ↑Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · WazeStop 4: SS Kyle
A steel hull sitting in the shallows at Riverhead, aground since February 1967 and never moved. The province's tourism listing calls her the fastest of the Reid Newfoundland Company's Alphabet Fleet and the first regularly scheduled ferry between the island and coastal Labrador; she was launched in 1913. OpenStreetMap records the hull as showing at both high and low tide, so any time of day works.
Stopping here adds 1.2 km to the drive.
Directions →Show on map: SS Kyle ↑Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · WazeStop 5: Gordon G. Pike Railway Heritage Museum
The 1884 Harbour Grace railway station, kept as a museum. The province's tourism listing calls it the oldest railway station built outside St. John's and the oldest still standing anywhere in the province, restored in its original colours, and the terminus of the first railway line built in Newfoundland. Check the museum for opening times.
Stopping here adds 0.9 km to the drive.
Directions →Show on map: Gordon G. Pike Railway Heritage Museum ↑Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze
Scan with your phone to open this page there. Then tap Keep for offline before you lose signal.
Drive measured Oct 2, 2026, ferry terminal to the town. Your maps app gives the time on the day. How we measure
Add to a trip →Staying here? Days out ↓Keep for offline ↓Download GPX (offline, Garmin)Ferry info: Marine Atlantic →
96.2 km. Argentia ferry terminal to Harbour Grace: the Trans-Canada across the isthmus, then Routes 71, 75 and 70 up Conception Bay.
Boat beats plane. It is twelve kilometres shorter than the drive from the island’s busiest airport.
Why people come. Three things close together: an aircraft mounted by the harbour, the SS Kyle aground at Riverhead since 1967, and the 1884 railway station, which the province’s tourism listing calls the oldest still standing in the province.
When you get to Harbour Grace
- Staying in Harbour Grace? → — the start page: short drives from town, food, and a planner that starts here.
- Where to eat near Harbour Grace → — 34 places the open map records, alphabetically, with addresses and phone numbers.
- Danny Cleary Harbour Grace Community Centre → · S. W. Moores Memorial Stadium → — the venues here, with what you can reach and be back from between games.
New place to eat, or one that's missing? This list comes from OpenStreetMap, so nobody can pay to be on it. Add it to the map yourself (about twenty minutes on a phone), or email us the details and we'll put it on the map.
What has been recorded near here
Wildlife people have reported within 10 km of Harbour Grace, and the months they saw it. Tap a name for everywhere else on our drives it turns up.
- Northern gannetseabirdMorus bassanusReports cluster in May, August, July42 reports on record
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in June, July27 reports on record
Reports, not counts: busy harbours report more. No sighting is promised, and the list covers only the species we look up. Source: GBIF, the international record of wildlife sightings, checked 2026-10-07.
Short drives from Harbour Grace
Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · WazeOr any of these: nearest first, measured by road from Harbour Grace.
- Railway Station Museumstop6.6 km
Carbonear's station was built in 1917-18 by the Reid Newfoundland Company, replacing an earlier station destroyed by fire, and stayed the northern terminus of the Brigus Junction to Carbonear branch line until passenger trains ceased in 1984.
Directions →Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Heart's Contenttown27 kmDirections →
Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Heart's Content Cable Stationstop28 km
In 1866 the first successful permanent transatlantic telegraph cable was landed at Heart's Content, cutting the time to communicate across the Atlantic from weeks to minutes.
Directions →Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Heart's Content Lighthouselighthouse30 kmDirections →
Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Salmonier Nature Parkstop63 km
Run by the province's wildlife division, further along the Salmonier Line.
Directions →Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Butter Pot Provincial Parkstop70 km
The drive runs along this park's boundary, but the park reaches well inland.
Directions →Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Father Duffy's Well Provincial Parkstop71 km
A roadside spring right on the route, named for Father James Duffy, appointed first parish priest of St. Mary's in 1834, who spent the years after walking back and forth to the courthouse in St. John's over a dispute with the local merchant's agent.
Directions →Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Manuel's River Interpretation Centerstop81 km
The interpretation centre stands beside the river valley in Conception Bay South.
Directions →Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze
More, up to 89 km (4)
- Bay Bulls harbourstop86 km
On screen: where Wade and Jerry head out at night from the marine base to harvest an iceberg.
Directions →Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Mickeleens Pathtrail · 7.2 km point to point, one way · moderate87 kmDirections →
Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Witless Baytown87 kmDirections →
Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze - Spout Pathtrail · 16.2 km point to point, one way · strenuous89 kmDirections →
Other map apps
Apple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze
Distances by road, measured on OpenStreetMap October 16, 2026, from where this route ends. Your maps app gives the time on the day. How we measure
Doing it electric
- Fast chargers on this drive
- none
- Longest stretch without one
- 96 km
- the ARG door → Harbour Grace, of 96 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to Harbour Grace
- 5.1 km
- by road, at Carbonear
No fast charger at Harbour Grace. From the ARG door it is 96 km there and the same back: plan on about 192 km on one charge, more in cold weather or with the heat on. Or charge at Carbonear, 5.1 km from Harbour Grace by road, off this drive's own road.
Coming in 2026 (NL Hydro, 2026-10-10): Whitbourne (km 46). Not counted until it opens.
NL Hydro fast chargers within 3 km of the drive. Check the app for one that's working. Exported 2026-10-10. How we measure
Paved or not, per the map
- Mapped as unpaved
- 5 km
- Doctors Lane (0.05 km, 0 km from Harbour Grace); Hodgewater Line (4.97 km, 28.2 km from Harbour Grace)
- Mapped as paved
- 65%
- 58.9 km of 96.2 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 29%
- 26.4 km: surface not recorded
Why it matters: Hertz Canada’s terms say “use off paved roads or on roads which are not regularly maintained” voids the damage waiver. Check your own agreement. The terms themselves. Source for these figures: OSRM driving profile, stored route query, with node annotations; OpenStreetMap surface tags via Overpass, checked 2026-10-02. Today's road conditions: 511.
Before you go
These change, so we link to the people who keep them up to date.
The crossing you arrive onSeasonal — Argentia is not the year-round door
Port aux Basques runs through the winter; Argentia does not. Confirm the sailing before you plan this drive, because the other landing is on the far side of the island.
Check it now →What is open in townMuseums and attractions keep their own seasons
The railway museum and the town's other indoor attractions set their own seasons and hours. Check the province's listings. The wreck and the aircraft are outdoors and always there.
Check it now →MooseYear round, worst between dusk and dawn
The province puts the likelihood of injury in a moose collision at twice as high between dusk and dawn as in daylight. Routes 75 and 70 run unlit along the Conception Bay shore for most of their length.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, most of all November to April
The isthmus catches weather from both bays, and the Trans-Canada across it is the only way on or off the Avalon. Check before you set out, and again before the drive back.
Check it now →
Questions people actually ask
Is this really shorter than driving from St. John's?＋
Yes: 96 km from the Argentia ferry terminal against 108 km from the St. John's airport, both measured the same way on the same day. Argentia lands you west of the city, so you never have to get out of St. John's first.
What is there to see in Harbour Grace?＋
Three things close together, all listed as stops above: an aircraft mounted by the water, the steel hull of the SS Kyle aground at Riverhead since 1967, and the 1884 railway station the province calls the oldest still standing in Newfoundland and Labrador. The town's aviation history belongs to a separate site, the old airfield, not the aircraft on the waterfront.
Can I do this and get back for a sailing?＋
The road allows it easily: about 192 km of driving for the round trip. The sailing decides it. Check Marine Atlantic's schedule.
No recorded track yet.Drove it? Send yours →
Put this map on your site
Run a place to stay, a tour or a town page on this drive? Add this map to your site. It answers how far from the airport? Free, no account, and we keep the figures current.
<iframe src="https://fromtheairport.xyz/embed/arg-harbour-grace"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: Argentia ferry terminal to Harbour Grace"></iframe>?lat=&lon=&label= to the URL to pin your own property on the map.Every distance and coordinate on this page was checked against its source on October 2, 2026. Origin: OpenStreetMap node/605220569 — Argentia. Destination: OpenStreetMap node/475349146 — Harbour Grace.