Whitbourne → Whitbourne
Baccalieu Coastal Drive
- Drive time
- 3h 53m
- Distance
- 238.5 km
Conservative model estimate, Whitbourne to Whitbourne — no stops, dry roads. Many of Newfoundland's provincial routes carry no speed limit in the open map data, so the router assumes a slow default: a driver who knows the road will beat this. Source: OSRM driving profile, Whitbourne round by Brigus, Harbour Grace, Old Perlican and Heart's Content and back, checked 2026-09-09.
Drive it with your own nav:Organic Maps →OsmAnd →Apple →Google →Waze →The first two run on OpenStreetMap and don't track you — the same map this site is built from.
Or take the whole route with you: Download the GPX → — the measured drive plus every stop as a waypoint, for Organic Maps, OsmAnd or any Garmin, no account and no signal needed once it's on the device.
No one has sent a recording of this drive yet.Be the first — send the track →
The province names this drive and gives it a start, which is what lets a loop have a page: Whitbourne, where Routes 80 and 75 leave the Trans-Canada. From there it traces the long finger of the Avalon between Trinity Bay and Conception Bay — up one side, around the top at Old Perlican, and back down the other.
Two of the stops are the reason people make it. A cottage at Brigus where an Arctic captain came home between twenty expeditions, and an office at Heart’s Content where the Atlantic first got shorter. Both keep summer seasons that belong to their operators; the 238.5 km between them is ours to measure, and it is measured.
Worth stopping for
Hawthorne Cottage National Historic Site
The 1830 cottage at Brigus that was Captain Robert Abram Bartlett's home from 1885 to 1946 — the Arctic navigator who commanded more than twenty expeditions and came back to Brigus after each one before going on to New York. Parks Canada acquired it in 1987 and opened it to the public in 1995; it keeps a season rather than year-round hours, and those dates are the operator’s to publish, not this page’s.
Stopping here adds about 0 min and 0 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeHeart's Content Cable Station
This is why the town is on the map: in 1866 the first successful permanent transatlantic telegraph cable was landed at Heart’s Content, reducing the time to communicate across the Atlantic from weeks to minutes. The provincial historic site is an 1875 office building with a 1918 extension. It keeps a season rather than year-round hours, so the site’s own page is where the current dates live.
Stopping here adds about 0 min and 0 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
What has been recorded near here
Species reported within 50 km of Whitbourne and shared to GBIF, the international record of species occurrences. The useful column is when — the months the reports cluster in.
- Northern gannetseabirdMorus bassanusReports cluster in May, August, June760 reports on record
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in July, June, August713 reports on record
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in July, August, June233 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in June, May, July196 reports on record
- Fin whalewhaleBalaenoptera physalusReports cluster in September, June, July9 reports on record
What this is not
- Not how many there are. A report means somebody looked, saw and wrote it down. A busy harbour with tour boats reports more than an empty coast with the same animals in it.
- Not a sighting you are promised. Nothing here says you will see one.
- Not complete. Only species we ask GBIF about appear, and only where somebody reported them.
From GBIF, queried 2026-09-14 — their record, not a copy of it.
When you get to Whitbourne
- Where to eat in Whitbourne → — 9 places the open map records, alphabetically, with addresses and phone numbers.
Doing it electric
- Fast chargers on this drive
- Whitbourne km 0, Carbonear km 72
- Longest stretch without one
- 166 km
- Carbonear → Whitbourne, of 238 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to Whitbourne
- at Whitbourne
NL Hydro lists an ultra-fast site coming in 2026 at Whitbourne (km 4) — not counted above until it opens.
Source: NL Hydro's published fast-charging network map, exported 2026-09-13 — sites within 3 km of this route's measured line, the km read along it, the drive to the nearest site priced by OSRM. NL Hydro lists these as 62.5 kW DC with CCS and CHAdeMO plugs on a ChargePoint account; whether one is free or working right now is the app's to say. Level 2 chargers in towns are not counted.
Paved or not, per the map
- Mapped as unpaved
- 6.7 km
- Hodgewater Line (4.97 km, 13.7 km from Whitbourne); Doctors Lane (0.05 km, 38.8 km from Whitbourne); Forest Pond Road (1.17 km, 44.7 km from Whitbourne)
- Mapped as paved
- 16%
- 30.6 km of 238.5 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 80%
- 152.5 km the map does not describe either way
Why it matters: Hertz Canada’s published rental terms — the one set of Canadian rental terms we could read in full, quoted not recommended — list “use off paved roads or on roads which are not regularly maintained” as misconduct that voids the damage waiver. Read the agreement you sign before leaving the lot. The terms themselves. Source for these figures: OSRM driving profile, stored route query, with node annotations; OpenStreetMap surface tags via Overpass, checked 2026-09-09. A road with no tag is unknown, not paved; what any road is like today is on 511.
Eating on the way — measured, not recommended
44 places to eat that the open map data records within 2 km of this drive, in the order you would pass them. No stars, no prices, no opinions, and no opening hours — distance along the road is the one thing measured here that a directory cannot give you.
The longest stretch with nothing mapped on it is 54 km — after Darkstar Coffee Roasters, until Robin's Donuts. That is the figure worth planning around.
- Tim Hortonscafékm 4.1 · 962 m off the road
- Subwayfast foodkm 4.1 · 1003 m off the road
- A&Wfast foodkm 4.1 · 1072 m off the road
- Mary Brown'srestaurantkm 4.2 · 464 m off the road
- E&E Drive-Infast foodkm 33.2
- Skipper Ben's Dining Roomrestaurantkm 35.3 · 1720 m off the road
- The Convent B&Brestaurantkm 35.6
- The Convent Cafe and Barcafékm 35.6
- Vindicator Press Incorporatedcafékm 35.6
- North Street Cafecafékm 35.9
- Born and Bread Bakery and Caferestaurantkm 35.9
- The Quayrestaurantkm 36
- Silver Wood Innrestaurantkm 45.8
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 46.5 · 492 m off the road
- Greco Pizzafast foodkm 46.5 · 415 m off the road
- Country Delightrestaurantkm 46.5 · 440 m off the road
- McDonald'sfast foodkm 46.5 · 1487 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 46.5 · 1137 m off the road
- Jungle Jim's Eateryrestaurantkm 46.5 · 1653 m off the road
- A&Wfast foodkm 46.5 · 1394 m off the road
- KFCfast foodkm 46.5 · 1424 m off the road
- Greco Pizza / Sergio's Ice Creamfast foodkm 46.5 · 416 m off the road
- Country Delightrestaurantkm 46.5 · 440 m off the road
- Don's Restaurantrestaurantkm 71.5
- Dairy Queenfast foodkm 71.6
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 71.7 · 181 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 71.8
- Peters Pizzafast foodkm 72
- KFCfast foodkm 72
- Ches's Fish & Chipsfast foodkm 72.1
- Crooked Phil'scafékm 72.1
- McDonald'sfast foodkm 72.2
- Subwayfast foodkm 72.2
- The Stone Jugrestaurantkm 74.5 · 753 m off the road
- Cold Waterrestaurantkm 74.5 · 790 m off the road
- Studio Coffeecafékm 74.9 · 869 m off the road
- Darkstar Coffee Roasterscafékm 74.9 · 915 m off the road
- Robin's Donutsfast foodkm 128.9
- Jungle Jim'srestaurantkm 128.9
- I Sea Whalescafékm 167.7
- Dildo Brewing Company and Museumpubkm 218.2 · 522 m off the road
- Kountry Kravins & Kraftscafékm 218.2 · 485 m off the road
- The Barn Cafecafékm 223
- Blue Whale Lounge & Eateryrestaurantkm 224.3
What this list is not
- Not a recommendation. Nothing here is endorsed, reviewed or rated. It is in the order you drive past it.
- Not complete. Somewhere unmapped does not appear. This is never "all of them".
- Not open hours. We publish none, because the open data holds none. Never assume a kitchen is serving.
- Not necessarily still trading. A place that closed stays in the data until somebody removes it.
- Not for sale. No one can pay to appear here, to rank higher, or to have a rival removed.
Open map data is incomplete — somewhere unmapped does not appear here, and this is never "all of them" or "the good ones". A place that closed is also still on the map until somebody removes it, which is why no hours are shown and nothing here says a kitchen is open. From OpenStreetMap and Overture Maps (which includes data from Meta, Foursquare and AllThePlaces); swept 2026-09-12. Map the one that is missing → and every site built on the open map gains it, this one included.
Before you go
These change. We link the people who keep them current rather than copying numbers that go stale here.
The historic sitesBoth keep summer seasons — the operators set the dates
Hawthorne Cottage is Parks Canada; the Heart’s Content Cable Station is a provincial historic site. Two different operators, two different calendars, and neither of them is this page’s to state. Check both before building a day around them — a circuit that passes two closed buildings is still a good drive, but it is not the day you planned.
Check it now →MooseYear round, worst between dusk and dawn
The province states the likelihood of injury in a moose collision is twice as high between dusk and dawn as in daytime. Nearly four hours of driving before you stop for anything means most people finish this circuit in the evening, on roads that run between communities rather than through them.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
The peninsula is a long finger with the sea on both sides and one road up each. A closure does not have a detour; it has a turn-around.
Check it now →
Questions people actually ask
How long is the Baccalieu Coastal Drive?＋
Measured here as a circuit from Whitbourne through Brigus, Harbour Grace, Old Perlican and Heart’s Content and back: 238.5 km and about 3 hours 53 minutes of driving. Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism, which names the drive and gives Whitbourne as its start, publishes about 310 km — a longer circuit taking in more of the peninsula than the line measured here. Ours is the drive we measured; theirs is the drive they define.
Is this the Brigus loop?＋
It is the drive Brigus is on, and the province does not name a Brigus loop separately. Brigus sits on this circuit about forty minutes from the start, and Hawthorne Cottage is on the driven line. The other Conception Bay drive the province names, the Admiral’s Coast, is Route 60 only and does not reach Brigus.
Which airport is this drive near?＋
St. John’s is the nearest door by a wide margin, and this site measures it as a comparison rather than offering routes from it — the Avalon route pages are not published. What this page gives you is the circuit itself, which is the same drive whichever door you arrived through.
Put this map on your site
If you run a place to stay, a tour, or a town page along this drive, this map answers the question your guests already email you: how far are you from the airport? Free, no account, and the measured figures stay current because they are ours to maintain.
<iframe src="https://fromtheairport.xyz/embed/baccalieu-coastal-drive"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: Whitbourne to Whitbourne"></iframe>?lat=&lon=&label= to the URL to pin your own property on the map.Every distance, drive time and coordinate on this page was checked against its source on September 9, 2026. Origin: OpenStreetMap node/10538282182. Destination: OpenStreetMap node/10538282182.