Clarenville → Clarenville
Discovery Trail
- Drive time
- 4h 29m
- Distance
- 252.2 km
Conservative model estimate, Clarenville to Clarenville — 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, Clarenville round by Trinity, Cape Bonavista and Elliston 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 two starts; this circuit takes Clarenville, because that is the one already measured from a terminal door on this site. From there Route 230 runs the length of the Bonavista peninsula, out through Trinity, to the cape where the road ends at a lighthouse, and back by Elliston.
252 km measured against the province’s 425, and the gap is the point rather than a discrepancy: theirs takes in the side roads, ours is the spine. Four and a half hours of driving on a peninsula whose whole appeal is stopping, which is a way of saying this is not a day trip.
Worth stopping for
Cape Bonavista Lighthouse
The turning point of the circuit: the road up the peninsula ends here, at the cape, at a lighthouse. It is a provincial historic site with a season of its own, so whether the building is open is the operator's to say — but the cape, the road to it and the view off the end are there whatever the date.
Stopping here adds about 0 min and 0 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeJohn C. Crosbie Sealers Interpretation Centre
Opened at Elliston in June 2014, a hundred years after the disaster it exists for. On 30 March 1914 sealers from the SS Newfoundland were left on the ice in a blizzard, and the SS Southern Cross went down the same day returning from the front; more than 250 men were lost between them. Elliston lost a greater share of its men than any other community, which is why the centre is here rather than somewhere larger. Its hours are the town’s to publish, not this page’s.
Stopping here adds about 0 min and 0 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeThe root cellars at Elliston
A root cellar keeps vegetables from freezing in winter and cool in summer, and was ordinary domestic infrastructure before electricity. Elliston has enough of them still standing to be known for it — the town points visitors at an upstairs/downstairs pair built in 1915. They are on the roadside, they cost nothing, and they are the reason the town is on anybody’s map.
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 Clarenville and shared to GBIF, the international record of species occurrences. The useful column is when — the months the reports cluster in.
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in July, June, August788 reports on record
- Northern gannetseabirdMorus bassanusReports cluster in August, June, July403 reports on record
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in July, August, June325 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in June, May, July154 reports on record
- Fin whalewhaleBalaenoptera physalusReports cluster in July, September, May15 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 Clarenville
- Where to eat in Clarenville → — 38 places the open map records, alphabetically, with addresses and phone numbers.
- Clarenville Events Centre → — the venue here, with what you can reach and be back from between games.
Doing it electric
- Fast chargers on this drive
- Port Rexton km 79, Bonavista km 120
- Longest stretch without one
- 132 km
- Bonavista → Clarenville, of 252 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to Clarenville
- 29.3 km
- 23 min by road, at Goobies
NL Hydro lists an ultra-fast site coming in 2026 at Clarenville (km 0) — 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
- 0.6 km
- Old Point Road (0.3 km, 85.8 km from Clarenville); an residential road (0.06 km, 85.9 km from Clarenville); Point Road (0.1 km, 85.9 km from Clarenville)
- Mapped as paved
- 82%
- 97.8 km of 252.2 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 17%
- 20.4 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
41 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 109.8 km — after Puffin Café, until Tim Hortons. That is the figure worth planning around.
- A&Wfast foodkm 0.8 · 1611 m off the road
- A&Wfast foodkm 0.8 · 1611 m off the road
- Robin's Donutsfast foodkm 1.9 · 1136 m off the road
- The Curtain Call Cafecafékm 7.3
- Robin's Donutsfast foodkm 23.8 · 152 m off the road
- Dunrovinrestaurantkm 25.1 · 173 m off the road
- Twine Loft Diningrestaurantkm 69.3
- The Vintage Grindcafékm 69.4
- Dock Marina restaurantrestaurantkm 70.1
- The Galleyrestaurantkm 77.5
- Port Rexton Brewerypubkm 78.7 · 714 m off the road
- Oh my Cheesesfast foodkm 78.7 · 726 m off the road
- 2 Whales cafecafékm 79.2
- Robin's Donutsfast foodkm 120.1
- Neil's Yardcafékm 121.7 · 1196 m off the road
- Mifflin's Tea Roomcafékm 121.7 · 515 m off the road
- PK's Restaurant and Take-Outrestaurantkm 121.7 · 686 m off the road
- Bonavista Bicycle Picnics and Cafecafékm 121.7 · 1142 m off the road
- The Quintal Cafécafékm 121.7 · 561 m off the road
- Ragged Rocks Gastropubpubkm 121.7 · 619 m off the road
- The Boreal Dinerrestaurantkm 121.7 · 547 m off the road
- Walkham's Gate Pub & Cafepubkm 121.7 · 618 m off the road
- Mifflin's Tea Roomcafékm 121.7 · 516 m off the road
- Bonavista Brewing Taproompubkm 121.7 · 516 m off the road
- Marsh's Snack Barrestaurantkm 121.7 · 439 m off the road
- Oceanview Restaurantrestaurantkm 124
- Restaurant glace take outrestaurantkm 126.2
- Nanny's Root Cellar Kitchenrestaurantkm 139.6
- Sea Breeze Takeoutfast foodkm 140.8 · 605 m off the road
- Puffin Cafécafékm 141.4
- Tim Hortonscafékm 251.2 · 1446 m off the road
- KFCfast foodkm 251.2 · 1262 m off the road
- McDonald'sfast foodkm 251.2 · 1496 m off the road
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 251.2 · 1376 m off the road
- Pizza Delightrestaurantkm 251.2 · 844 m off the road
- Rod's Restaurantrestaurantkm 251.2 · 1648 m off the road
- Brownings Pubpubkm 251.2 · 902 m off the road
- Jungle Jim'srestaurantkm 251.2 · 1546 m off the road
- Flannigans Pubpubkm 251.2 · 880 m off the road
- Jungle Jim'srestaurantkm 251.2 · 1547 m off the road
- Don Cherry's Sports Bar & Grillrestaurantkm 251.2 · 1916 m off the road
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.
Cape Bonavista LighthouseA provincial historic site with a summer season — dates are the operator’s
The lighthouse at the cape is the turning point of this circuit and a provincial historic site. Whether it is open, and what it costs, live on the operator’s page. The cape itself and the road to it are there year round; the building is not.
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. Four and a half hours of driving before any stops means the return leg down Route 230 is an evening drive for most people who do this properly.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
The Bonavista peninsula is a long headland with weather off the Atlantic on three sides, and Route 230 is the only way on and off it. Check before you commit.
Check it now →
Questions people actually ask
How long is the Discovery Trail?＋
Measured here as a circuit from Clarenville through Trinity, Cape Bonavista and Elliston and back: 252.2 km and about 4 hours 29 minutes of driving. Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism, which names the drive and gives Port Blandford or Clarenville as its start, publishes about 425 km — a considerably longer circuit that takes in far more of the peninsula’s side roads than the line measured here. Ours is the spine; theirs is the spine plus the branches.
Can it be done in a day from Gander?＋
Gander to Clarenville is about 1 hour 57 minutes, so the circuit plus the drive out and back is over eight hours of driving before you stop anywhere. As a day it is a lot; as a day with Trinity, the cape and Elliston in it, it is too much. Most people stay on the peninsula.
What is at the far end?＋
Cape Bonavista, where the road runs out at a lighthouse, and Elliston a few minutes south of it — the root cellars, and the sealers’ memorial centre for the 1914 disaster that cost the town a greater share of its men than any other community. Both are on this page as stops, with their sources.
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/discovery-trail"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: Clarenville to Clarenville"></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/1455969499 — Clarenville. Destination: OpenStreetMap node/1455969499 — Clarenville.