Deer Lake Regional Airport (YDF) → Grand Falls-Windsor
Deer Lake Airport (YDF) to Grand Falls-Windsor
- Drive time
- 2h 45m
- Distance
- 212.8 km
- Routes
- 1
Conservative model estimate, Deer Lake Regional Airport (YDF) to Grand Falls-Windsor — 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, Deer Lake Regional Airport (YDF) to Grand Falls-Windsor, checked 2026-09-05.
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 terminal side — parking, arrivals, ground transport — is the airport's own information: Deer Lake Regional Airport →
Grand Falls-Windsor sits close to the middle of the island, and getting there from Deer Lake means the drive above in full: one road, the Trans-Canada, the whole way — through Sandy Lake and Badger before the highway drops into the Exploits Valley. There are no turns to think about, only distance.
For most people whose actual destination is Grand Falls-Windsor, Gander is the far shorter way in — see the FAQ below. Deer Lake makes sense for this drive when it is one stop on a longer trip that already starts on the west coast, or when a Deer Lake arrival is booked for other reasons and the two museums here are worth the crossing on their own.
Faded on the map: the other measured drives from Deer Lake Regional into this same region, each its own page — Botwood (3h 9m). Where a faded line leaves the solid one is where that drive forks from this one.
Worth stopping for
Loggers' Life Provincial MuseumDetour
A reconstructed 1920s logging camp on the edge of Grand Falls-Windsor, mapped right beside the driven line. Central Newfoundland's mills ran on cut wood for a century, and this museum is where that work is kept and explained.
Stopping here adds about 8 min and 3.6 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeMary March Provincial Museum
In the centre of town, close enough to the highway to barely count as a detour, this museum tells the story of the Beothuk and of the Exploits Valley's more recent settlement. Between this and the logging museum above, Grand Falls-Windsor covers two very different pieces of the region's history.
Stopping here adds about 2 min and 1.4 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeCorduroy Brook Nature Reserve
A network of walking trails and boardwalks along Corduroy Brook, mapped inside Grand Falls-Windsor itself. After a long day of driving it is the easiest place on this route to get out of the car and walk before checking in somewhere.
Stopping here adds about 2 min and 1.3 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
What has been recorded near here
Species reported within 50 km of Grand Falls-Windsor and shared to GBIF, the international record of species occurrences. The useful column is when — the months the reports cluster in.
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in June, July, October8 reports on record
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in July5 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in July1 reports on record
- Northern gannetseabirdMorus bassanusReports cluster in May1 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 Grand Falls-Windsor
- Where to eat in Grand Falls-Windsor → — 48 places the open map records, alphabetically, with addresses and phone numbers.
- Curling Rink, Grand Falls-Windsor → · Joe Byrne Memorial Stadium → — the venues here, with what you can reach and be back from between games.
Doing it electric
- Fast chargers on this drive
- Deer Lake km 3, South Brook km 130
- Longest stretch without one
- 127 km
- Deer Lake → South Brook, of 212 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to Grand Falls-Windsor
- 14.2 km
- 15 min by road, at Bishop’s Falls
NL Hydro lists an ultra-fast site coming in 2026 at Deer Lake (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
- none
- Mapped as paved
- 18%
- 38.7 km of 212.8 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 82%
- 170.7 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 2026-09-06. 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
20 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 127.3 km — after Tim Horton, until Eddies Restaurant. That is the figure worth planning around.
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 2.5 · 1696 m off the road
- Big Stop Restaurantrestaurantkm 2.5 · 1465 m off the road
- Tim Hortonfast foodkm 2.5 · 1693 m off the road
- Eddies Restaurantrestaurantkm 129.8
- Red Hawk Dinerrestaurantkm 180.6
- Badger Diner & Motelrestaurantkm 180.8
- McDonald'sfast foodkm 208.9 · 965 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 208.9 · 1012 m off the road
- KFCfast foodkm 208.9 · 1715 m off the road
- Burger Kingfast foodkm 208.9 · 1071 m off the road
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 208.9 · 1098 m off the road
- Greco Pizzafast foodkm 208.9 · 1657 m off the road
- Subwayfast foodkm 208.9 · 979 m off the road
- Tai Sun Restaurantrestaurantkm 208.9 · 892 m off the road
- Donnini's Pizza & Donairrestaurantkm 208.9 · 905 m off the road
- Sarah's Dinerrestaurantkm 208.9 · 1762 m off the road
- A&Wfast foodkm 208.9 · 1456 m off the road
- Dairy Queenfast foodkm 208.9 · 814 m off the road
- Wing'n Itrestaurantkm 211.4 · 1371 m off the road
- War Wick'srestaurantkm 211.4 · 1364 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.
MooseYear round, worst between dusk and dawn
The province states the likelihood of injury in a moose collision is about twice as high between dusk and dawn as in daytime. Most of this drive is unlit two-lane Trans-Canada across the interior, so if you land late at Deer Lake, consider breaking the trip rather than pushing through to Grand Falls-Windsor after dark.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
The Trans-Canada across the interior carries long unserviced stretches and gets real winter weather well after the coasts have cleared. Check conditions before leaving the airport.
Check it now →
Arriving without a car
Every distance and time on this page is a drive. If you are not renting, here is what Deer Lake Regional Airport lists at this door — operators and numbers, not fares: a tariff is theirs to change, so it is linked and not copied.
No rideshare here.
No rideshare service is named anywhere on the airport's ground-transportation page, which instead lists three taxi firms, a shuttle and seven charter operators. Read off the page on 2026-09-15.
Taxi
Star Taxi, which the airport calls its primary ground transportation provider, serving the whole region with wheelchair-accessible vans and accommodating service dogs. The airport advises contacting them 24 to 48 hours before you arrive, which is the single most useful sentence on that page.
Taxi
Deer Lake Taxi, listed as operating around the clock across the province with no pre-booking required.
Shuttle
Star Taxi runs a shuttle between Corner Brook and the airport, serving named hotels, with a private-car option. It must be booked ahead. The per-person and private fares are the airport's to publish.
Deer Lake Regional Airport, read 2026-09-15 — the authority on what operates at this kerb, and the only place a current fare or timetable should come from.
Questions people actually ask
How far is Grand Falls-Windsor from Deer Lake airport?＋
212.8 km, which works out to about 2 hours 45 minutes, entirely on the Trans-Canada (Route 1) heading east across the island's interior.
Should I fly into Deer Lake or Gander for Grand Falls-Windsor?＋
Gander, by a wide margin — about 1 hour 17 minutes and 98.3 km, against 2 hours 45 minutes and 212.8 km from Deer Lake. Fly into Deer Lake for this town only if it is one stop on a longer trip that starts on the west coast.
Is it a hard drive?＋
No — it is paved the whole way on the province's main highway, so it is well maintained and well travelled. It is simply long, crossing the entire interior of the island. The main thing to plan around is arriving after dark: see the moose note above.
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/ydf-grand-falls-windsor"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: Deer Lake Regional Airport (YDF) to Grand Falls-Windsor"></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 5, 2026. Origin: OpenStreetMap way/180061286. Destination: OpenStreetMap relation/2857218 — Grand Falls-Windsor.