Gander International Airport (YQX) → Farewell ferry terminal
Gander Airport (YQX) to Change Islands
- Drive time
- 1h 21m
- Distance
- 86.3 km
- Routes
- 330, 331, 335
Free-flow estimate, Gander International Airport (YQX) to Farewell ferry terminal — no stops, dry roads. The ferry after it is not included.Source: OSRM driving profile, terminal door to ferry terminal, checked 2026-08-29.
Then a ferry to Change Islands
Do not assume any Fogo-bound boat will drop you here. The province publishes separate schedules for separate vessels, and some Farewell–Fogo sailings are direct crossings that never call at Change Islands at all. Read the current schedule and identify the sailing that actually stops here before you plan anything around it.
Operated by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Current schedule →This is the Fogo drive as far as the wharf: the same 86 km north out of Gander on Routes 330, 331 and 335, and the same terminal at Farewell. What is not the same is the boat.
The service can run more than one vessel on separate schedules, and some crossings go straight to Fogo without calling here at all. So the drive is the easy part and the sailing is the whole plan — find the one that stops at Change Islands before you do anything else.
Worth stopping for
Jonathan's Pond Provincial ParkDetour
A Provincial Park Reserve on Route 330 north of Gander, a short way off the road. ParksNL classes reserves as former camping parks whose campground was privatised before 1997, with no visitor services — a place to stop, not a place with facilities.
Stopping here adds about 5 min and 1.3 km to the drive.
Before you go
These change. We link the people who keep them current rather than copying numbers that go stale here.
Is the boat actually running today?Check on the day, every time
A schedule says when a sailing is meant to go, never whether it is going. Wind, ice and mechanical trouble cancel these runs, and the province publishes live ferry status separately from the timetable. This is the link to open the morning you travel — the schedule is for planning, this is for deciding.
Check it now →Ferry sailingsChange through the year
Which vessel is running, and which sailings call here rather than crossing straight to Fogo, both change. This is the fact the whole trip turns on — confirm a specific sailing that stops at Change Islands, then build the drive backwards from it.
Check it now →Getting on the boatStanding advice from the province
The province's notice on the ferry page states that vehicles travelling to Change Islands are loaded first, and encourages them to arrive thirty minutes before departure. Being in the line early is not politeness here — the deck is finite and the next sailing may not call at Change Islands at all.
Check it now →MooseYear round, worst between dusk and dawn
The province states that the likelihood of injury in a moose collision is twice as high between dusk and dawn as in daytime. Routes 330, 331 and 335 are unlit two-lane highway, and this drive is often done early or late to meet a boat.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
Check before you leave Gander. There is very little between the airport and the wharf.
Check it now →
Questions people actually ask
How do I get to Change Islands from Gander Airport?＋
Drive to the Farewell ferry terminal — 86.3 km and about 1 hour 21 minutes on Routes 330, 331 and 335 — then take the ferry. Change Islands is the first call on that run, before Fogo Island.
Is it the same ferry as Fogo Island?＋
Not necessarily, and this is the thing to get right. The service can run with more than one vessel on separate schedules, and some Farewell–Fogo sailings are direct crossings that do not call at Change Islands. Turning up for whichever boat is next is how people end up on Fogo. Find the sailing that actually stops at Change Islands, and confirm it for the day you are travelling.
Can I combine Change Islands and Fogo in one trip?＋
Sometimes, because the province does publish sailings that run Farewell to Change Islands to Fogo Island as one chain. But it depends entirely on which schedule is in force and which vessel is working, so it is a question for the timetable rather than one this page can answer in advance. Do not build a day around it without confirming the specific sailings first.
How do I plan the day I fly home?＋
Backwards from check-in, not forwards from breakfast. The drive back to Gander is the same 1 hour 21 it was coming out, but on departure day there is a crossing and a vehicle queue in front of it, boarding is not reserved, and a missed sailing costs a flight rather than an afternoon. Leave more slack than the drive time suggests.
Do I need a rental car?＋
You need one to reach Farewell — there is no realistic alternative on that leg. Whether you take it across is a different question: unlike Fogo, the boat lands in the community here and the island is small, so foot passengers are not stranded at a wharf the way they would be on the bigger island.
Every distance, drive time and coordinate on this page was checked against its source on August 29, 2026. Origin: OpenStreetMap way/154350645 — passenger terminal. Destination: OpenStreetMap node/1598423285.