Gander International Airport (YQX) → Harbour Breton
Gander Airport (YQX) to Harbour Breton
- Drive time
- 4h 9m
- Distance
- 280.2 km
Conservative model estimate, Gander International Airport (YQX) to Harbour Breton — 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, terminal door to town, checked 2026-09-03.
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: Gander International Airport →
Route 360 is the island’s great southward commitment: it leaves the Trans-Canada near the Exploits River falls and spends over a hundred kilometres crossing uninhabited interior before anything with a name appears. Harbour Breton is what the commitment buys — the south coast’s principal town, folded into a deep harbour off Fortune Bay, far enough from everywhere that arriving feels earned.
The page’s most important content is honestly the seasons block: fuel and daylight at the turn, the moose arithmetic of an unlit interior road, and a coast that takes its weather straight off the bay. The drive shares its first act with the St. Alban’s page — the same falls lookouts, the same long middle — and forks where the fjord country begins. Two pages, one big road south.
Faded on the map: the other measured drives from Gander International into this same region, each its own page — Hermitage-Sandyville (4h 4m), Fortune (5h 28m), St. Alban's (3h 27m). Where a faded line leaves the solid one is where that drive forks from this one.
Worth stopping for
North Atlantic Aviation Museum
Gander's aviation museum, minutes from the terminal — on a drive this long, the case for starting with an hour of story is stronger than usual. Check current hours with the museum.
Stopping here adds about 1 min and 1.5 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeNotre Dame Provincial Park
The ParksNL park just before the Route 360 turn — the campground on this route, and the sensible last-night-under-trees before the long empty middle. Season and sites are ParksNL's.
Stopping here adds about 5 min and 2 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeUpper Falls Lookout
A viewpoint mapped beside the Trans-Canada at the Norris Arm junction, facing north, with two more lookouts mapped within half a kilometre of it. The Bay d'Espoir Highway turn at Bishop's Falls is another 21.9 km along the road, so this is the last easy stop before Route 360 commits to the interior. What the name refers to we could not find published anywhere; the pin, the position and the direction are all OpenStreetMap gives.
Stopping here adds about 3 min and 2 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze
What has been recorded near here
Species reported within 50 km of Harbour Breton 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 June, August, July111 reports on record
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in July, June, August41 reports on record
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in July, June, August35 reports on record
- Fin whalewhaleBalaenoptera physalusReports cluster in August, September, March19 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in June, September, December16 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 Harbour Breton
- Where to eat in Harbour Breton → — 9 places the open map records, alphabetically, with addresses and phone numbers.
- Connaigre Arena → — the venue here, with what you can reach and be back from between games.
Doing it electric
- Fast chargers on this drive
- Gander km 3
- Longest stretch without one
- 277 km
- Gander → Harbour Breton, of 280 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to Harbour Breton
- 213.2 km
- 3h 17m by road, at Bishop’s Falls
NL Hydro lists an ultra-fast site coming in 2026 at Gander (km 3) — 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
- 82%
- 213.3 km of 280.2 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 18%
- 46.9 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
34 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 179.4 km — after Riverside Diner, until Dashwoods Diner. That is the figure worth planning around.
- The Newfoundland Tea Co. Restaurant & Shoprestaurantkm 1.8 · 782 m off the road
- Rosie's Restaurant & Bakeryrestaurantkm 1.8 · 898 m off the road
- Swiss Chaletrestaurantkm 2 · 235 m off the road
- Robin's Donutsfast foodkm 2 · 264 m off the road
- Subwayfast foodkm 2.1
- McDonald'sfast foodkm 2.1
- Wing 'n Itrestaurantkm 2.1 · 703 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 2.1 · 398 m off the road
- KFCfast foodkm 2.2
- Pizza Delightrestaurantkm 2.2 · 268 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 2.2
- Little Caesarsfast foodkm 2.4 · 816 m off the road
- Mystic Roomrestaurantkm 2.4 · 269 m off the road
- The Shawarma Stationrestaurantkm 2.4
- Ches's Fish & Chipsrestaurantkm 2.5
- Jumping Bean Coffee Companycafékm 2.6
- Lilly's Landing Family Restaurantrestaurantkm 2.6
- Jade Garden Restaurantrestaurantkm 2.6
- New Highlight Restaurantrestaurantkm 2.6
- Pizza Housefast foodkm 2.6
- East Ocean Restaurantfast foodkm 2.6
- Grecofast foodkm 2.6
- DQ Grill & Chillfast foodkm 2.6 · 958 m off the road
- Louis Geesfast foodkm 2.7 · 189 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 3.1 · 918 m off the road
- A&Wfast foodkm 3.2 · 774 m off the road
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 3.2 · 845 m off the road
- Subwayfast foodkm 3.2 · 784 m off the road
- Riverside Dinerfast foodkm 25.1 · 598 m off the road
- Dashwoods Dinerrestaurantkm 204.5
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 278.1
- Dockside Cafe & Eaterycafékm 278.3 · 1809 m off the road
- Ernie's Take-Outfast foodkm 278.9 · 201 m off the road
- Robin's Donutsfast foodkm 278.9 · 218 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.
Fuel and servicesYear round — plan at the turn
Route 360 runs well over a hundred kilometres of uninhabited interior before the Bay d'Espoir communities. The Burgeo rule applies here too: leave the Trans-Canada with the fuel and daylight you would want to arrive with.
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 — and 360's interior stretch is long, wooded and unlit.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
One long road in; check it in both directions. The coast end takes weather off Fortune Bay.
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 Gander International Airport Authority 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 Authority's transport page. That is an absence read off the page on 2026-09-15, not an assumption — but it is the Authority's page, not a licensing register, so it says what the airport lists rather than what is legal.
Taxi
Busy Bee Cabs, which the Airport Authority says runs a 24-hour service available curbside in the Domestic Arrivals area.
Coach
DRL Coachlines runs a scheduled coach service across Newfoundland. The Airport Authority says a wheelchair-accessible bus needs 48 hours' notice.
Limousine
Nobel Limousines, listed by the Airport Authority.
Avis, Budget, National and Enterprise are listed at the airport. The Authority says accessible vehicles with wheelchair accommodation or hand controls are limited and need 48 hours' notice.
Gander International Airport Authority, 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
Should I fly into Gander or Deer Lake for Harbour Breton?＋
Gander: about 4h09 against well over five hours from Deer Lake. The Route 360 turn is on YQX's side of the island.
How does this relate to the St. Alban's drive?＋
Same road for most of its length — the two routes share Route 360's interior run and fork near the Bay d'Espoir communities: St. Alban's turns up the fjord, this page carries on over the height of land to the Connaigre Peninsula and Fortune Bay.
What is Harbour Breton?＋
The largest town on this stretch of the south coast and its practical capital — a deep, walled harbour that has worked the fishery for centuries. The town's own heritage tellings carry the detail; this page certifies the road.
What else does the road open?＋
The whole Coast of Bays forks off 360's lower half: Hermitage and its Gaultois ferry on Route 364 measure on their own page, and Belleoram, St. Jacques and English Harbour West wait further along the shore — mapped towns whose routes can be measured the day they earn pages.
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/yqx-harbour-breton"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: Gander International Airport (YQX) to Harbour Breton"></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 3, 2026. Origin: OpenStreetMap way/154350645 — passenger terminal. Destination: OpenStreetMap node/1510361584 — Harbour Breton place node.