Gander International Airport (YQX) → Leading Tickles
Gander Airport (YQX) to Leading Tickles and the Bay of Exploits
- Drive time
- 2h 10m
- Distance
- 148.4 km
Conservative model estimate, Gander International Airport (YQX) to Leading Tickles — 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 centre, checked 2026-09-02.
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 →
The Bay of Exploits is the drowned mouth of the island’s biggest river, a bay full of islands inside the much larger Notre Dame Bay — and this is the drive that takes its measure by road. Route 350 leaves the Trans-Canada near the falls of the Exploits River and runs the length of the peninsula that walls the bay’s western side, through Point Leamington, until the pavement ends at Leading Tickles: a fishing town on the outer coast whose name is the local word for the narrow channels between islands. Land runs out; tickles begin.
Two honest notes about what the map holds. The fork toward Fortune Harbour — the road that stays deeper inside the bay — leads to a place whose only OpenStreetMap element is a decades-old imported node sitting a couple of kilometres from where the road actually ends, so this page cannot pin it without lying; a contributor with a GPS could fix that in an afternoon. And the bay’s famous islands, including the resettled village of Exploits, are boat-access only — mapped, storied, and beyond every road this site will ever measure. The wharf is where our numbers stop and the bay’s own economy of boats begins.
Faded on the map: the other measured drives from Gander International into this same region, each its own page — Triton (3h 3m), Pilley's Island (2h 59m), Lewisporte (53 min), Botwood (1h 15m). Where a faded line leaves the solid one is where that drive forks from this one.
Worth stopping for
Glenwood Provincial Park
A mapped nature reserve right beside the Trans-Canada, twenty minutes into the drive — the cheap first leg-stretch before the long haul west.
Stopping here adds about 2 min and 0.3 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeUpper Falls Lookout
A viewpoint mapped beside the Trans-Canada at the Norris Arm junction, where Route 351 runs north into the town. This is not yet the turn for Leading Tickles — that is 23.1 km further west, where the Botwood Highway leaves the Trans-Canada near Bishop's Falls. Two more lookouts are mapped beside this one. The name is all OpenStreetMap offers; what it overlooks, nobody we could find has published.
Stopping here adds about 3 min and 2 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazePoint Leamington
The working town halfway up the peninsula, and the last one of any size before the road commits to the coast. Route 350 runs straight through it — no detour at all.
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 Leading Tickles 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, July, August194 reports on record
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in July, August, June92 reports on record
- Fin whalewhaleBalaenoptera physalusReports cluster in October, September, July72 reports on record
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in October, June, September19 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in June, July, August6 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.
Doing it electric
- Fast chargers on this drive
- Gander km 3
- Longest stretch without one
- 145 km
- Gander → Leading Tickles, of 148 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to Leading Tickles
- 78.4 km
- 1h 16m 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
- 19%
- 24 km of 148.4 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 81%
- 99.6 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
35 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 68.7 km — after Riverside Diner, until Dockside Restaurant. 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
- Dockside Restaurantrestaurantkm 93.8 · 1510 m off the road
- Donninis Express and Railway Caferestaurantkm 93.9 · 1523 m off the road
- The Landing Pubpubkm 94 · 1611 m off the road
- James Restaurantrestaurantkm 94.1 · 1361 m off the road
- Mary Brownsrestaurantkm 94.1 · 1279 m off the road
- Daisy's Dinerrestaurantkm 94.2 · 1662 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 that the likelihood of injury in a moose collision is twice as high between dusk and dawn as in daytime. Route 350 north of Point Leamington is long, wooded and empty — textbook moose country after dark.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
Check before leaving the Trans-Canada — Route 350 is a spur up a peninsula, not a through road, and there is no second way out.
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 Leading Tickles?＋
Gander, decisively: about 2h10 against 4h02 from Deer Lake. The Route 350 turn comes early on the eastern half of the Trans-Canada, and that settles it.
Is this actually the Bay of Exploits?＋
Honestly put: the road runs up the peninsula that forms the bay's western wall, and Leading Tickles sits at its tip, where the Bay of Exploits opens into greater Notre Dame Bay. The same road forks toward Fortune Harbour, deeper inside the bay itself.
What about the bay's islands — the village of Exploits?＋
Boat access only. The Exploits Islands, including the resettled village of Exploits, sit out in the bay's mouth, and no page on this site can drive you there. What we measure is the road; the water beyond it belongs to wharf towns, charts and skippers.
What is the drive actually like?＋
Trans-Canada west past Glenwood, then Route 350 north near the Exploits River falls — and from Point Leamington on, the road narrows its ambitions to one thing, following the peninsula until it runs out of land at the tickles that named the town.
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-leading-tickles"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: Gander International Airport (YQX) to Leading Tickles"></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 2, 2026. Origin: OpenStreetMap way/154350645 — passenger terminal. Destination: OpenStreetMap node/1524285455 — Leading Tickles place node.