Gander International Airport (YQX) → Salvage
Gander Airport (YQX) to Salvage and the Eastport beaches
- Drive time
- 1h 21m
- Distance
- 97.3 km
Conservative model estimate, Gander International Airport (YQX) to Salvage — 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 →
This is the drive for the day the weather is good and the flight was long: 1h21 door to sand to harbour. The Trans-Canada does the fast half, past Gambo and Joey’s Lookout; Route 310 does the good half, threading the Eastport peninsula where a named, mapped beach — Eastport Beach, on the map by exactly that name — lies directly on the road. No detour, no hunting for an access path: the route runs past the sand.
The end of the road is the argument for finishing it. Salvage is one of the oldest fishing villages on this coast, a harbour town of rock and saltbox houses with its own fisherman’s museum and no through traffic, because there is nowhere through to go. Between beach and village, the peninsula packs more variety into twenty minutes than most full afternoons of driving — which is why this page exists.
Faded on the map: the other measured drives from Gander International into this same region, each its own page — Burnside ferry terminal (1h 19m), Terra Nova National Park Visitor Centre (1h 3m), Dover (1h 15m), Cape Bonavista Lighthouse (3h 45m), Trinity (2h 50m), Greenspond (2h 6m). Where a faded line leaves the solid one is where that drive forks from this one.
Worth stopping for
Joey's Lookout (Gambo)
The mapped viewpoint above Gambo, right off the highway. The name is the town's nod to its most famous son — Joey Smallwood, the premier who brought Newfoundland into Canada — and the view down Freshwater Bay is the first big water of the drive.
Stopping here adds about 1 min and 0.1 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeEastport Beach
A named, mapped sandy beach directly on the route — the road to Salvage runs right past the sand. This is the beach the Eastport peninsula is known for, and stopping costs nothing at all.
Stopping here adds about 0 min and 0 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeSandy Cove beachDetour
The second sand: a mapped beach at Sandy Cove, a short spur south of Eastport. OpenStreetMap draws the beach but records no name — the town's own name does the work.
Stopping here adds about 10 min and 4.5 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeSalvage Fisherman's Museum
In the village itself, no detour: a fisherman's museum in one of the coast's oldest outports, where the building and the harbour around it are both the exhibit. Hours are the museum's own — check before building the day around it.
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 Salvage 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 July, August, June2,373 reports on record
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in July, August, June1,048 reports on record
- Northern gannetseabirdMorus bassanusReports cluster in August, July, June966 reports on record
- Fin whalewhaleBalaenoptera physalusReports cluster in July, August, June60 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in June, August, May25 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, Glowertown km 68
- Longest stretch without one
- 65 km
- Gander → Glowertown, of 97 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to Salvage
- 28.8 km
- 28 min by road, at Glowertown
NL Hydro lists an ultra-fast site coming in 2026 at Gander (km 2) — 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
- 39%
- 34.3 km of 97.3 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 61%
- 53.2 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
33 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 29.6 km — after Family Pizza, until Mary Brown's. 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
- Jumping Bean Coffee Companycafékm 2 · 661 m off the road
- Lilly's Landing Family Restaurantrestaurantkm 2 · 619 m off the road
- KFCfast foodkm 2 · 248 m off the road
- Subwayfast foodkm 2
- McDonald'sfast foodkm 2
- Ches's Fish & Chipsrestaurantkm 2 · 518 m off the road
- A&Wfast foodkm 2 · 1553 m off the road
- Little Caesarsfast foodkm 2 · 894 m off the road
- Wing 'n Itrestaurantkm 2 · 704 m off the road
- The Shawarma Stationrestaurantkm 2 · 349 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 2 · 418 m off the road
- Louis Geesfast foodkm 2 · 743 m off the road
- Jade Garden Restaurantrestaurantkm 2 · 676 m off the road
- New Highlight Restaurantrestaurantkm 2 · 668 m off the road
- Pizza Housefast foodkm 2 · 664 m off the road
- East Ocean Restaurantfast foodkm 2 · 665 m off the road
- Grecofast foodkm 2 · 672 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 2 · 290 m off the road
- Subwayfast foodkm 2.1 · 1526 m off the road
- Mystic Roomrestaurantkm 2.1 · 417 m off the road
- Pizza Delightrestaurantkm 2.2 · 276 m off the road
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 2.2 · 1377 m off the road
- Swiss Chaletrestaurantkm 2.2
- Robin's Donutsfast foodkm 2.2
- Tim Hortonscafékm 2.4 · 1265 m off the road
- DQ Grill & Chillfast foodkm 2.5 · 1054 m off the road
- Copper Kettle Restaurantrestaurantkm 31.9
- Family Pizzarestaurantkm 38.7 · 1870 m off the road
- Mary Brown'srestaurantkm 68.3
- Chico's Drive B'y & Takeoutrestaurantkm 86.9
- Salvaje Brewing Companypubkm 97 · 206 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.
Beach seasonSummer, honestly — swim at your own reading of the water
Nobody lifeguards these beaches and nothing here mirrors water conditions. The live temperature strip at the top of this page is measured, not promised — cold water is normal in Newfoundland in every month.
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. Route 310 through the Eastport peninsula woods is classic evening moose road.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
Route 310 is a spur to the sea — check before leaving the Trans-Canada at Glovertown.
Check it now →
The trails
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 Salvage?＋
Gander, without argument: 1h21 against roughly five hours from Deer Lake. This is one of the shortest sea-and-sand drives YQX has.
What is the drive actually like?＋
Trans-Canada east past Gambo and Joey's Lookout, off at Glovertown onto Route 310, then through the Eastport peninsula — Sandringham, Eastport and its beach — until the road ends at Salvage's harbour. The last stretch is the reason to come: rock, water and houses arranged the old way.
Is there actually sand?＋
Yes, and it is on the map: Eastport Beach is a named beach element in OpenStreetMap sitting directly on the route, with a second mapped beach at Sandy Cove ten minutes off it. This page cites the elements, not the postcard.
Why Salvage and not just the beaches?＋
Because the road keeps going, and where it stops is one of the oldest continuously fished harbours on this coast — the beaches are the middle of the drive, not the end of it. Twenty more minutes buys the whole peninsula.
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-salvage"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: Gander International Airport (YQX) to Salvage"></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/1459449165 — Salvage place node.