Gander International Airport (YQX) → St. Alban's
Gander Airport (YQX) to St. Alban's and Bay d'Espoir
- Drive time
- 3h 27m
- Distance
- 234.9 km
Conservative model estimate, Gander International Airport (YQX) to St. Alban's — 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 site’s only door to the south coast, and the longest drive on its Gander side. The Trans-Canada does the first stretch west past Glenwood and Bishop’s Falls; then Route 360 turns south and simply goes — a long run through interior country with the bay at the end of it.
At the bottom, the road meets salt water again at Bay d’Espoir, a long, sheltered arm of the south coast. St. Alban’s is the largest of the communities on it; Conne River, on the bay’s eastern side, is home to the Miawpukek First Nation. The measured drive ends at St. Alban’s — the communities around the bay are minutes apart from one another once you’re down.
Faded on the map: the other measured drives from Gander International into this same region, each its own page — Hermitage-Sandyville (4h 4m), Harbour Breton (4h 9m). Where a faded line leaves the solid one is where that drive forks from this one.
Worth stopping for
Upper Falls Lookout
A viewpoint mapped beside the Trans-Canada at the Norris Arm junction, facing north. The Bay d'Espoir Highway turn near Bishop's Falls, where Route 360 leaves the highway and runs south, is 21.9 km ahead. OpenStreetMap maps two more lookouts within half a kilometre of this one, and none of the three has a publisher we could find behind its name.
Stopping here adds about 3 min and 2 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeNotre Dame Provincial ParkDetour
A provincial park on the Trans-Canada leg, minutes off the driven line. This is the campground on this route — ParksNL-listed, seasonal by their calendar. ParksNL publishes what operates there and when; we don't.
Stopping here adds about 5 min and 2 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeHydro Generation Info.
The mapped interpretation stop for the Bay d'Espoir hydro development, near the head of the bay — the reason a highway runs through this country at all is written into this site.
Stopping here adds about 0 min and 0 km to the drive.
navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · WazeSt. Alban's Heritage Museum
The town's museum, in the town itself — the end-of-road reward for the longest drive on this side of the site.
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 St. Alban's and shared to GBIF, the international record of species occurrences. The useful column is when — the months the reports cluster in.
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in August, July, March12 reports on record
- Northern gannetseabirdMorus bassanusReports cluster in June, May, August10 reports on record
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in June, January3 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 St. Alban's
- Where to eat in St. Alban's → — 2 places the open map records, alphabetically, with addresses and phone numbers.
Doing it electric
- Fast chargers on this drive
- Gander km 3
- Longest stretch without one
- 232 km
- Gander → St. Alban's, of 235 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to St. Alban's
- 167.9 km
- 2h 36m 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
- 78%
- 163.8 km of 234.9 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 22%
- 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, origin to destination, 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 179.4 km — after Riverside Diner, until Dashwoods Diner. That is the figure worth planning around.
- The Newfoundland Tea Co. Restaurant & Shoprestaurantkm 1.8 · 783 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 · 263 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 · 269 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 2.2
- Little Caesarsfast foodkm 2.4 · 817 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 · 188 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
- Mike's Backyard Restaurantrestaurantkm 233 · 289 m off the road
- Golden Fried Chickenfast foodkm 233.3 · 158 m off the road
- The Pub Loungepubkm 233.6 · 718 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 360 is a long, unlit run through exactly the country that warning was written for.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
Check before you leave the Trans-Canada. Route 360 is a commitment: once you turn south there are no alternate roads and no early exits.
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 Bay d'Espoir?＋
Gander, and it is not close: 3h27 against about 5h17 from Deer Lake — an hour and fifty minutes of difference. The Route 360 junction sits on the Trans-Canada well east of centre, and everything about this trip favours the eastern door.
What is actually down there?＋
The Bay d'Espoir communities — St. Alban's the largest of them, Milltown and Head of Bay d'Espoir at the top of the bay, and Conne River, home of the Miawpukek First Nation, on its eastern side. It is the one part of this site's map where the road reaches the island's south coast.
What should I know about Route 360 itself?＋
That it is long and alone. The turn south comes near Bishop's Falls, and from there the highway runs well over a hundred kilometres to the bay. Assume services are sparse once you leave the Trans-Canada and fuel up before the junction — the same planning rule this site gives for every long corridor, applied to the longest one.
Is this a day trip from the airport?＋
Only barely, and only in summer light: seven hours of driving before you have stopped for anything. It makes more sense as the first leg of a stay on the bay than as an out-and-back.
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-st-albans"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: Gander International Airport (YQX) to St. Alban's"></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 relation/2840197 — St. Alban's.