St. John's International Airport (YYT) → Portugal Cove ferry terminal
St. John's Airport (YYT) to Bell Island
- Drive time
- 15 min
- Distance
- 10.6 km
- Routes
- 40
Conservative model estimate, St. John's International Airport (YYT) to Portugal Cove ferry terminal — 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. The ferry after it is not included. Source: OSRM driving profile, St. John's International Airport (YYT) to Portugal Cove ferry terminal, checked 2026-09-05.
⛴ Then the ferry to Bell Island — sailings & schedule →
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 drive from St. John’s airport to the Portugal Cove ferry terminal is short: 10.6 km and about 15 minutes on Route 40, west out of the City of St. John’s and into the town of Portugal Cove - St. Philip’s, where the terminal stands on Conception Bay. There is no long approach, and the sweep for candidate stops along this line came back empty — nothing worth a detour is mapped in the corridor. This is a direct link between a terminal and a terminal, not a scenic drive in its own right.
What makes the trip worth measuring is what is on the other side. The province’s ferry to Bell Island sails from Portugal Cove, and it starts right where this short drive ends. Fly into St. John’s, drive fifteen minutes, and the crossing is the next question — one the province’s own schedule page, not this one, is built to answer.
Faded on the map: the other measured drives from St. John's International into this same region, each its own page — Cape Spear (34 min), Harbour Grace (1h 24m), Brigus (1h 9m), Witless Bay (46 min), Heart's Content (1h 49m). Where a faded line leaves the solid one is where that drive forks from this one.
Then a ferry to Bell Island
The mapped ferry route runs across Conception Bay between Portugal Cove and Bell Island, drawn in both directions and tagged as carrying motor vehicles, cyclists and foot passengers. The province operates it and publishes more than one timetable for the crossing, depending on which vessels are working the route — so open the current schedule rather than assuming a fixed pattern of sailings.
Operated by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Current schedule →What has been recorded near here
Species reported within 50 km of Portugal Cove ferry terminal 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 July, June, August5,048 reports on record
- Atlantic puffinseabirdFratercula arcticaReports cluster in July, August, June4,129 reports on record
- Humpback whalewhaleMegaptera novaeangliaeReports cluster in July, August, June3,662 reports on record
- Minke whalewhaleBalaenoptera acutorostrataReports cluster in July, June, August643 reports on record
- Fin whalewhaleBalaenoptera physalusReports cluster in July, August, June56 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 Portugal Cove ferry terminal
- Where to eat in Portugal Cove ferry terminal → — 10 places the open map records, alphabetically, with addresses and phone numbers.
Doing it electric
- Fast chargers on this drive
- none
- Longest stretch without one
- 11 km
- the YYT door → Portugal Cove ferry terminal, of 11 km driven
- Nearest fast charger to Portugal Cove ferry terminal
- 17.9 km
- 26 min by road, at Paradise
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
- 96%
- 9 km of 10.6 km driven
- No surface tag on the map
- 4%
- 0.4 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 2026-09-13. 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
30 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 6.4 km — after The Rock, until The Grounds. That is the figure worth planning around.
- Starbuckscafékm 0.1 · 1631 m off the road
- Wing'N Itrestaurantkm 0.1 · 1419 m off the road
- Mr. Subfast foodkm 0.1 · 1607 m off the road
- Corarestaurantkm 0.1 · 1486 m off the road
- Pita Pitfast foodkm 0.1 · 1620 m off the road
- Parkside Pizzafast foodkm 0.1 · 1506 m off the road
- YellowBelly Brewery and Public Housepubkm 0.1 · 202 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 0.1
- Newfoundland Chocolate Companycafékm 0.1 · 173 m off the road
- Booster Juicefast foodkm 0.1 · 165 m off the road
- Freshiirestaurantkm 0.1
- Quesadafast foodkm 0.1 · 1497 m off the road
- Tim Hortonscafékm 0.1 · 1581 m off the road
- McDonald'sfast foodkm 0.1 · 1835 m off the road
- Mary Brown'sfast foodkm 0.1 · 1582 m off the road
- Second Cupcafékm 0.1 · 1739 m off the road
- Montana'srestaurantkm 0.1 · 1800 m off the road
- Starbuckscafékm 0.1 · 1733 m off the road
- Harvey'sfast foodkm 0.1 · 1599 m off the road
- Milestonesrestaurantkm 0.1 · 1570 m off the road
- KFCfast foodkm 0.1 · 1671 m off the road
- A&Wfast foodkm 0.1 · 1882 m off the road
- Subwayfast foodkm 0.8
- Tim Hortonscafékm 0.8
- The Rockrestaurantkm 0.8
- The Groundscafékm 7.2
- Ferry Last Stop Cafecafékm 9.8
- Wild Horses Pub & Eateryrestaurantkm 10.2
- Beachy Cove Cafe B&Brestaurantkm 10.2
- Landing's Seafood Houserestaurantkm 10.4
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 the likelihood of injury in a moose collision is about twice as high between dusk and dawn as in daytime. This is one of the shortest drives on the site, and it starts inside the City of St. John's — but it ends in the town of Portugal Cove - St. Philip's, and the provincial warning applies on the stretch between the two the same as it does anywhere else.
Check it now →Road conditionsYear round, matters most November–April
Route 40 runs west out of St. John's to Portugal Cove, so this is a short trip by the standards of this site — but Avalon winter weather still slows and closes roads here the same as anywhere else on the peninsula. Check conditions before you leave the airport, especially if you are timing a ferry.
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 St. John's 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.
Rideshare: it depends who you ask.
The Airport Authority's own ground-transportation pages name City Wide Taxi as “the exclusive provider of ground transportation services for the public” and do not mention rideshare anywhere. Uber publishes pickup instructions for YYT, and the Airport's own account welcomed Uber in 2024. Both things are true and this page will not pretend they resolve: the Authority's pages are what govern the kerb, so check them on the day.
Taxi
City Wide Taxi, which the Airport Authority names as the exclusive provider for the public. Cabs queue outside the Arrivals area and a dispatcher is there to help. The Authority publishes preset fares to named hotels and a meter-plus-surcharge rate everywhere else; what those are is theirs to publish and change.
Public transit
Metrobus route 14 runs between the airport and the St. John's metro region, including Memorial University. There are two stops at the airport: one near the arrivals area, and one on World Parkway by the Holiday Inn Express. The Authority says Metrobus has committed to a wheelchair-accessible service on this route and can take large, non-folding mobility aids. Schedule and fares are Metrobus's.
St. John's 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
How far is Portugal Cove ferry terminal from St. John's airport?＋
10.6 km, about 15 minutes, on Route 40. It is one of the shortest airport-to-destination drives on this site.
Should I fly into St. John's, Gander or Deer Lake for Portugal Cove ferry terminal?＋
St. John's, by a wide margin: about 15 minutes against roughly 4 hours 31 from Gander and roughly 8 hours 19 from Deer Lake. If the ferry to Bell Island is your reason for travelling, St. John's is the airport to book.
Is there anywhere worth stopping on the way?＋
Not on this particular stretch. The candidate sweep along the driven line found nothing worth a stop mapped in this corridor, so this page is short by design rather than by omission — the drive is the whole story, and the ferry line-up is the next thing that happens.
Where do I find the Bell Island ferry schedule?＋
On the province's own schedule page, linked from the onward-ferry note on this page. Sailings, vessel assignments and any weather-driven changes are the operator's to state, so that is the page to check on the day you travel rather than any fixed times written elsewhere.
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/yyt-bell-island"
width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
title="Driving route: St. John's International Airport (YYT) to Portugal Cove ferry terminal"></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 5, 2026. Origin: OpenStreetMap way/279110348 — St. John's International Airport. Destination: OpenStreetMap node/1556565861 — Portugal Cove.