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St. John's International Airport (YYT) → Downtown St. John's

St. John's Airport (YYT) to downtown St. John's

Distance
7.7 km
Drive time
In your maps app ↗
Roads
40
Open in Google Maps →
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Stops and map ↓

Downtown St. John's row houses painted red, green, yellow and blue, climbing a steep street under a blue sky.
Downtown St. John's row houses painted red, green, yellow and blue, climbing a steep street under a blue sky.Photo: Paul · source · CC BY 2.0

Filmed here: Frontier. The Frontier drive · every spot from every airport

No car? Every way from St. John's ↓

City Wide TaxiMetrobus 14Uber

Driving route from St. John's International Airport (YYT) to Downtown St. John's: 7.7 km by road, via Route 40.Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Tiles by OpenFreeMap. Route line computed with OSRM.

Faded lines are other drives from St. John's International into this area: Signal Hill (Cabot Tower) (9 km), Cape Spear (24 km), Portugal Cove ferry terminal (11 km), Witless Bay (46 km), Brigus (75 km), Harbour Grace (108 km), Clarke's Beach (88 km). Each splits off where its line leaves this one.

  1. Commissariat House, a grey clapboard Georgian house with white trim, among trees in St. John's.
    Photograph: Mo Laidlaw · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Stop 1: Colonial Building

    On Military Road as the drive comes down into town. The province's historic sites agency says it housed the Newfoundland and Labrador Legislative Assembly from 1850 until 1959, and calls it a gem of neoclassical architecture. It has a visitor season; the province's dates are linked below.

    Stopping here adds 0.4 km to the drive.

    Directions →
    Other map appsApple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze
    Show on map: Colonial Building ↑
  2. Commissariat House, a grey clapboard Georgian house with white trim, among trees in St. John's.
    Photograph: Mo Laidlaw · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Stop 2: Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist

    A few hundred metres along Military Road: Parks Canada's register describes a massive stone cathedral built in the mid 19th century in the Lombard Romanesque Revival style, a national historic site since 1983.

    Stopping here adds 0.6 km to the drive.

    Directions →
    Other map appsApple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze
    Show on map: Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist ↑

  3. Stop 3: The Rooms

    The province's museum, art gallery and archives under one roof, on the hill above the harbour. The Canadian Register of Historic Places says it was built on the site of Fort Townshend, headquarters of the Newfoundland garrison from 1779 to 1871, of which no remains are visible. Hours and admission are linked below.

    Stopping here adds 1.1 km to the drive.

    Directions →
    Other map appsApple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze
    Show on map: The Rooms ↑
⛽ Fuel and gravel on Route 40 →Electric: plan 16 km on a charge ↓

Drive measured Oct 9, 2026, St. John's International Airport (YYT) to Downtown St. John's. Your maps app gives the time on the day. How we measure

Add to a trip →Staying here? Days out ↓Download GPX (offline, Garmin)Airport info: St. John's International Airport →

7.7 km. From the terminal on Route 40, then city streets down the hill into the old town above the harbour.

Why people come. The old town is the destination: the province’s museum, art gallery and archives at The Rooms, the stone Basilica on Military Road, and the Colonial Building where the legislature sat until 1959, all within a few hundred metres of each other.

Arriving without a car? See St. John’s without a car. Every other drive from this airport is on the St. John’s page, and food in town is on eating in St. John’s.

New place to eat, or one that's missing? This list comes from OpenStreetMap, so nobody can pay to be on it. Add it to the map yourself (about twenty minutes on a phone), or email us the details and we'll put it on the map.

Short drives from Downtown St. John's

An easy day out from Downtown St. John'sCape Spear 16 km awayIts own page measures from the St. John's airport; from Downtown St. John's it is 16 km.Directions from where your phone is now:
Directions →
Other map appsApple · Google · Organic Maps · OsmAnd (both work offline, no tracking) · Waze

Or any of these: nearest first, measured by road from Downtown St. John's.

More, up to 33 km (10)

Distances by road, measured on OpenStreetMap October 16, 2026, from where this route ends. Your maps app gives the time on the day. How we measure

Doing it electric

Fast chargers on this drive
none
Longest stretch without one
8 km
the YYT door → Downtown St. John's, of 8 km driven
Nearest fast charger to Downtown St. John's
14.4 km
by road, at St. John’s

No fast charger at Downtown St. John's. From the YYT door it is 8 km there and the same back: plan on about 16 km on one charge, more in cold weather or with the heat on. Or charge at St. John’s, 14.4 km from Downtown St. John's by road, off this drive's own road.

NL Hydro fast chargers within 3 km of the drive. Check the app for one that's working. Exported 2026-10-10. How we measure

Every route compared →NL Hydro: plan your road trip →

Paved or not, per the map

Mapped as unpaved
none
Mapped as paved
66%
3.6 km of 7.7 km driven
No surface tag on the map
34%
1.8 km: surface not recorded

Why it matters: Hertz Canada’s terms say “use off paved roads or on roads which are not regularly maintained” voids the damage waiver. Check your own agreement. The terms themselves. Source for these figures: OSRM driving profile, stored route query, with node annotations; OpenStreetMap surface tags via Overpass, checked 2026-10-09. Today's road conditions: 511.

Before you go

These change, so we link to the people who keep them up to date.

  • Colonial BuildingA visitor season, set by the province

    Provincial Historic Sites publishes the Colonial Building's open dates and hours each year. Check them there rather than here.

    Check it now →

  • The RoomsSet by The Rooms

    The museum, gallery and archives publish their own hours and prices. Check them before you go.

    Check it now →

  • 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 drive is city street, but every drive onward leaves the city.

    Check it now →

  • Road conditionsYear round, matters most November to April

    Short and almost all city street, but winter can still make it slow. Check the province's road conditions.

    Check it now →

Renting a car? Book the car when you book the flight.

Summer rentals sell out, says NL Tourism, and in June 2026 CTV reported St. John's airport agencies booked for nearly all of summer.

Both read 2026-10-07.

Arriving without a car

Not renting? Here's who St. John's International Airport Authority lists at the door. Fares change, so we link to them instead.

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 are true. The Authority's pages 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.

    (709) 722-7777

  • 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.

Source: St. John's International Airport Authority,2026-09-15. Check there for fares and times.

Questions people actually ask

How far is downtown St. John's from the airport?＋

7.7 km, measured by road from the terminal door to the city centre as OpenStreetMap places it (node/236053950), on Route 40 for the numbered part. That is the routing engine's time with no traffic or parking, so allow more.

Can I get downtown without a car?＋

[The no-car page for this airport](/no-car/st-johns) shows the taxis and buses the airport lists, and what you can walk to. Everything else on this site assumes a car.

Where should I stay?＋

This site does not name places to sleep. Every drive from this airport is on the St. John's page, nearest first.

No recorded track yet.Drove it? Send yours →

Put this map on your site

Run a place to stay, a tour or a town page on this drive? Add this map to your site. It answers how far from the airport? Free, no account, and we keep the figures current.

<iframe src="https://fromtheairport.xyz/embed/yyt-downtown-st-johns"
  width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy"
  title="Driving route: St. John's International Airport (YYT) to Downtown St. John's"></iframe>
Add ?lat=&lon=&label= to the URL to pin your own property on the map.

Every distance and coordinate on this page was checked against its source on October 9, 2026. Origin: OpenStreetMap way/279110348 — St. John's International Airport. Destination: OpenStreetMap node/236053950 — St. John's.

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