The rugged East Coast of Newfoundland and Labrador boasts North America's oldest city, St Johns, first settled in 1528. The hilly town is splendidly located on a series of terraces rising up from the waterfront, with stairs everywhere, leading to narrow, winding streets lined with multicoloured clapboard houses. St John's has a quaint, homey feel, and reminders of its fishing village origins are never far away. The Newfoundland Museum explores the history of the local Beothuk tribe and the exploits of the visiting Vikings. Regrettably many of St John's old buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1892. Signal Hill, overlooking the town to the East, is the site where Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless message back in 1901.

Perched on the Northernmost tip of Newfoundland's Northern peninsula, just north of Cape Onion, L'Anse-aux-Meadows is the oldest European habitation site in North America. Led by Leif Eriksson, son of the Eric the Red, the Scandinavian Vikings crossed the North Atlantic in 1000 AD, becoming the first known Europeans to land in North America.

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