Newfoundland family whale watching holiday
| country: | Canada |
| location: | Newfoundland |
| departures: | 2009: 2 Aug |
| price: | From CA $2500 - CA $2900 (7 days) per adult and CA $1900 - CA $2300 per child (6-17yrs) excluding flights. Price depends on single/double occupancy. CA $300 discount for triple occupancy. Price includes meals as per itinerary, accommodation, admissions & boat fees |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
We invite you to join us on a safe but thrilling adventure that will take your kids away from their computer and game screens and give them an unforgettable encounter with life and adventure, and their own family, in the natural world.
Welcome to our Newfoundland Family Wildlife Adventure. Join us for a week of family fun and adventure on the eastern edge of North America. Our new family vacation program is designed to engage, enrich, and entertain all generations.
During the days you will join other travelling families and watch whales, measure giant squid, study puffins, walk through lighthouses, watch salmon jump in wild rivers, and visit science centres.
During the evening we can enjoy the hotel's swimming pool, take a haunted stroll through the new world's oldest European city, and enjoy a family bonfire on the beach. You will experience the company of the world's largest gathering of humpback whales as they swim among some of the planet's most spectacular seabird reserves. You will explore the wonders of the ocean and flavours of the north. Caribou, moose, icebergs, and more add to our subarctic tales of ocean riches and adventure off Newfoundland and Labrador.
Featured Activities:
Wildlife viewing Whale watching Basic marine biology with a focus on fun Gentle wilderness exploration that is fun, safe, and adventurous
Welcome to our Newfoundland Family Wildlife Adventure. Join us for a week of family fun and adventure on the eastern edge of North America. Our new family vacation program is designed to engage, enrich, and entertain all generations.
During the days you will join other travelling families and watch whales, measure giant squid, study puffins, walk through lighthouses, watch salmon jump in wild rivers, and visit science centres.
During the evening we can enjoy the hotel's swimming pool, take a haunted stroll through the new world's oldest European city, and enjoy a family bonfire on the beach. You will experience the company of the world's largest gathering of humpback whales as they swim among some of the planet's most spectacular seabird reserves. You will explore the wonders of the ocean and flavours of the north. Caribou, moose, icebergs, and more add to our subarctic tales of ocean riches and adventure off Newfoundland and Labrador.
Featured Activities:
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Arrive St. John's: Enjoy a presentation on the week's family adventure with internationally renowned marine educator David Snow. We let everybody settle in before providing a brief overview of the new world's first city and a review of our upcoming vacation plan. During the evening there will be demonstrations on what it is like to be bitten by a shark and introductions to the animals pursued for Viking wealth 1,000 years ago, as well as to the languages of the local whales. |
| Day 2: | Join us for a visit to the continent's largest puffin colony: Learn about these different colourful seabirds and help us provide an estimate of their numbers any way you can. Population estimates like this are an important way to figure out the health of the world's ocean. This colony is the world's second largest storm petrel colony and the continent's second largest murre colony. We will see tens of thousands of seabirds with their chicks but since the petrels are nocturnal they may elude us. It will be fun trying to keep the kids busy watching (and counting) the hundreds of thousands — or gazillions — of seabirds since members of the world's largest gathering of acrobatic humpbacks will be trying to capture their attention too. During lunch you will join the other families for a sampling of the delicious seafood flavours from coastal Newfoundland and Labrador. We should be back at the hotel for 4:00 pm so everyone can enjoy the swimming pool, parents can visit the gym, and everyone can relax before our welcoming dinner. |
| Day 3: | Salmonier Nature Park: The Salmonier Nature Park is a place where injured animals are rehabilitated and people are educated about wildlife. We take 90 minutes to wander its trails looking at the moose, caribou, lynx, arctic fox, eagles, and other Newfoundland and Labrador wildlife before continuing on for a picnic in the woods and a visit to a large, natural swimming hole. Next we learn about digital photography, view salmon returning from the ocean, and we visit a dramatic waterfall. We should be back at the hotel for 4:00 pm but if the kids are having fun at the swimming hole we reserve the right to stay in the countryside a little longer. Meals Breakfast, picnic lunch. |
| Day 4: | Geological Museum: Today we visit the new geological museum in St. John's and speculate about what we know about the ages of the earth from the rocks of the earth. Next we learn about an amazing ocean mystery… the giant squid. We view a specimen and review the known biology of this creature. We will view an actual giant squid dissected in 1981 and have the students do some simple but revealing measurements with us. Next we satisfy the youthful "need for speed" as our group enjoys a zodiac ride out to explore the dramatic coastline south of St. John's. We will use our time to enjoy the region's natural and geological wonders. We also plan on enjoying the company of more whales, puffins, and other wildlife. (We anticipate using a variety of zodiacs so kids will be able to photograph their new friends as they explore the sea stacks and whale spouts of the North Atlantic.) Meals Breakfast, lunch. |
| Day 5: | Cape Mary Bird Colony: Visit and learn about a salmon restoration project (fish ladder, counting trap) on the way to one of the world's most spectacular seabird colonies at Cape St. Mary's. Here we consider how to count a new variety of seabird… the gannet… and we study how they build their nests. This site is the breeding ground for thousands of seabirds, including the continent's third-largest gannet colony and the world's most southerly breeding thick-billed murres. We get great views of gannets, kittiwakes, and murres with their eggs and/or chicks. The high sea cliffs serve as a perfect viewpoint to watch the whales cavort around their northern coastal feeding grounds. The driving on this day takes about four hours so we include a whale workshop that reviews the varieties of whale spotted over the program to date. We may return to our swimming hole and waterfalls if time allows. |
| Day 6: | Edge of North America: Today we experience life on the edge. We travel to the edge of North America by sea and we take a coastal walk while looking at how glaciers and geology have shaped the land. We also enjoy some time at leisure so families can explore or shop independently. We all gather together for our farewell dinner. Meals Breakfast, lunch, farewell Dinner. |
| Day 7: | Departure: We will provide you a convenient trip to the airport. Breakfast . |
small group family holiday
This is a 'small group family adventure' - typically you will join several other families and travel in a group of approx. 16 people. The trips are great value and a great way for you and your children to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of time to yourselves. Most adventure kids tend to be aged between 7 and 15, but some are younger (minimum age is usually 5) and some older (perhaps travelling as part of a larger family group). Please check with the operator to confirm the minimum age for this trip how this holiday makes a difference
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Environment
All participants are encouraged to assist with our whale work but this is also a fun and educational introduction to the wildlife and human cultures of Newfoundland and Labrador. This coast has had human occupation for 9000 years and we explore the natural world and how the various peoples have lived here. We visit and learn about caribou herds, puffin colonies, gannet stacks, and more. We view and learn about some of the planet's largest marine wildlife gatherings. We also view/learn about the seabirds that come from the southern hemisphere to enjoy the rich feeding here. We also carefully visit and teach about orchid patches, fossil beds, and breeding areas of rare birds. We present biological reports to our guests and to government scientists tasked with monitoring wildlife populations. One major highlight of this trip is the planet's largest gathering of humpback whales. They are also among the least studied humpbacks. We collect census information (tail photographs) and coordinate the collection of data from around the province and contribute this information to Allied Whale, the organization coordinating the global humpback census effort. We also contribute other useful whale data as appropriate to whale scientists around the world. Our developmental website is working to coordinate the collection of whale data off this rich part of the ocean since nobody else is doing it…and because whales are such an important indicator of oceanic health. In 2008 our leader co-authored the SARA (species at risk assessment) for orcas off eastern Canada using data collected on our trips. We cannot guarantee orcas on the Family Adventure but our time in the field presents opportunities to collect useful data….and “we all learn best by doing”. We can guarantee that we will collect useful information while engaging curious minds in a rich, wildlife filled setting. We use photons/e-mails to promote the holidays and very little paper. Community All of our programs feature local hosts/leaders and all distribute non resident travellers to remote areas where they enjoy local services and hospitality ranging from boat tours to delicious homemade bread and local subarctic berry jams. We hire local, use local, and celebrate the local traditions. Our hosts are local ambassadors/citizens and almost all of the benefits go to local parks, museums, and fishing families. Many local museums and parks are supported through admissions and also special enhanced programmes. (Our company has actually developed special education programmes for the National Parks Service and local archaeological sites). We also continue to support an annual scholarship of $500 for Newfoundland and Labrador’s oldest conservation organization – the Natural History Society. We market globally and work to educate/preserve locally. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |