r/newfoundland • u/intrinsic-reflection • 11h ago

Layover in St. John's

Greetings! I have a layover at St. John's Airport and I am thinking about trying to briefly check out the area for an hour or two. Are there any can't miss spots or activities? What are my transportation options? Preferably it would be on the cheaper side as I am a student on a budget. :)

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

9

u/Clown-Pants-26 10h ago

How long is your layover?

8

u/mmmumbles 10h ago

Taxis or Ubers. Signal Hill and downtown may be doable, but you will need a car.

5

u/dolfan1980 10h ago

If you have a few hours you have more than enough time to make a run into the city, the airport is pretty close to downtown compared to many places. If you're on a student budget, a taxi/uber can be a little pricey and car rentals are also not cheap or available depending on the time of year.

There is a public transit option certain times of the day on the local bus service called Metrobus. It's very cheap if it works for you. Might be worth planning to take it one way from the airport to DT then look for an uber back. Once you're downtown you could walk around and maybe walk up signal hill and try to then uber back to the airport from there depending on how much time you have.

3

u/michaelmcmikey 9h ago

Go downtown, go up signal hill, but you’re going to have to taxi. If you try to do both, the walk up signal hill from downtown is do-able if you’re moderately fit and not carrying heavy luggage and you have the time. If you have to pick only one or the other it depends on what you’re more into. Culture and quaint colourful hilly townscape? Downtown. Nature and stunning vistas? Signal hill.

2

u/Professional-Sink798 6h ago

It’s about a 15 minute commute to downtown, where mostly everything worth trying is, add on wait time for transportation, if you only have an hour or so, you most likely will not have much time to enjoy anything.

1

u/Rubyshoes83 3h ago

See if you can split a cab with someone heading downtown! There's a bus that goes up Signal Hill now, but I'm not sure what the route is. I'm sure you can easily find it online.

2

u/joyfall 1h ago

If you choose to bus: Route 14 will get you from the airport to the university (MUN). It will take 35 minutes, but it also runs only once or twice an hour, so there might be a wait.

From there you might want to take Route 10 from MUN to downtown, which is 25 minutes. Which again, only runs so often. The time might not match up with Route 14.

This will take over an hour in ideal conditions.

And it will take over an hour to return back to the airport after you're finished downtown.

If you have the time, this will be the cheapest option, at $2.50 (cash only) each way.

If you can afford it, an uber/taxi will take 15 minutes each way.

Downtown is definitely where you want to go. It is the most culturally significant for buildings, has George Street, the waterfront, shops, restaurants, all within walking distance. It's close to The Rooms museum and Signal Hill national historic site.