Don't Skip Fogo Island/Brimstone Head RV Park: RVing Newfoundland with Kids and Teens

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travel dates: June 2023

We watched a lot of YouTube videos about Newfoundland while we were planning our trip. One particularly memorable one featured a day trip to Fogo Island, off the north central coast of Newfoundland; the title was “Fogo or No Go,” and the couple (whose Newfoundland videos we really enjoyed overall) did not have a good time on Fogo. Our favorite quote was, “if I had it to do over again…I wouldn’t.”

And, in fact, we very nearly cut Fogo Island out of our itinerary a couple of times.

I’m so, so glad we didn’t.

We all absolutely loved this rugged, rocky, beautiful little island.

My advice for not thinking of Fogo as a no go is not to attempt to see it as a day trip. Getting there is fairly involved, involving yet another ferry ride (albeit much, much shorter than the one to Newfoundland), so you don’t want to try to do that twice in one day, and parking is at a premium: i.e. you want to park your RV at the lone campground and drive, not try to find RV parking everywhere (or anywhere) you go. We had two nights/one full day on Fogo, and that was fine. Another day would been great, especially for hikers, or later in the season when more of the museums were open, but we felt like we saw a lot in our time there. The most important thing is to be there for a sunset or two:

Getting to Fogo Island

The road to the Fogo Island ferry was one of the worst we encountered in Newfoundland, and that’s saying a lot. It’s a long trek off the TCH on narrow, pothole-ridden roads. But we made it without incident. You can’t make a reservation for the Fogo ferry, so you want to get there early to line up, particularly if you have an RV. We got there about an hour and a half before the next ferry, and that was plenty (I think we were the first ones in line, and they almost found room for us on the ferry that was just about to leave when we arrived). But this was in June; later in the season things are probably more crowded.

As far as price…the Fogo ferry is not nearly the same level of expense as the Newfoundland ferry of course. Exactly how much you’ll pay will vary depending on length of vehicle, number of people, etc. We only paid around $45CAD round trip, but I think the guy collecting the fare made use of some creative discounting for us (what can I say? they love us in Newfoundland!)

The ferry ride is about 45 minutes (we took the ferry that went directly to Fogo; there’s another that makes a stop at another island, so that one would be a bit longer). It was very windy on the deck of the ferry, but the ride was pretty smooth. Dogs are allowed in the outside areas on this ferry, but we opted to leave ours in the van, where we figured they’d be more comfortable. There’s a big inside area with a snack bar, but it wasn’t selling anything when we were there. Maybe later in the season.

We mostly hung out on the deck so we could see stuff, even though it was pretty chilly.

We were the first ones off the ferry, but it was still a half hour drive to the Brimstone Head RV Park, the only RV Park on the island. It’s run by the local Lions Club, and it’s a bare bones kind of place in an amazing location.

There are a few different rows of sites here, but the ones right on the water are definitely the ones to go for. There are 20 W/E sites, 7 electric only sites, plus tent sites. All of the sites are extremely close together, and not terribly long. We were definitely one of the biggest RVs there, with our 32 foot trailer–it was mostly camper vans and teardrops and that sort of thing. But we managed to get into our site just fine, though we definitely needed to park the van at an angle in front.

If you look in the first picture, you can see that there are two sites at the end parallel to the water, and I think those would be great for bigger rigs (there was a class A in one of them the whole time we were there). The one closest to the water might be the best site there, in fact; you could open your door right onto the ocean, and getting in and out would be no problem since you could pull around and back straight in. I also have in my notes that there are a few sites close to the building that would be easier for bigger rigs and that site 19 on the second level would also work well.

The bathrooms here are…rustic. The women’s room was closed the whole time we were here for painting. There was nothing wrong with the bathrooms, really, but they felt kind of weird and not very private. They weren’t my favorite. The showers were in a separate building, and we liked them fine (but they are pay showers). And we were using them a good bit because there’s no dump station on site. There is one (for free) on the way back to the ferry in Seldom, however.

Brimstone Head probably ranks in our top 5 campgrounds of all time, despite the lack of amenities…because, you know, you can watch icebergs from your campsite. (note: we were worried we were going to miss icebergs everywhere, because we didn’t get to good iceberg viewing locations until very late June. But we saw plenty both here and in Twillingate later, at the beginning of July. I gather we were lucky and icebergs stuck around later than usual this year. I believe late May/early June are generally the best combination of reasonable weather and good iceberg viewing).

Hiking

I’ve said before that Newfoundland was very much a hiking destination for us. When we came to Fogo Island, we had just left Gros Morne National Park, where we’d done amazing hike after amazing hike. Fogo managed to compete with Gros Morne just fine.

All of the hikes we did were accessible directly from the campground, which is always nice. Before we even got into any official hikes, Dave and a couple of the kids spent some time climbing on the rocks next to the campground. They asked the woman working there if it was okay, and she said yes, so they took full advantage. It looked a little scary to me:

Also that first night we checked out the Brimstone Head Trail, right next to the campground. This is billed as “one of the four corners of the flat earth,” for whatever reason (apparently some flat earther declared it so at some point), and this is the main thing I’d seen and heard about it in my pre-trip research. Which is actually a little too bad, because it’s such a cool hike with such a big payoff that it really doesn’t need a gimmick. It’s a short but very steep climb (involving many steps and chains to hang onto) up to a spectacular view. It was a little more terrifying for those of us who are scared of heights than I was expecting, but we all made it. Dave disagreed with my assessment that it was “just like Angel’s Landing.” (We haven’t really been to Angel’s Landing. I suspect it’s probably even scarier).

Our plan was to watch the sunset from up here, but it was very windy, so we didn’t make it quite that long before heading back down. But close!

We ended up making some hot chocolate in the trailer and taking it back out along another trail by the campground to watch the sunset.

The next day we tackled the Fogo Head Trail. This one also starts right at the campground and then drops you off at the far side of the town of Fogo Island, after taking you past a lot of amazing ocean views and down a whole lot more steps. I think the whole thing is around 3 miles if you make a full loop (the last stretch of that is through the town on the road), and I’d call it a moderately challenging hike, with a good bit of elevation change.

The beginning of this hike was a bit of a comedy of errors. We had a lunch reservation in town, so there was a time crunch. But we thought we had time to bring the dogs along on the hike and get them back to the trailer and still make lunch, so we set out.

All went well at first, but after a few minutes the dogs started protesting and refusing to go further. I think the problem was that it was a very rocky trail and was hurting their feet. Dave somehow thought maybe we could carry the dogs for the whole hilly three miles, but I talked him out of that. So…we had to turn around and take the dogs back to the trailer, which is blissfully free of sharp rocks.

And then we were finally off! This was one of our favorite hikes of the trip. There are great ocean views all around, including lots of icebergs if you’re there at the right time:

This is also the hike where we chatted with a couple from Ontario (some of the very few other people we saw on the hike) and somehow got on the subject of buying a vacation house in Newfoundland. The guy was very excited on our behalf both about the exchange rate and, I guess, about how our money is just one boring dumb old color. “You could buy a house for like a dollar,” he said, “tell them, ‘here’s a GREENBACK!'”

Bangbelly

There aren’t a ton of restaurants on Fogo, so we were lucky that the RV Park is right by one of the most popular ones: Bangbelly (you can alternately find this referred to at Bangbelly Cafe, Bangbelly Bistro, and just Bangbelly; they seem to tinker a lot from year to year with both the name and the menu). We had a lunch reservation here; it turned out not to be crowded at all when we arrived shortly after they opened, but it was full by the time we left. The food is a lot more innovative here than what you’ll find in most parts of Newfoundland outside of St. John’s, but they also have a kid’s menu and enough to appeal to most picky eaters. Also a good selection of cocktails and local beers, too. It’s also a really adorable little place. This picture mostly features Dave rather than the decor, though:

Fogo Island Inn (vs. Disney’s Star Wars Hotel)

If you’ve heard of Fogo Island before, it’s probably because of the Fogo Island Inn, the architecturally striking and very expensive hotel that was completed in 2013. We didn’t run into anyone who was actually staying at the inn, but we did run into a lot of people who wanted to talk about how they could never afford to stay at the inn. The absolute cheapest rooms you’ll find–the smallest rooms on the earliest dates in spring–are around $1500/night USD…with a 3 night minimum. They go up pretty steeply from there, so that if you want to travel in anything resembling tourist season you’ll be over $2000/night easily. This is not a destination for commoners.

But it’s also a pretty cool project. It was built by people who grew up in Newfoundland/on Fogo, intended to diversify the economy that historically has relied heavily on cod fishing (this is a theme all over Newfoundland; the economy is still very much impacted by the 1992 cod fishing moratorium). All the profits go back into the community.

They give public tours of the inn, but we didn’t find out about these in time and weren’t able to do one. Our plan was just to go gawk at it from the outside (and they let you park in the parking lot at the beginning of the road to the inn to do just this), but then on the walk there we ran into some other gawkers who told us they’ll let you inside to look at the lobby and the small gallery space if you ask. So we did that. The gallery was kind of barren–just a single exhibit in the middle which was a 3D model of an old church (I think?) that they’re planning to turn into a community gathering space. Going inside was a little awkward. But I would have enjoyed the tour, I think.

The building’s design is supposed to evoke Newfoundland’s traditional outport fishing stages. I think it looks pretty cool, but I was surprised as we approached it by how much it dominates the surrounding area; it’s not some Frank Lloyd Wright-esque building that’s supposed to blend in to nature; you can see it from all over the place, and it looks huge compared to everything else on Fogo.

I happen to be writing this right after both a trip to Disney World and a viewing of Jenny Nicholson’s epic four hour YouTube video, “The Spectacular Failure of the Disney Star Wars Hotel.” Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser was another hotel that was most famous for being jaw-droppingly expensive (and, indeed, if you compare the prices, the Fogo Island Inn starts to look a lot more resonable), so I thought a comparison of what you get for the very large price tag was in order.

Price: We can’t price out the Star Wars hotel anymore, of course, since it shut down after just 18 months, but Nicholson reports paying around $6000 for 2 people for a two night stay (a two night stay was required because there was an interactive storyline that went with the whole experience). As mentioned, the cheapest price you’ll find for the Fogo Island Inn is around $4500 for three nights. A relative bargain! But realistically, traveling at the time of year most people want to go to Newfoundland, it’s going to be at least $6000 for the required three nights. So still an extra night for the same price! Winner: Fogo Island Inn

Food: Food is included with the price at both hotels. The Star Wars hotel featured vaguely space-themed food. The Fogo Island Inn features mostly locally sourced food served in a dining room with giant windows overlooking the ocean. Meals at local restaurants are also included. Alcohol is/was an extra expense at both. Winner: Fogo Island Inn

Architecture: The Star Wars Hotel was basically a sterile warehouse building with a windowless hotel on the inside. It was not supposed to look like anything interesting from the outside, because you weren’t really supposed to see it from the outside. The Fogo Island Inn is very much meant to be seen. And it’s cool-looking. So. Winner: Fogo Island Inn

Guest Rooms: Rooms at the Fogo Island Inn are large and comfortable, filled with touches made by local artisans, with views of the ocean. People regularly mocked the Galactic Cruiser’s rooms for being unnecessarily tiny, with only a fake window showing “space.” Winner: Fogo Island Inn

Activities: The Star Wars Hotel was basically a 2 day LARPing experience, where you would interact with costumed characters in the ship in order to become a participant in a story that played out over the course of the “cruise.” A few hours in the Galaxy’s Edge area of the Hollywood Studios theme park was also included. There are mixed reviews about how well this experience worked in practice. Some people loved it, some (like Jenny Nicholson) found the technology glitchy and had bad experiences. Some just found needing to be “on” for the entire time exhausting.

There are a ton of activities offered at the Fogo Island Inn, some included (morning yoga! picking wild berries! introduction to boat building!); some are extra (golf. kayaking. cod fishing). There are not, so far as I can tell, any characters…except maybe in the sense that you might, say, chat with a local fisherman or whatever and come away all, “wow! what a character!” Winner:…depends on whether you prefer berry picking or solving pretend space mysteries!

So, as you can clearly see, the Fogo Island Inn is a better place to drain your savings account than the Galactic Starcruiser, particularly since it still exists and the Starcruiser doesn’t!

But also you can just go to Fogo and stay at the campground for approximately $1975 less per night. No food included, but iceberg watching is.

So this was pretty much it for our full day in Fogo. We grabbed some ice cream at the place near the inn, and we attempted some scenic driving, but Abe was not having it, so that didn’t last long. And then we spent another evening watching the sun set over the icebergs back at the campground!

In the morning we stopped in Seldom to dump our tanks pre-return ferry. This is pretty easy to do, though you need to make sure you know where to look so you don’t miss it. The ferry back seemed more crowded than the one over, so we were glad we’d gotten there early. This is the line looking back after we were already on board.