St. John's, Newfoundland - any advice?

[MarLieb]

Hi!  We just booked an August Canada/Greenland/Iceland cruise and I'm finding I'm a bit late with very slim picking for private guides in St. John's and no shore excursions offered by our ship as of yet.  Is the city walkable from the port?  I see there is a hop on/hop off bus - would this be accessible from the port?  I'm trying to put together a DIY tour of the town for my family if I can't find an excursion or a guide.  Thank you for your thoughts!

[GTJ]

Yes, vessels arrive in the center of the city, off of Harbour Drive, easily walkable. Yes, the bus stop at "The Keg" would be closest. This bus service appears to be a good choice for touring. I do offer these observations. The website is two years old, though I would expect the bus timetable to have remained the same. Nowhere on the website is the bus operator identified, making it difficult to research and assess the safety record and reliability of the company, or to otherwise pursue the company in the event of any mishap (having only an e-mail address is somewhat disconcerting). The ticket price, $45 per person, is a bit steep for a bus ride. When we were in St. John's many years ago our plan involved seeing the city center on our own, using public transportation where convenient. That system, "Metrobus," provides a good level of service a city of its size, at $2.50 per trip, and a map showing all the routes can be found here (I find the PDF version to be most useful). We concluded our self-tour with a visit to the Railway Coastal Museum, a "must-see" for any railway enthusiast. We had made prior arrangements for a tour with Colin Mayo of Land-Sea Tours, a division of the Pepper Mill restaurant. It turned out to be just the two of us, we were picked-up at the railway museum at 3:00 p.m., for a 3-hour tour, at a price of $30 per person plus tax. I had desired to visit Cape Spear (the easternmost point in North America) as well as milepost 0 of the Trans-Canada Highway (I had previously visited the other end of the highway in Victoria), both of which were visited. We were both pleased with the tour. Alas, the tour operation appears to be no more, and the hosting restaurant, which had been located at 178 Water Street, closed several years ago (the location now is the restaurant Bad Bones Ramen). Other available tour operators should be found readily without too much effort. However, given that the hop-on/off bus tour includes service to and from Cape Spear, and most in-city sights, there might not be any need to arrange for a tour. Hopefully this information will be useful in your trip planning.