Best time to visit St. John's

Canada · North America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in St. John's

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Good for

Hiking Aug–Sep · fair Jun–Jul

Go in May–Sep — these months score within a whisker of each other; 20C max, 8 rainy days. Oct is the next best.

Plan this trip

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Flights

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Where to stay

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Things to do in St. John's

Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist This Roman Catholic church was designated a minor basilica by the Pope.
Signal Hill Majestically overlooking the city and designated as a National Historic Site.
The Battery Small village on the edge of the downtown where small houses are framed by the sheer…
George Street This narrow street lined with colourful buildings is the core of St. John's busy…
Colonial Building The Colonial Building is a neoclassical building constructed of white limestone brought…
The Rooms The major cultural centre at Fort Townsend for Newfoundland & Labrador.
Government House Government House contains the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of…

Tours and tickets in St. John's

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (St. John's), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	1°	14d	82%	3.5h	avoid	bitter cold: 1C daily max
Feb	0°	11d	79%	4.4h	avoid	bitter cold: 0C daily max
Mar	2°	12d	80%	5.9h	avoid	bitter cold: 2C daily max
Apr	5°	12d	82%	6.2h	avoid	bitter cold: 5C daily max
May	9°	9d	82%	8.1h	sweet spot	9C max, 9 rainy days
Jun	15°	10d	85%	8.2h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Jul	20°	9d	86%	9.3h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Aug	20°	8d	83%	9.0h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Sep	17°	10d	82%	7.4h	sweet spot	17C max, 10 rainy days
Oct	12°	9d	82%	5.6h	ok	12C max, 9 rainy days
Nov	7°	13d	81%	3.9h	avoid	7C max, 13 rainy days
Dec	3°	13d	81%	3.0h	avoid	bitter cold: 3C daily max

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the centre, 7 km from the airport (YYT): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from June to August; quietest from January to April.

Then and now

St. John's's September days now average 16.6°C, 1.3°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 2 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	0.1°	-1.0°	0.9°	5.2°	9.7°	13.7°	18.7°	19.1°	15.3°	10.6°	6.1°	1.9°
2017–26	0.9°	-0.1°	2.0°	5.0°	9.1°	14.6°	19.7°	20.3°	16.6°	11.7°	7.2°	2.9°
Change	+0.8°	+0.9°	+1.1°	-0.2°	-0.6°	+0.9°	+1.0°	+1.2°	+1.3°	+1.1°	+1.1°	+1.0°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far St. John's is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Canadian dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for Canada: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — Visa and Mastercard are taken almost everywhere and many Canadians rarely use cash; Interac is the local debit network. At petrol pumps, pay inside if your card has no chip and PIN.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Customary though not required: 12–18% in restaurants and bars. Check the bill for a service charge already added.

Getting around St. John's

Apps — Rides: Lyft, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Messenger, Text messages (SMS), WhatsApp.

Metrobus. St. John's public transit system Metrobus, serves nearly all of St. John's, with limited service to the neighbourhoods of Shea Heights, Kilbride and the Goulds, as well as the neighbouring city of Mount Pearl. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on St. John's, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

Emergency — 911 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (33)

St. John's in pictures

2017 10 07 01 Terry Fox Statue at Mile 0, St. John's NL Canada — i

Gordon Leggett, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2017 10 07 02 Terry Fox Statue at Mile 0, St. John's NL Canada — i

Gordon Leggett, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St. John's Peak Mount Kinabalu 3 — i

kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St. John's Peak Mount Kinabalu 4 — i

kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador aerial view of downtown — i

Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What St. John's is like

St. John's is the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the oldest city in North America outside of the Caribbean and is on the Avalon Peninsula in the southeast corner of the island of Newfoundland. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: As North America's easternmost outpost on the Atlantic, the harbour has played an important part in the history of St. John's, and the city has grown around it. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: The Grand Concourse, 439 Allandale Rd. The Grand Concourse Authority oversees an extensive collection of walking trails in the city. St. John's Haunted Hike, Church Hill (tour begins and ends at the Anglican Cathedral). More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: St. John's International Airport (YYT IATA) (10 km (6.2 mi) from downtown St. John's). Flights arrive from major centres like Toronto (3 hours), Montreal (2½ hours), and Halifax (1 hr 45 min). More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: While St. John's is generally regarded as a safe city, increases in the crime rate have been reported. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on St. John's, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around St. John's

Also in Canada

Nearby

Kind of place

Cities

St. John's is in Canada, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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