St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

For centuries life in ST JOHN'S has focused on its harbour, a dramatic jaw-shaped inlet approached through the 200-metre-wide channel of The Narrows. In its salad days, the port was packed with sailing ships from a score of nations and still today, although traffic is not as brisk, it draws a mixed maritime bag of trawlers, container ships and oil construction barges. St John's is not, however, the tempestuous seaport of yesteryear. It still possesses a boisterous nightlife, no mistake, but the rough houses of the waterfront have been replaced by shops and offices and its inhabitants – of whom there are about 170,000 – are less likely to be seafarers than white-collar workers. These squirrel away in a string of downtown skyscrapers and in the Confederation Building, the huge government complex on the western outskirts, far – in Newfoundland terms – from the swell of the sea. Yet although the city's gravity has moved inland, the waterfront remains the social hub, sprinkled with good restaurants and lively bars that feature the pick of Newfoundland folk music – one good reason for visiting in itself.