Fogo Island Inn
Newfoundland · Canada
Reviews
Character and identity
Perched on stilts at the edge of Joe Batt's Arm, this 29-room inn is Todd Saunders' modernist riposte to the saltbox fishing stages of Newfoundland: an X-shaped, shiplap-clad building angled so every room faces the crashing North Atlantic. Inside, a double-vaulted lobby with a hearth gives way to a west-facing dining room hung with rope chandeliers, plus a cinema, art gallery and fourth-floor rooftop with outdoor hot tubs and a wood-fired sauna. Locally built furniture, hand-braided rugs and quilts by island women furnish the suites. Service, led by community hosts who feel like old friends by checkout, is exacting but unstuffy.
Who's it for
Best for:
Design-literate travellers and culturally curious couples who want a remote, weather-dramatic landscape paired with serious cooking, contemporary architecture, and genuine community immersion. Anniversary trips, solo wanderers, and anyone drawn to a Relais & Châteaux kitchen, foraged cocktails, sustainability with real teeth, and conversations with woodworkers, quilters and fishers.
Should look elsewhere:
Anyone short on time or patience for the journey (a flight to Gander, a drive, a 50-minute ferry, another drive). Families with kids under eight aren't accepted. Beach loungers, nightlife seekers, and travellers who balk at all-inclusive rates funding a nonprofit will find the proposition awkward.
Bottom line
What you're paying for here is a place, not just a hotel: the architecture, the cooking, and the islanders themselves are inseparable, and profits flow back into the community via the Shorefast charity. Splurge on a corner Sunrise Suite or the ocean-level Labrador rooms repeat guests refuse to trade up from. Time the trip to early fall for Feile Tilting, or trap berth for icebergs and whales.
Location
What this place offers
- Wi-Fi
- Restaurant
- Bar
- Table service
- Room service
- Breakfast
- Smoke-free property
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- NFC mobile payments
