Bonavista, town, eastern Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It lies on the northeastern shore of Bonavista Bay. Cape Bonavista may have been where the explorer John Cabot first landed in 1497, but the site was probably named in 1500 by the Portuguese explorer Gaspar Côrte-Real, after Boa Vista, one of the Cape Verde Islands. An important cod- and salmon-fishing port, the town has modern fish-drying, filleting, and cold-storage plants. Bonavista was the site of the province’s first school, established in 1726. Roads connect it to St. John’s (187 miles [301 km] south-southeast) and other parts of the island. Terra Nova National Park extends around the bay’s southern shores. Inc. 1964. Pop. (2006) 3,764; (2011) 3,589.