Churchill, Manitoba: Polar Bears on the Hudson Bay Tundra

Arrive in Winnipeg

Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport to your hotel in central Winnipeg

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Winnipeg
• Environ 18 min de route

Soir

Then we walk to a welcome dinner nearby. It is an early night, because the flight to Churchill leaves in the morning.

Compris

• Pick-up at Winnipeg airport (YWG)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner in Winnipeg

Activités en option

• Canadian Museum for Human Rights or the Manitoba Museum on your own, if you land early (entry not included)

Fly north to Churchill

Winnipeg to Churchill by air, then around Churchill and Cape Merry

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Churchill
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

We land mid-morning, check in and pick up your loaned parka, boots and mitts.

Après-midi

After lunch in town our guide takes the group around by van. At Cape Merry, where the Churchill River meets the bay, the restored remains of an 18th-century gun battery look across the river mouth to Prince of Wales Fort, the stone fort the Hudson's Bay Company built over some forty years and surrendered to a French force in 1782 without firing a shot. Then the grain elevator of the port, the Inuksuk on the shore, and the outside of the Polar Bear Holding Facility, where conservation officers keep bears that wander into town. We end indoors at the Itsanitaq Museum, with its Inuit carvings and tools, and the Parks Canada visitor centre in the railway station.

Compris

• Flight from Winnipeg to Churchill
• Loan of an insulated parka, winter boots and mitts for your days in Churchill
• Town and area tour with your guide: Cape Merry, the port, the Inuksuk and the Polar Bear Holding Facility (from outside)
• Itsanitaq Museum
• Parks Canada visitor centre
• Lunch and dinner in Churchill

First full day on the tundra

Churchill to the Churchill Wildlife Management Area by tundra vehicle, and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Churchill
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

After breakfast a van takes us east of town to the launch, where we board a tundra vehicle: a heated cabin on huge tyres, high above the ground, with big windows, an open-air back deck and, on the vehicles we book, a toilet. It crawls along old tracks over the frozen ponds and willow scrub of the coastal tundra, inside the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, where licensed operators are allowed to drive. Polar bears come ashore in summer when the bay ice melts, and by October and November they gather along this coast waiting for it to freeze again so they can hunt seals. We may find two young males shoving each other in the snow, a sow with cubs, or a single bear asleep in a kelp bed. The driver and naturalist stop wherever there is something to see, for as long as it stays interesting.

Après-midi

Lunch is hot soup and food served on board. Watch too for Arctic fox, Arctic hare, ptarmigan and gyrfalcon.

Soir

We are back in town at about 5 pm for dinner.

Compris

• A full day by tundra vehicle with a licensed operator in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, about 7 hours on the tundra
• Hot lunch on board
• Dinner in Churchill
• A guided aurora outing by van on the first clear evening with a good forecast, out of the town lights

Second full day among the bears

Churchill to the Churchill Wildlife Management Area by tundra vehicle, and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Churchill
• Environ 45 min de route

Après-midi

Lunch is again hot and on board, so we do not have to turn back for it. If a storm stops the vehicles on one of our two tundra days, which happens, your guide works with the operator on a swap or extra hours on the other day before we leave Churchill.

Compris

• A second full day by tundra vehicle in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, about 7 hours on the tundra
• Hot lunch on board
• Dinner in Churchill

Sled dogs, then back to Winnipeg

Churchill to a dog kennel east of town, then by air to Winnipeg

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Winnipeg
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

A slower morning. We drive out along the coast road to a kennel at the edge of the boreal forest, where a local musher and the dog team are waiting. The dogs are loud with excitement before a run and calm afterwards, and there is time to meet them, hear how a team is trained and fed through an Arctic winter, and warm up by the stove. Then you ride in turns along the forest trail behind the team. In October, and in early November when the snow is thin, the dogs often pull a wheeled cart instead of a sled; it is the same team on the same trail. On the way back, if bears and weather allow, we stop at Bird Cove to see the rusting hull of the MV Ithaca, aground on the tidal flats since 1960.

Soir

Lunch is in town, then we return the loaned gear and fly south in the afternoon, landing in Winnipeg in time for a farewell dinner near the hotel.

Compris

• Dog sledding with a local musher at the edge of the boreal forest, by sled or wheeled cart depending on the snow
• The wreck of the MV Ithaca at Bird Cove, if bears and weather allow
• Lunch in Churchill
• Flight from Churchill to Winnipeg
• Farewell dinner in Winnipeg

Activités en option

• Helicopter flight over the coast and the Churchill River from a local operator, in place of the dog sledding, priced when you book

Depart Winnipeg

Your hotel to Winnipeg airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 18 min de route

Matin

After breakfast the trip ends. A driver takes you to Winnipeg airport (YWG) at a time that suits your flight, about twenty minutes from the hotel.

Après-midi

If you fly in the afternoon, the morning is yours: The Forks and its market hall are a short walk, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is across the square, and the Manitoba Museum holds a full-size replica of the Nonsuch, the ketch whose 1668 voyage into Hudson Bay led to the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company, a neat end to a week spent on its old coast. Polar bear fans can also take a taxi to the Assiniboine Park Zoo, whose Journey to Churchill exhibit houses bears that came south as orphaned cubs. Your guide says goodbye at breakfast. For the transfer to fit, book a flight leaving after about 10 am.

Compris

• Drop-off at Winnipeg airport (YWG) at a time to suit your flight

Activités en option

• Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Manitoba Museum or the Assiniboine Park Zoo on your own, if your flight is in the afternoon (entry not included)