Cornelius Amann
October 06, 2026
5/5
Churchill, Manitoba: Polar Bears on the Hudson Bay Tundra
6 days from Winnipeg, mid October to mid November: fly north to Churchill for three nights, two full days on the tundra among the polar bears, dog sledding and the town's Hudson Bay history.
6 days · Round trip from Winnipeg · up to 12 guests
Polar bears beside a tundra lodge east of Churchill in mid-November; the lodge is not part of this trip Photo: Ansgar Walk, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tundra_Buggy_Lodge_2004-11-16.jpg)
The facts
At a glance
- Length
- 6 days, 5 nights
- Start and end
- Round trip from Winnipeg
- Group size
- 7 to 12 guests
- Longest drive
- 1 h on day 2No drive day is longer than 4 hours.
- Activity level
Easy
Mostly seated: two days of about 7 hours each in a heated tundra vehicle, two short flights and van rides. Walking is short, up to about 2 km a day on snow, ice and rock around Churchill and at the kennel. The demand is the cold: down to about -20 C with wind in November. Every outdoor part can be watched from a warm cabin or van instead.
- Meals included
- 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 4 dinners
- Room of your own
- + CAD 1,495 (estimated price)
- Season
- Polar bear season
Highlights
Why this trip
- Two full days on the tundra by tundra vehicle, with hot lunch on board and time to stay with each bear
- Polar bears gathering on the Hudson Bay coast while they wait for the sea ice
- A dog team at the edge of the boreal forest, by sled or wheeled cart depending on the snow
- Cape Merry and the view to Prince of Wales Fort, the Hudson's Bay Company's stone fort
- Inuit carvings at the Itsanitaq Museum and the Polar Bear Holding Facility, Churchill's bear jail
- A guided Northern Lights outing on the first clear night
- A warm parka, boots and mitts lent to you, and every dinner in Churchill booked
What makes this trip different
Short drives, all published
Every drive is listed day by day, and none is longer than 4 hours.
Free time is part of the plan
Free time and choices are marked on the days they fall.
Solo without the penalty
A room of your own is + CAD 1,495 (estimated price).
Day by day
Itinerary
The longest drive is 1 h, on day 2.
Tap any stop on the map to open that dayClick any stop on the map to open that day
Arrive in Winnipeg
Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport to your hotel in central Winnipeg
- Welcome dinner
- Stay in Winnipeg
- Drive about 18 min
Fly into Winnipeg (YWG) and plan to land by about 3 pm. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the twenty-minute drive to a central hotel near The Forks, where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet and people have gathered to trade for thousands of years. If you are in early, walk the riverside path, browse the market hall at The Forks, or look at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights from outside before it closes for the day. At about 5:30 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the hotel for a briefing on the week ahead: how the tundra days run, what the cold feels like on the back deck of a tundra vehicle, how the town's polar bear safety rules work, and what goes in the small bag for the flight north tomorrow.
Evening
Then we walk to a welcome dinner nearby. It is an early night, because the flight to Churchill leaves in the morning.
Included
- Pick-up at Winnipeg airport (YWG)
- Welcome briefing with your guide
- Welcome dinner in Winnipeg
Optional experiences
- Canadian Museum for Human Rights or the Manitoba Museum on your own, if you land early (entry not included)
Free time: Free until the 5:30 pm briefing
Activity: If you land after the briefing, a driver still meets you and your guide briefs you at breakfast.
Fly north to Churchill
Winnipeg to Churchill by air, then around Churchill and Cape Merry
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Churchill
- Drive about 1 h
An early start for the flight north, about two to two and a half hours over the boreal forest and the first of the tundra to Churchill, a town of under a thousand people on the west shore of Hudson Bay with no road to the rest of Canada.
Morning
We land mid-morning, check in and pick up your loaned parka, boots and mitts.
Afternoon
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.
Included
- 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
Easier option: Stay in the warm van at Cape Merry, where the walk out to the battery is over rock and often icy, and rest at the hotel before dinner.
Free time: An hour or two free in the centre of town before dinner
Activity: Plan for a hotel departure before 8 am for the flight; it is the only start before 8 am on the trip. The walk at Cape Merry is short but over rock that can be icy. The Itsanitaq Museum and the Parks Canada visitor centre are subject to opening days, which we confirm for your dates; if one is closed, we visit it on the morning of day 5.
First full day on the tundra
Churchill to the Churchill Wildlife Management Area by tundra vehicle, and back
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Churchill
- Drive about 45 min
Today is the reason for the trip.
Morning
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.
Afternoon
Lunch is hot soup and food served on board. Watch too for Arctic fox, Arctic hare, ptarmigan and gyrfalcon.
Evening
We are back in town at about 5 pm for dinner.
Included
- 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
Easier option: Stay inside the heated cabin and watch through the windows; you see the same bears without going out on the deck.
More active option: Spend your time on the open back deck for photographs, behind the steel mesh, dressed for the wind.
Free time: Evening free after dinner when the sky is cloudy
Activity: We book tundra vehicles with heating and a toilet on board and confirm both with the operator for your dates. The back deck is open to the wind off the bay, which can feel well below -20 C in November. Sightings are never guaranteed.
Second full day among the bears
Churchill to the Churchill Wildlife Management Area by tundra vehicle, and back
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Churchill
- Drive about 45 min
A second full day on the tundra changes the odds and the pictures. Bears move with the wind, the tide and the ice, so a quiet first day can be followed by a busy second one, and if the first day was busy you can spend this one with the camera, not the binoculars. We usually head for a different stretch of the coast, towards the points and ponds where ice forms first, and the light is different too: in late October the sun stays low all day and turns the snow pink and gold. Our naturalist talks through what the bears are doing and why, from their summer fast on land to the timing of the freeze-up.
Afternoon
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.
Included
- 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
Easier option: Stay inside the heated cabin; the windows open for photographs.
More active option: Long stretches on the back deck with your guide, who can help with camera settings for white bears on white snow.
Free time: Evening free after dinner
Activity: About 7 hours on the vehicle, seated most of the time, with room to stand and walk around inside when it is stopped.
Sled dogs, then back to Winnipeg
Churchill to a dog kennel east of town, then by air to Winnipeg
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Winnipeg
- Drive about 1 h
Morning
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.
Evening
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.
Included
- 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
Optional experiences
- Helicopter flight over the coast and the Churchill River from a local operator, in place of the dog sledding, priced when you book
Easier option: Meet the dogs and stay by the stove without riding.
Activity: The sled or cart ride itself is short, usually 10 to 20 minutes per guest; the whole visit takes about 2 hours.
Depart Winnipeg
Your hotel to Winnipeg airport
- Breakfast
- Drive about 18 min
Morning
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.
Afternoon
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.
Included
- Drop-off at Winnipeg airport (YWG) at a time to suit your flight
Optional experiences
- 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)
Free time: Morning free if your flight is in the afternoon
Activity: Book a flight home leaving after about 10 am.
- Winnipeg1 night
- Churchill3 nights
- Winnipeg1 night
- Overnight stop
- Day trip
- By boat or train
Wildlife and weather: The bears gather on the coast from about mid October and leave when Hudson Bay freezes, usually in mid to late November. Late October and November are colder and usually busier with bears. Snow can be thin early in the season, and storms can stop the tundra vehicles or delay flights for a day.
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Before you book
Right for you?
Good for you if you want
- Travellers who want polar bears in the wild, with two full days to see them
- Photographers who want time on an open deck rather than a quick stop
- Anyone who wants a remote place without hiking or camping: the tundra is seen from a heated vehicle
- Solo travellers and couples who like a small group with dinners sorted
Not for you if you want
- Anyone who wants guaranteed sightings: bears and the aurora are wild
- Travellers who dislike strong cold or small planes
- Those looking for big hotels or fine dining: Churchill is a small frontier town
- Beluga whales: they are in the river in July and August, not in bear season
Book flights after we confirm your seat.
5 nights
Where you'll stay
Your hotels are named in your trip confirmation.
- Winnipeg1 night
- Churchill3 nights
- Winnipeg1 night
One price
What's in the price
Included
Accommodation
- 5 nights: 1 in central Winnipeg, 3 in Churchill and 1 more in central Winnipeg
- In Winnipeg a 3-star-plus hotel near The Forks; in Churchill the best of the town's small hotels, in walking distance of the centre, all with private bathrooms; we name each hotel when we confirm your dates
- Rooms shared, or your own for a supplement
Transport
- Pick-up at Winnipeg airport (YWG) on day 1 and drop-off on day 6
- Return flight from Winnipeg to Churchill, day 2 out and day 5 back
- Van transfers in Churchill and Winnipeg, including to the tundra vehicle launch and the kennel
- Two full days by tundra vehicle with a licensed operator
Your guide
- A See Sight Tours guide with the group from the day 1 briefing to breakfast on day 6
- A licensed driver and naturalist on each tundra vehicle day
- A local musher for the dog sledding
Activities
- Two full days on the tundra in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area
- Dog sledding near Churchill, by sled or wheeled cart depending on the snow
- Churchill town and area tour: Cape Merry and the view to Prince of Wales Fort, the port, the Inuksuk and the Polar Bear Holding Facility (from outside)
- Itsanitaq Museum, Churchill
- Parks Canada visitor centre, Churchill
- The MV Ithaca wreck at Bird Cove, if bears and weather allow
- A guided Northern Lights outing by van on the first clear evening in Churchill
- Loan of an insulated parka, winter boots and mitts for the Churchill days
Meals
- 5 breakfasts
- 4 lunches: in Churchill on days 2 and 5, and hot lunches on board on both tundra days
- 5 dinners: a welcome dinner in Winnipeg, all three nights in Churchill and a farewell dinner in Winnipeg
Not included
- International flights to and from Winnipeg
- Travel insurance, which should include medical evacuation from a remote area
- Canadian eTA or visa
- Lunch on days 1 and 6
- Drinks
- Tips for your guide, the tundra vehicle crew and the musher
- Optional activities, such as a helicopter flight in Churchill
- Excess baggage on the Churchill flight
- Personal expenses
Extras
- Room of your own
- CAD 1,495 (estimated price)
When you can go
Dates and prices
Pick your start date when you request to book. We check that date and confirm it in your quote.
Prefer to travel without a group or guide? Ask us about arranging hotels, transport and city tours for you to travel independently.
Before you book
Booking terms
Nothing is charged now. Full terms and the cancellation schedule come with your quote, before you accept.
Business addresses
See Sight Tours Trips (USA): 3172 N Rainbow Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89108, United StatesSee Sight Tours Trips (Canada): 5305 50 Avenue, #1091, Red Deer, AB T4N 4B6, Canada+1-888-961-6584Guest reviews
What guests say
Reviews from guests on our day tours.
Jane
October 06, 2026
5/5
Susan
October 06, 2026
5/5
Tom L
October 05, 2026
5/5
MandL83
October 05, 2026
5/5
Darren O
October 05, 2026
5/5
Good to know
Questions
What does the price include?
Five nights in hotels, the return flight between Winnipeg and Churchill, two full days on a tundra vehicle with a licensed operator, dog sledding, the Churchill town and history tour with the Itsanitaq Museum, a loaned parka, boots and mitts, airport transfers, 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 5 dinners, and your See Sight Tours guide from the first evening to the last breakfast.
Will we see polar bears?
Your chances are good in the season, but nobody can promise wild animals. In late October and November the bears gather along the coast east of Churchill while they wait for Hudson Bay to freeze, and two full tundra days give you two chances to find them, each with hours to stay with a bear once we do.
Can we see the Northern Lights in Churchill?
Often, if the sky is clear. Churchill sits under the band where the aurora is most active, and autumn nights are long and dark. Cloud is the usual spoiler, so we cannot promise it. On the first clear evening with a good forecast your guide takes the group out of the town lights by van to watch.
Is warm clothing included, and what should I pack?
Yes. We rent an insulated parka, winter boots and mitts for every guest and include the cost; you pick them up in Churchill on day 2 and hand them back on day 5. Bring thermal base layers, a fleece, warm trousers, a hat, a neck warmer, thin gloves, warm socks and a camera with spare batteries.
How big is the group, and who leads it?
The small group runs with 7 to 12 guests. A See Sight Tours guide travels with you from the first evening in Winnipeg to the last breakfast. On the tundra days a licensed driver and naturalist from the local operator runs the vehicle, and a local musher runs the dog team. We name the operator when we confirm your dates.
How fit do I need to be?
Not very. Most of the trip is seated, in a heated tundra vehicle or a van, with short walks on snow and ice around town and at Cape Merry. You need to manage the steps up to the tundra vehicle and the aircraft, and to dress for strong cold. Each day lists an easier way to do it.
I am travelling solo. What does a single room cost?
A room of your own is from CAD 1,495 more, about 17 percent of the price, shown before you book and never added later. Churchill has few hotel rooms in bear season, so ask for a single room early. Solo travellers are welcome on every departure and have the same seats, meals and time as everyone else.
When is the best time to see polar bears in Churchill?
From about mid October to mid November, while the bears wait on the coast for the bay to freeze. We run this trip only in that window. Late October and November are colder but usually busier with bears. Belugas, which fill the Churchill River in July and August, are a summer trip, not this one.
How much does it cost, and how do I book?
The small group starts from CAD 8,995 per person sharing a room, taxes included, and the private trip from CAD 16,190. Pick a start date and request to book; we confirm your trip within 24 hours, and no payment is taken until we have confirmed it with you.
Can we travel privately or on our own dates?
Yes. The private trip is for your party only, on a date you choose within the bear season, with your own guide. If you would rather travel independently on your own dates, ask us from the dates section and we will quote the same flights, hotels and tundra days without a guide.
Do I need a visa for Canada?
Many visitors do not need a visa but need an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) to fly to Canada; US citizens need only a valid passport. Others need a visitor visa. Check the Government of Canada site for your passport, and bring government photo ID for the flight to Churchill.
What happens if weather cancels the flight or a tundra day?
We move the days around rather than drop them. If a storm stops the tundra vehicles on day 3 or 4, your guide asks the operator to swap the day or add hours on the other, though a lost day cannot always be made up. If weather delays a flight, we rebuild the Churchill days around it. Your booking terms set out costs, and travel insurance should cover delays.
See Sight Tours has been providing travel services across North America since 2006. Operating in 20 cities across Canada and the USA, the company specializes in small group tours that offer personalized, high-quality experiences for travelers.
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