Churchill, Manitoba: Polar Bears on the Hudson Bay Tundra

1. Day 1: Arrive in Winnipeg

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

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Winnipeg
   Day 1 details

   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. 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.

   

2. Day 2: Fly north to Churchill

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

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Churchill
   Day 2 details

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

   

3. Day 3: First full day on the tundra

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

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Churchill
   Day 3 details

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

   

4. Day 4: Second full day among the bears

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

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Churchill
   Day 4 details

   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. 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.

5. Day 5: Sled dogs, then back to Winnipeg

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

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Winnipeg
   Day 5 details

   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. 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.

6. Day 6: Depart Winnipeg

   Your hotel to Winnipeg airport

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 6 details

   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. 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.

   

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.

• Winnipeg1 night
• Churchill3 nights
• Winnipeg1 night