Churchill, Canada: Polar Bear Capital of the World

Churchill, a small town in Manitoba, Canada, located off the Hudson Bay, is easily one of the best places in the world to see polar bears in the wild. During October and early November thousands of polar bears migrate across the frozen water of the Hudson Bay to hunt for food. My sister and I planned a trip here as a surprise for our mom, to celebrate her 50th birthday by seeing one of her favorite animals in their natural habitat.

When researching Churchill, it can initially seem like an expensive trip. However, that doesn’t have to be the case if you piecemeal the trip together yourself instead of booking through a tour company. That is exactly what we chose to do and it turned out quite affordable – perfect for treating our mom to such a unique trip!

How to travel to Churchill?

The only ways to get to Churchill are via train or plane. When we were planning our trip, the train running to/from Churchill was not operating due to damage from flooding. This meant our only option was to fly to Churchill and this had the potential to become costly. At the time of our trip there was only one commercial airline that flew to Churchill, CalmAir. To cut down on flight costs, we decided to do a road trip from Chicago to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and fly to Churchill from there. I do recommend visiting Manitoba if you have the time – see my pictures at the end for a sneak peek.

Where to stay?

If you book a tour package your accommodations will be taken care of for you. Since we did not go that route, we decided to stay at the Blue Sky Bed & Sled – I so highly recommend staying here with Jenafor and Gerald! They are absolutely amazing hosts and wonderful people. Jenafor makes delicious food for breakfast and she was completely accommodating to my diet – I brought tofu, almond milk, and non-dairy cheese with me so that she could use these ingredients to make some of her specialty breakfast items, pictured below.

The cutest breakfast: polar bear pancakes

One evening Jenafor even baked a polar bear cake for my mom since she knew we were on this trip in celebration of her birthday – chocolate cake with white frosting and coconut shreds! Anatomically correct as polar bears have black skin under their white coat 🙂 This was such a sweet gesture and fun evening of celebrating!

The other reason to stay here? They offer dog sledding expeditions! They have a number of beautiful, well cared-for sled dogs at their dog sledding facility. We got a condensed visit here as we didn’t plan a full day to experience this part of the culture. We learned more about how they train and raise the dogs, interacted with them, and of course went on sled rides!

My mom and I with Gerald, our musher, and two of the dogs

I highly recommend staying at a smaller bed & breakfast for a more local and authentic experience. The larger hotels/lodges look very nice but don’t offer as much of a chance to interact with locals and learn more about this unique region. One of my favorite parts of the trip was sitting with our hosts and other b&b guests in the morning and evenings, sharing stories and getting to know them all.

What to see/do in town when not viewing polar bears?

We arrived very late on a Thursday night due to a delayed flight in, and luckily got to sleep in the next day (glad we planned a buffer day at the start!). After a wonderful breakfast at our b&b, our hosts took us for a drive to orient us and show us around town. A must-stop outside of town is the polar bear jail (aka holding facility) – it is possible to stop here on the way to/from the airport. Polar bears that wander into town are often held here before being relocated farther from town. The facility has enough space for about 30 delinquent bears.

We later went on a walk around town. There are many beautiful murals on buildings and sculptures to explore around town.

The Eskimo Museum is worth a stop. It’s small in size but packed with a large number of artifacts. It features a small gift shop section with a nice selection of souvenirs, books, and necessities.

If you are shopping for souvenirs the two stops I recommend are Fifty Eight North (the Frontiers North gift shop) and The Arctic Trading Company. Both are packed with wonderful goodies to remind you of Churchill.

Where to eat?

On the typical trip to Churchill your breakfast will be provided at your accommodations, your lunch will be available during the polar bear adventure, and dinner will be somewhere in town (or perhaps at your hotel/lodge). The Tundra Inn restaurant & pub has a large menu with something for everyone. We went there with our b&b hosts and two others who were helping them out for the season. Jenafor was raving about their Borealis burger so we just had to visit – well worth it! We were served delicious warm soup before our entrees. The Borealis burger & yam fries are highly recommended! I was so hungry I didn’t even snap a picture of it.

The Lazy Bear lodge has a nice cafe and restaurant area as well. We stopped in for warm beverages on our day of exploring Churchill. The menu sounded good but we didn’t have a chance to sample it this trip.

Most importantly: how to see the polar bears?

You have two main polar bear viewing options in Churchill:

Go to the bears – ride around in a vehicle, looking for bears out on the tundra (multi-day tours can be arranged with many tour companies and often include lodging; single day tours can be purchased separately and you have to secure your own lodging)
Have the bears come to you – stay in a lodge out on the tundra for a few days (and miss out on exploring the rest of Churchill)

We chose to book two 1-day polar bear tours, one with Frontiers North and one with Great White Bear Tours. This allowed us an extra day to see polar bears in case the first day was a bust – and trust me, it happens. I’ve seen some angry reviews and therefore highly suggest booking more than a single day. Our approach also allowed us to try out both of the major polar bear tour companies in Churchill. We were fortunate enough to find two consecutive days with spots still available and planned the remainder of the vacation around those dates.

Frontiers North

The first day of our polar bear safari experience was with Frontiers North. This company has been operating tours in Churchill for three decades (at the time of writing). They have a gift shop in town, Fifty Eight North (Churchill is located at a latitude of 58° north), where everyone meets for the tour between 7-8 in the morning. Hot tea and coffee are available to enjoy while browsing the gift shop and waiting for everyone to arrive and sign waivers. Once Luke, our driver/guide for the day, arrived, we were off to board our Tundra Buggy!

Map of the Tundra Buggy dock, lodge, and routes

From the Tundra Buggy dock we drove around on rough trails that were established by the military in the past. The tour companies stay on these trails to ensure no further damage is done to the tundra ecosystem here.

The area here is very open, windy, and chilly. We drove around for the majority of the day, passing near the Hudson bay at times. Even though we were here for the polar bears, there was some more wildlife to be seen!

Ptarmigan jumping up at the bushes to eat

The first few bears we saw were what the locals call “binocular bears” – guess why!

It’s actually uncommon to see two adult polar bears meeting like this

Spotting polar bears in the wild was not always easy. At this time of the year they are hungry and may spend a good portion of their day sleeping and conserving energy. And when they sleep – they can blend it to their surroundings quite well.

The best bears to see are the active, curious ones! It may not always happen so consider yourself lucky if you get to view ones like this one – a curious guy that came up close to our buggy and the Frontiers North Tundra Buggy Lodge.

A warm lunch was served in the afternoon, consisting of red lentil soup, a wrap or sandwich (hummus veggie wrap for me), tea/coffee/hot chocolate, and cookies. We were dropped back off at the gift shop in the late afternoon and used the remaining daylight to stop at a couple stores for souvenirs.

Great White Bear Tours

Our second day of polar bear viewing was with Great White Bear Tours. They started offering polar bear tours in 1988. Some of the main differences between the two biggest tour companies:

GWBT picks you up and drops you off at your hotel/b&b earlier in the morning
Instead of having a single driver/guide they have both a driver and a guide on board the vehicle
You get slightly less food than on FN

The Polar Rover was quite similar in look and feel to the Tundra Buggy though the windows were far more difficult to open and close on our vehicle (which you do a lot when it’s so cold outside!). They have a GWB Tundra Lodge similar to the FN’s Tundra Buggy Lodge.

Since we saw some great bears on our first day, every bear we saw this time was a bonus. One of my favorite from this day was a bear rolling around in snow and then heading off into the way to swim away.

Another great spot for the day was a snowy owl! The guides are really good at spotting them as they are camouflaged in their surroundings.

No matter how many bears we saw, we never complained when we saw more!

Sleepy bear raised his head for long enough to snap some photos!

Quick tips & suggestions

Pick up specialty food items in Winnipeg or any city you fly / take the train from – Churchill is a small town and may not carry what you need (and if they do, it’s more expensive)
Bring your binoculars and a camera with a really good zoom
Add a buffer day to the start of your vacation – the last thing you want is a delayed arrival spoiling your plans
Plan early! The tours and lodging fill up fast
Come back for the summer season – bears are around year-round, not just during the migration

Sneak Peek of Winnipeg