Churchill

I had always loved these bears growing up ever since seeing them in the Assiniboine Park Zoo.  We had neglected heading up to Churchill for so long, a combination of costs while younger and needing to book a year in advance normally; but with limited travel opportunities in 2020 I knew would be a year to do it.  Frontiers North was still operating a few tours, with all the uncertainty I decided to just book a day trip on top of a weekend home visiting family. 

The day begins early, arriving at 0630, straight onto the plane for the 1.5 flight up to Churchill.  From there we took a bus to the Tundra Buggy docking station for 20 minutes.  There is about an hour on the buggy getting to the prime bear viewing area.  Rugged, desolate snow swept landscape and a still wide open Hudson Bay awaits.  We spotted the first bear in the distance; I had a hard time distinguishing it from a snow covered rock.  About a half dozen more bears were spotted on the trip which lasted 6 hours.    A few came quite close the buggy, one even standing up on the buggy next to us.  The bears did not disappoint, somewhat more elegant then the grizzlies at least to me.  The gleaning white coats with the tunda background makes for quite the experience. 

We were whisked back to the airport, straight onto plane, and touched down in Winnipeg at 7:45 – just in time for dinner.

Frontiers North ran a really solid tour/operation and I would have no problem recommending them.  The charter aspect of the flight really saved time and I preferred this to staying in town for a few nights. The 1 day option is ideal for Manitobans or anyone who travels to Winnipeg regularly without having to commit to full tour prices.  From what I hear chances of sightings are most dependent on Hudson Bay freezing over, so is more of a week to week variable than day to day, if the bears haven’t gone out onto the ice you will very likely see them on your 1 day, whereas if ice freezes early you may not see them at all on a multiday tour. It really is an activity that every Manitoban should try and experience.   If returning to Churchill for more polar bears I would certainly consider staying in their Tundra lodge, skipping the back and forth between the town and the tundra each day, plus more photo opportunities and northern light viewing.  The walking option offered by Churchill Wild also seems enticing (particularly as I wouldn’t fit on the twin bed tundra buggy lodge), but I’m not sure if they can cover as much ground to find the bears as the buggies, and its very steep pricing wise. Staying in town and doing a beluga trip would be a bit more reasonable cost wise.