In October 2022, I took a great trip with my dad up to Canada to see polar bears in the wild. We spent five days hanging out in Winnipeg, doing Canadian things like going to a hockey game, visiting the polar bears at Assiniboine Park Zoo, and checking out the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, but the highlight of the trip was definitely the one-day tour we took up to Churchill, Manitoba with Frontiers North. When I was researching for the trip, I couldn’t find much in the way of reviews for the one-day tour, so I wanted to share some more information with anyone who might be planning their own trip!
I want to emphasize that this is not in any way a sponsored post. I paid full price for my dad and myself to take the Frontiers North One-Day Polar Bear Adventure. It was pricey, but in the end, absolutely worth it to see these amazing animals in the wild. Read on for my full review of the tour!
Why Churchill?
Why travel to Churchill to see polar bears? Because it’s one of the most accessible places to see them, and one of the few places in the world where humans and polar bears share the same territory. Other options include Svalbard in Norway, Kaktovik in Alaska, or a handful of even more remote locations. But Churchill is known as the “Polar Bear Capital of the World” for a reason, and our base for the day tour, Winnipeg, is only a short flight from my home in Minnesota!
Tour Options
Once you’ve decided on Churchill for your polar bear adventure, there are several things to consider:
– DIY or tour package. You can DIY a trip to Churchill–arrive in town by plane or train, stay in a hotel, and then book individual days on a tundra buggy (around $500/person/day). Or, you can book a package with a tour company that will include days on a tundra buggy and some additional activities ($6000/person and up). I looked into the DIY route, but it seemed like it was going to be difficult to make it much cheaper than one of the packages; keep in mind that Churchill is a remote destination, and the main polar bear season (Sept-Nov) is short. Both of these factors = high prices.
– Tour length. The average package tour is about a week long, and will include two or three days on a tundra buggy spotting wildlife, and different activities during the other days, like dog-sledding and a visit to the town of Churchill. Because of the aforementioned high prices, I decided I wanted to take the one-day tour instead. The polar bears were the focus for us, so I didn’t mind missing out on the other activities, and ultimately I couldn’t justify spending thousands of dollars more per person for only two more tundra buggy days. Of course, if you DIY a tour, you can stay as long and book as many tundra buggy days as you like/can afford!
– Tour company. Tour companies in Churchill can be very confusing, as many do not operate tundra buggies themselves, but contract that portion of the tour out to those that do. The polar bear trails are in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area (CWMA), and as far as I can tell, only three companies have permits to operate tundra buggies on them–Frontiers North, Great White Bear Tours, and Lazy Bear Expeditions. (There is another company called Churchill Wild that leads ground-level walking safaris to see polar bears, which did not fit my budget or comfort level!) Only 18 permits are given to use the trails in the CWMA, and Frontiers North holds 12 of them. They’ve also been leading tours of the area for over 30 years and debuted the Tundra Buggy in 1979, so I knew we’d be in good hands with them.
After considering all these factors, I decided to book the one-day tour to Churchill from Winnipeg with Frontiers North, as it seemed the most convenient and cost-effective.
One-Day Tour Logistics
I wanted to share a few details about the tour logistics, since not all of them were clear to me before embarking on our trip.
– You’ll fly from Winnipeg to Churchill via a charter flight. I was afraid it would be a little puddle jumper, but it was an older commercial airplane with plenty of room for everyone and lots of open seats. In any case, a puddle jumper wouldn’t have made it, since it’s over 1200 miles or ~2.5 hour flight. Yes, you’ll be getting up early so you can arrive in Churchill just as it’s getting light outside. It was a pretty cool bonus to see both sunrise and sunset out the plane windows!
– Once you land, you’ll take a bus out to the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. You will not enter the actual town of Churchill on this trip, so if you want postcards or a souvenir, be sure to pick them up at the airport! The bus ride to the Tundra Buggy terminal takes about 30 minutes, and along the way you’ll have some nice introductory views of Hudson Bay, the tundra, and the infamous “Polar Bear Jail” (Churchill’s Polar Bear Holding Facility, used for when errant bears make their way into town).
– Next is the part you’ve been waiting for–boarding the Tundra Buggy! These buggies are huge–we thought the size of a single-wide trailer house, with 5.5-foot tractor tires. They need to be, not only to transport a good number of guests across the tundra, but to make it through the ill-maintained trails (be ready for some bumpy parts of the ride!) and to keep guests safe from polar bears. I didn’t do a great job of timing it, but I think we spent a good 6-7 hours out in the CWMA area on this tour.
– They will feed you! I believe my pre-trip materials only mentioned a “picnic lunch” on the buggy, so I wanted to mention that we were surprisingly well fed during the day. First, we had a small snack and beverage on the flight. Lunch was a hearty soup and sandwiches on the Tundra Buggy, and later we had a break where we were able to sip hot cocoa while watching bears. Finally, on the flight home, we were served a light charcuterie dinner.
– The driver and expert naturalist really added to the experience. Our driver knew so much about the area and the bears. There were a couple of times where he moved the buggy and I thought “Why are you moving when we can see the bears just fine right here?” but he was able to get us much better views and interactions with the bears. Dr. Stephen Peterson, Director of Conservation at Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, was also very knowledgeable, teaching us all about polar bear behavior and answering even our trickiest questions. Having these two guide us through the CWMA really added to the experience and our understanding of what we were observing!
Polar Bears!
Okay, I might have spoiled it already, but YES, we did see polar bears!
This was a huge relief, as the riskiest part of the one-day tour is that there is no guarantee that you will see polar bears, or refund if you don’t. Actually, I don’t think there’s a guarantee on any of the tours, but if you have more than one day in Churchill, that would, of course, increase your odds. That said, Frontiers North does try to plan the tours for the weeks of peak polar bear sightings, increasing your odds of seeing them.
After boarding the Tundra Buggy, our driver said that it would be about 45 minutes to the place where they usually see bears. Almost exactly 45 minutes in, we saw our first bear! We definitely all breathed a sigh of relief–including the driver–that our journey and expense had not been in vain.
Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better first bear either. He (or she?) was very curious and interested in us and another buggy, walking all around us and out toward the bay. I got all kinds of great shots–bear with buggy, bear right beneath me, bear and tundra, bear and Hudson Bay, bear and snow, etc.–just from that very first bear!
After our first bear wandered off, we continued along the trail until we saw a group of buggies checking out what turned out to be three bears. We watched these three bears from afar while we ate lunch, and then the driver moved along the trail to get us closer to them. While watching, we saw a fifth bear off in the distance, but he didn’t come our way.
Two of the three bears we were observing were very active and playful, even sparring together a little for us! They then became curious about us and came right up to the buggy, including just beneath our window! We all stayed incredibly quiet, as instructed by the driver and to avoid scaring them away. It was an incredible experience to see a polar bear sniffing around right beneath your feet, while breathing in the Arctic air and only hearing the light shutter clicks of cameras!
Next we moved closer to the shore, where the fourth bear had retreated to nap. It was there that we had our hot cocoa break, and reflected on how lucky we were to see five polar bears! We were told the average tour sees about 3-4 bears, but the record was 20+ in one day. We moved up the trail, where we found another sleepy bear napping in a bed of kelp. After watching him for a while and taking a ton of pictures, we continued on.
There was some other wildlife along the trail–snow buntings and a few crows. We then saw a muskrat, which the naturalist said was interesting since they usually don’t live that far north. While stopped to observe the muskrat, we saw our seventh polar bear off in the distance. There was a slight chance that it was the same polar bear as the fifth one who never came too close, as the tundra is disorienting and we weren’t quite sure where we were. In any case, we decided that seven was a lucky number, and we would go with that!
I wanted to note here that you’re probably not likely to see much other wildlife on the one-day tour, since the focus is on polar bears. On the longer tours, at least according to this excellent blog post by A Dangerous Business Travel Blog, if there have been lots of polar bear sightings, they might take lesser-used trails on the last day to look for other wildlife, like arctic fox, ptarmigan, and snowy owls.
All in all, I was extremely satisfied with seeing seven polar bears when we only had about seven hours out on the tundra, especially since three of them came up so close to us!
Know Before You Go
– Book EARLY. I mean this in two ways. First of all, if you really want to see polar bears, don’t wait, because it’s likely going to keep getting more expensive. I made the mistake of looking back at my notes from five years ago when I first considered this trip, and wanted to cry when I saw how much cheaper a week-long tour was then! The second way I mean it is the general way–you’re going to want to book ahead before things fill up. As I mentioned, polar bear season is short and spots on the buggies are limited. I booked our October tour in May, and shortly after, the link to book turned into a link to join the waitlist!
– Polar bear season. Polar bears spend their spring and winter out on the ice of Hudson Bay, eating seals, and return to land (the Churchill area, on the south side of Hudson Bay) in the summer and fall. The peak time to see the most bears is somewhere around early October to mid-November. That’s your best chance of seeing polar bears–but also the most expensive time to go. Summer trips are a cheaper option, with a lower chance of seeing bears, but the added bonus of seeing seals and beluga whales. If I hadn’t done the day trip, I probably would have booked one of those tours. Finally, peak Northern Lights season in Churchill is January-March, but you should be aware that you will not see polar bears during this time, because they will be up eating seals on (frozen) Hudson Bay.
– Bundle up. My dad and I were quite comfortable, but we live in Minnesota, so the 30-degree weather didn’t phase us. If you’re not used to such Arctic conditions, you’ll definitely get cold if you don’t dress for it. Much of the time, the Tundra Buggy windows will be open so people can get a good view and take photos, and you’ll also want to be able to stand out on the back deck of the buggy for at least a few minutes at a time without too much discomfort, since it’s a great way to get an unobstructed view of the bears!
– Bring a camera. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so you’ll want to capture the bears you see. While a few of the polar bears did get close enough that people could take decent cell phone pictures, there’s no guarantee that will happen. A proper camera (and telephoto lenses, if you’re really dedicated) will ensure you get great photos, even if the bears aren’t super close. Make sure to bring extra memory cards and batteries, and you might consider putting the batteries in an interior pocket to keep them warm so they won’t discharge as quickly. If you don’t own a camera or a good lens for this application, renting is always an option!
– Watch the webcams! If you want a feel for what the terrain and riding on a tundra buggy would be like, watch the Polar Bears International buggy cam, or the two live webcams at Frontiers North Tundra Buggy Lodge. During peak season, these webcams can show you polar bears in action, and the rest of the time you can watch a highlights real of the best polar bear footage they’ve captured.
Oh! And if you’d like to see three of the polar bears from my trip in action, check out this Youtube video I created. It was so much fun to see them sparring a little and walking up to investigate the tundra buggy!
Final Thoughts
Obviously, I had an excellent experience and was really happy that I booked this tour. It was great to see an affordable option for us and all the other families, friends, and photography enthusiasts on this tour, and I hope they continue to offer the one-day from Winnipeg in future years.
I tried to think of anything Frontiers North could have done better, and honestly, there wasn’t much. After seeing how remote Churchill is and how the company gives back to First Nations people and Polar Bears International, I really can’t complain about the price. I did wish there had been a bit more communication ahead of the tour. I booked in May, made the final payment in June, and then didn’t hear much until October. We were given a packet a few weeks ahead of time but no followup a few days before to confirm when and where to go for the charter flight, which I think would have been a nice touch. I also was checking social media ahead of the tour, and while they post lots of bear pictures, there was no indication when the photos were from–it would’ve put me more at ease if I knew polar bears had actually been spotted on recent tours!
All in all, I had an excellent and exciting day tour in Churchill–seeing seven polar bears!–and would absolutely recommend it to anyone hoping to see these magnificent animals on a budget.
Have you visited Churchill, Manitoba? Is seeing polar bears in the wild on your bucket list? Did I miss covering any pertinent info in this review? Let me know in the comments below!
One thought on “Review of Frontiers North One-Day Polar Bear Adventure”