Churchill, Manitoba has a pretty unique title—the polar bear capital of the world! This remote town, located along the Hudson Bay in Canada, is home to one of the largest polar bear populations on the planet—and, with a little bit of effort, you can actually see these magnificent creatures for yourself. Here’s everything you need to know about seeing the polar bears in Churchill, one of the most unique wildlife viewing experiences in the world!
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Why are there so many polar bears in Churchill?
If you’re anything like me, you may be wondering why in the world there’s such a high concentration of polar bears in a random town in Canada.
During my husband, Justin’s and my time in Churchill, we learned SO much about these creatures, including that Canada actually has an estimated two-thirds of the world’s population of polar bears, around 16,000 (who knew?!).
But Churchill is believed to have the highest concentration of them in the world—around one thousand—due to its location on the coastline of the Hudson Bay.
Polar bears largely subsist on ringed seals, which they can really only hunt when the Hudson Bay is frozen over from mid-November through June. Outside of this timeframe, the polar bears are essentially fasting (with the exception for a few berries and seaweed they munch on here and there).
Accordingly, by the time bay freezes in late fall, the polar bears are HUNGRY and ready to get out on the ice. Churchill just so happens to be the first place the Hudson Bay freezes over every year—due the bay’s current and the way that Churchill’s coastline juts out into the water—so the polar bears congregate here every October and November to await the ice.
When to visit Churchill for polar bears
While you can theoretically see a few polar bears in Churchill year round, you’ll have the best chances of seeing them from mid-October to mid-November, when they await the ice to form on the Hudson Bay.
One thing I’d caution against is visiting too late in November. The ice forms quite quickly on the Hudson Bay around mid-November and, once the ice is there, all of the polar bears almost immediately desert the area.
And, even if all of the polar bears are completely gone for the season, the tour operators will still take you out to hopefully see other kinds of animals in the area, like foxes, Arctic hare, or caribou. Accordingly, you won’t get a refund for the (very expensive!) tours AND not see any polar bears.
Justin and I visited around the third week of October, which I later found out was at the very beginning of polar bear season. We still saw about 15 polar bears total, but I’d recommend going a week or two after we did, when there should be a higher concentration of bears. We’ve heard that the town has super fun parties for Halloween, so if you can, targeting the very end of October to the beginning of November might be the perfect time to visit!
Insider tip: If you're willing to roll the dice a bit, many locals will tell you that the best time to visit Churchill is August, when it's possible to see the "trifecta"—polar bears, beluga whales (which come to Churchill's estuary by the tens of thousands in the summertime), and the Northern Lights—all in one day.
That being said, there are way less polar bears around Churchill during this timeframe, so if seeing them is your primary objective, I'd recommend booking your trip during the standard mid-October through mid-November season.
How to plan a visit to see polar bears in Churchill
Unlike most places we’ve traveled to, the majority of people who travel to Churchill actually come as part of a multi-day packaged tour, where you pay a flat fee and an operator arranges all of your flight, hotel, food, and activities.
For example, this 5-day tour from Winnipeg includes two polar bear tours with Frontiers North, a dog sledding excursion, an interpretive tour around the town of Churchill, and all your food, accommodations, and flights.
These all-inclusive tours are EXPENSIVE (often over $6,000 per person!), but are absolutely worth it for some travelers, given how logistically challenging planning a trip to Churchill can be. Flights, trains, and polar bear tours are not offered every day of the week a, so trying to find dates that align can feel a bit like piecing a puzzle together. Plus, accommodations are SUPER limited and are often booked up far in advance by tour operators.
So, if you don’t want to worry about the logistical headache of piecing together an itinerary and have flexibility in your budget, these package tours can be a great option.
On the other hand, if you’re on a tighter budget and are willing to put in a bit of elbow grease, it’s TOTALLY possible to plan your own trip to Churchill. As we get into below, you can absolutely book your own transportation, accommodation, and day tours for Churchill.
How to get to Churchill
We actually wrote a whole post about how to get to Churchill, but, in a nutshell, getting here isn’t exactly easy. Because of its remote and northerly location, there’s no roads that lead here! Accordingly, you only have two options of getting to and from Churchill, flying or taking the train.
While some travelers (like us!) stick to one mode of transport roundtrip, it’s popular for many visitors to ride up on the train and then fly back down to Winnipeg.
Flying to Churchill
There’s really only one commercial airline that flies to and from Churchill—Calm Air, generally out of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
On the bright side, flying is definitely the quickest way to get to Churchill—it’s just a two and a half hour flight from Winnipeg.
However, flying here is EXPENSIVE, starting around $1,400 USD per person roundtrip and usually costing at least $2,400 USD roundtrip during polar bear season.
Insider tip: We met another traveler in Churchill who said she got a MUCH better price on her airfare when she called Calm Air directly, as opposed to booking tickets online through their website. Calm Air also offers discounts for seniors, children, and students that are only available over the phone. So I’d suggest calling them to see if you can snag a better deal!
Taking the train to Churchill
Alternatively, Via Rail offers train service from Winnipeg to Churchill, stopping at eight towns (with over 50 more upon request) along the way.
Because a portion of the track is built on permafrost, the train goes quite slow—on average, around just 15 miles per hour. So getting to Churchill from Winnipeg takes a while, about 46 hours one-way.
To cut down on travel time, it’s popular for visitors to drive to Thompson, the last town that you can drive to along the rail route, and board the train there. Thompson is about an eight hour drive north of Winnipeg, but boarding the train here cuts your time aboard down to just 16 hours. So, if you’re short on time or just don’t want to be on a train for that long, this can be a great option.
To be honest, given that Justin and I rode in economy seats round trip, I was kind of dreading the train ride.
But we actually had a blast on the train to Churchill! There’s a cool observatory car, where we were lucky enough to see some spectacular sunsets and an INCREDIBLE showing of the Northern Lights(!!!), there were decent food and drinks aboard, and we had so much fun meeting and chatting with people from all over the world!
Aboard the train, you’ll have several options of seats or cabins to choose from.
Pssst… I’m listing estimated prices of seating options, based on the prices provided on the Via Rail site at the time of the writing of this article, as well as from our own experience and from speaking with other passengers. Pricing is dynamic, though, and varies based on demand, so please just use this as a reference point!
Economy seats
Economy seats are obviously the most affordable option. They come in sets of two, but rows can be swiveled around so that you have two rows facing one another if you have a larger group.
The seat backs recline a bit and there’s a footrest that also extends to make them a bit more comfortable. After riding in economy for over 90 hours, I can confirm that, while I’m grateful for these features, the chair still does not make a comfortable bed.
The seats also have some handy amenities, including two electrical outlets.
While comfort isn’t at a premium with the economy seats, they are DEFINITELY the most affordable way to get to Churchill. For Justin’s and my train tickets, it cost around $365 USD per person roundtrip.
Insider tip: If you luck out with a train that isn’t totally full, try to snag two sets of seats in a row. One of the sets can be flipped around to face the other seats and, with the footrests extended, it forms a “bed” of sorts.
It’s definitely not very comfortable to completely stretch out on—the footrests are elevated so, if you lie down on it, your butt will be higher than the rest of your body by a few inches—but it’s still much nicer to be able to spread out and fully extend your legs.
Sleeper class
There’s limited sleeper class options available on the Churchill line, with 6 berth seats and about 12 cabins.
There’s definitely some huge advantages to booking sleeper class tickets—namely, you’ll have your own bed(!!!) and access to a shower. However, unlike most Via Rail lines, sleeper class tickets aboard the Churchill line do not include any kind of meal service.
Given the limited number of tickets available, they sell out almost immediately during polar bear season, especially on the way up to Churchill. So, if you’re set on getting a sleeper seat, be sure to book as soon as the tickets go on sale ten months before the departure date.
Berth seats
Unlike cabins, the berths are not enclosed by a wall and, instead, have an open bench-like seating area during the day that converts into a bunk bed at night. There’s also a heavy curtain that you can close in the evening to provide more privacy and block out light and noise.
The biggest downside to a berth is that there’s no electrical outlets—berth passengers must charge their devices in the bathroom (or could find an outlet at an empty economy seat).
On the bright side, berths are the most affordable of the sleeper class, costing around $1,100 USD roundtrip.
Cabins
Via Rail offers a small number of cabins for groups of one to three passengers.
The enclosed cabins come with seats that convert to (what we heard were!) extremely comfy beds at night, plus your own personal bathroom, sink, and electrical outlets.
The biggest downside of the private cabins is cost, starting at around $1,200 (and often, way over that!) per person roundtrip.
How to see polar bears in Churchill
Once you’re in Churchill, there’s thankfully not just polar bears wandering around the town. You’ll have to go out into the wilderness around the town—typically on a guided tour—to see the world’s largest land predator!
Given that wildlife is, well, wild and unpredictable, I’d recommend going on at least two tours while you’re in Churchill, in case you get unlucky and don’t see any bears during one of your outings. Unlike what social media or the town’s marketing materials might suggest, there aren’t just polar bears everywhere here and it’s not unheard of for tour groups to only see a bear or two from quite a distance.
There’s a few different options to see the polar bears in Churchill.
Insider tip: Tours are not offered every day and can sell out pretty far in advance, so I’d suggest finding the tour that you’re interested in and finding accommodations before purchasing your transport options. It would suck to come all the way to Churchill and not be able to go on the polar bear tour that you want!
Guided driving tours
The most popular option for polar bear tours in Churchill is to go out with a tour guide in some kind of land vehicle to look for polar bears.
There’s two different kinds of tours offered here—polar rover/tundra buggy tours or minivan/truck tours.
Polar rover/tundra buggy tours
There’s a protected area outside of town, called the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, where wildlife, including polar bears, caribou, and foxes, hang out.
A large portion of this management area can only be accessed by three operators, each of who have a special permit and, more importantly, a unique type of MASSIVE vehicle that’s specifically designed to navigate on the fragile Arctic tundra and with an open-air viewing platform on its back.
These vehicles are all very similar, but the tour operators have each come up with their own special name for them:
- Great White Bear Tours has the Polar Rover
- Frontiers North has the Tundra Buggy
- Lazy Bear Expeditions (which exclusively caters to guests on multi-day packaged tours) has the Arctic Crawler
These options are oftentimes marginally more expensive than the minivan/truck tours, costing around $380 USD per person.
Due to the available tours while we were here, we went on one with Great White Bear and thought it was a pretty good value (at least, by Churchill’s standards, anyway!). We had both a knowledgeable tour guide and driver, were provided snacks, lunch, and drinks, AND learned a TON about all kinds of Arctic wildlife.
We also went on a minivan/truck tour in Churchill, and, in comparing our two experiences, we actually saw considerably less polar bears in this restricted area of the wildlife management area on the polar rover. However, we did see a LOT more variety of wildlife here, including an Arctic hare, two caribou, a red fox, and ptarmigans.
Van/truck tours
Alternatively, there’s several smaller and local operators that offer tours where they will drive you around in a van or a truck on the trails around Churchill to find wildlife.
Besides the type of vehicle you’re driven around in and what area of Churchill you’ll be exploring, there honestly isn’t a ton of difference between this kind of tour and the polar-rover type tour—they’re generally around the same pricepoint and include the same type of activities.
The biggest difference that I’d highlight is that most of these tours do not include lunch and they tend to have smaller groups and a more private/local feel to them.
Here’s some tour operators I’d recommend checking out:
- Subarctic Tours: We went on our second tour with this company and loved it! There’s some really cool aspects of Subarctic—for one, it’s the only Inuit-owned tour company in Manitoba and they offer totally free admission for kids under 18 (how incredible for families!). I also love that they offer tours in pickup trucks that accommodate one to three people—since Justin and I booked one together, we had a totally private tour and could ask to stop and go whenever we pleased!
- Discover Churchill: Our Airbnb host, Dave, was a tour guide for this company and is SO friendly and knowledgeable about polar bears! Another thing that’s super cool about this company is that, if the Northern Lights are visible before midnight on the day of your polar bear tour, they’ll also pick you up and take you out to a spot to enjoy them!
- North Star Adventures: This is the most affordable tour company I can find in Churchill, with full day tours offered at $283 USD. They’re also the only company that I can find that offers half-day tours for just over $150 (a true steal in Churchill!).
Self-guided tour
If you’re on a tighter budget, you could consider renting a car from the one rental agency in town, Tamarack, and simply driving yourself around to look for bears.
Tamarack has historically allowed renters to drive their 4WD cars on the trails outside Churchill—meaning you can theoretically drive yourself on the exact same roads and to the exact same places that the guided van or truck tours go. Plus, they’ll usually even give you some pointers of where to head for your best chances of seeing them.
These roads can be in pretty rough shape, with huge rocks, potholes, and mud pits, so I wouldn’t recommend doing this if you’re not comfortable driving off-road. I was told by locals that it’s not uncommon for tourists to get stuck on these trails, meaning you’ll be stranded without cell service in polar bear territory, awaiting an extremely expensive tow.
Even if you are an off-roading pro, if you can afford to go with a tour guide, I’d strongly recommend it. The guides are so knowledgeable and AMAZING at pointing out wildlife I would have never seen by myself. Plus, Churchill’s economy is almost completely reliant on tourism.
Helicopter tours
One of the most unique things to do in Churchill is to go on an aerial tour of the area with Hudson Bay Helicopters. It’s actually one of the few operators to offer a money-back guarantee that you’ll see polar bears during a tour if you visit during their migration season.
These are private custom tours. From looking at reviews on TripAdvisor, though, it seems that many people opt to fly to (and even land in) the generally inaccessible Wapusk National Park, where female polar bears den before and after giving birth.
Seeing polar bears from helicopters has some limitations—you’ll only get to hover over the bears for a short period of time and you won’t be able to get as close to the bears as you would with a land-based tour. So, if you decide to go this route, I’d recommend booking a land-based tour as well, so you get to experience the best of both worlds.
There’s no pricing available online, but, based on the cost of other activities in Churchill, I can only assume this is EXTREMELY expensive. But, hey, if you have room in the budget, I bet it’s also super cool!
Where to stay in Churchill
Churchill has less than 20 accommodation options total, including hotels, Airbnbs, and bed and breakfasts.
Needless to say, the options here, all of which are no-frills and usually on the dated side, are PRICEY and sell out several months in advance during polar bear season.
The operators that offer multi-day tours usually book out every single room in the vast majority of hotels in Churchill for the entirety of October and November. In fact, during our time in Churchill, we stayed at an awesome Airbnb—but, it turns out that our host is no longer making his property available during polar bear season for next year, given that the tour operators have offered to totally book up his rooms!
So make reservations for accommodations WAY in advance. I was trying to make our stay in Churchill as affordable as possible and booked our stay over ten months in advance—and the cheapest accommodation options were still all sold out!
With that in mind, consider staying at:
- Sarah’s Dreamhouse B&B: In terms of Churchill, this is going to be the best value you can find, with complimentary breakfast, a fully-equipped kitchen, and an extremely friendly host who is happy to pick you up from the train station or airport.
- Iceberg Inn: This simple hotel offers everything you need, with an excellent location in town, cozy communal room to meet other travelers, and friendly hosts.
- Bear Country Inn: In full transparency, in any place outside of Churchill, I wouldn’t recommend this place—its manager is kind of infamous around town for being grouchy and the rooms are on the smaller and run-down side. That being said, it’s one of the only hotels in Churchill that are not totally booked out by tour operators during polar bear season, it offers a solid complimentary breakfast, and its rooms are clean. So, if you’re just looking for a safe place to lay your head at night, it’ll do!
Insider tip: If you're on a budget, I'd highly recommend trying to book accommodations with a kitchen to cut down on costs while you're in Churchill. Food is understandably EXPENSIVE here and eating out for every meal will definitely add up!
Getting around Churchill, Manitoba
Churchill is teeny tiny—you can walk across the entire town in about 15 minutes. So you definitely don’t need a car to access the restaurants, shops, grocery stores, or train station.
There are a few popular attractions that you won’t be able to access without a car, such as the Prince of Wales Fort National Historic Site, the Miss Piggy plane wreckage, and the Ithaka shipwreck. The van/truck tours generally stop at the majority of these sites, though, so if you plan on booking one of those, a rental car still isn’t really necessary.
I’d really only recommend renting a car if you’re planning on going out to look for polar bears on your own (if so, be sure to book a 4WD car!) OR if you’re not going on a van/truck tour and want to see some of Churchill’s attractions on your own.
Additionally, you really shouldn’t walk around Churchill without a firearm after 10 PM, when the “polar bear patrol” stop monitoring the town for the day. So if you’d like to experience Churchill’s surprisingly boisterous nightlife, you might want to consider renting a car.
We attended an open mic night at the Tundra Pub, but had to leave shortly after it started to walk back to our Airbnb by 10 PM. It seemed like the ENTIRE town of Churchill showed up and it was a bit of a bummer that we missed out on that experience because we didn’t have a car to get safely back to our accommodations after 10 PM.
Seeing the polar bears in Churchill is one of the most unique travel experiences we’ve ever had—I hope you love it as much as we did! Do you have any questions about visiting this unique place? Let us know in the comments below.
