Planning a vacation to the frigid arctic tundra may seem outlandish or even a bit crazy-but it is an experience that's hard to beat. The place, Churchill, Canada. The attraction, polar bears!
Churchill is literally polar bear capital. This quaint town of only 1100 human occupants encounters these creatures each year as the bears make their trek back to the frozen waters of Hudson Bay.
Years ago, Dan Guravich , the renowned photographer, visited this out-of-the-way area to photograph polar bears. His idea caught on. Polar bear enthusiasts around the world now travel to this vast land to watch and photograph polar bears and other arctic wildlife.
Prime polar bear viewing usually begins the end of October and runs through mid December. At this time, the ice forms along the western coast of Hudson Bay and continues to freeze northward to Cape Churchill. The bears head toward the coast and hang out until they can move onto the bay's frozen ice to begin feeding for the next few months.
Your trip begins and ends in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada . Churchill is a two-hour plane ride or a two-day train ride north. Many of the trips to Churchill provide two options-stay in town and take day trips to view the bears or stay at the Tundra Buggy® Camp. Stay at camp if you can. At camp, you wake with the bears each morning and fall asleep each night with bears sleeping below your bunk window. The word camp sometimes puts people on edge, but even for non-campers the Tundra Buggy® Camp is warm, comfortable, and fun.
To describe camp, you must first visualize a Tundra Buggy®. Len Smith developed this innovative vehicle to transport people safely across the frozen tundra.
The buggies resemble school bus bodies sitting atop six-foot all-terrain tires. This setup allows passengers to observe and photograph the bears from a safe distance. You're warned from the start to keep all extremities inside the buggy. You never know when a curious bear will poke its nose in a window to see what all the fuss is about.
Tundra Buggy® Camp is a series of buggies connected together like a train. A hospitality car, a dining car, two utility cars, and two sleeper cars-complete with bathrooms and showers-comprise camp. Between the cars and in the front and back of the train are observation decks. The entire camp is seven feet off the ground-a safe distance from curious bears.
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