Churchill, Manitoba is famous for its polar bears. Every fall, thousands of visitors descend upon the tiny town during “Polar Bear Season” to catch a glimpse of these furry creatures. But Churchill also has some less well-known attractions that are worth seeing. And Polar Bear Season is not the be-all-end-all in Churchill: there are other seasons during which it’s worth paying a visit, too. Here is a sample itinerary for how to spend one week in Churchill, Manitoba. For reference purposes, we took our trip in mid-August.
A few things to keep in mind
- We chose to visit Churchill in August because there is a small window in which it’s possible to see the Churchill Trifecta: polar bears, beluga whales, and northern lights. August is shoulder season for polar bears, the peak season for beluga whales, and it’s the very beginning of the season for the northern lights. This August itinerary cannot be duplicated in June or October. To learn more, see our related article: The best time to visit Churchill, Manitoba
- A trip to Churchill involves a lot of downtime. It isn’t safe to wander around outside of town by yourself. Unless you’re prepared to pay for guided services all day every day, be prepared to fill the gaps in your schedule with books, games, hours spent at the coffee shop, or accommodations that provide Netflix. If you’re intentionally trying to maximize your nights in town for northern lights viewing, as we did, you’ll feel this even more.
- To be blunt: Churchill, Manitoba is expensive to visit. It is a remote destination in a harsh climate without a highway connection to any other community. Goods and services need to be flown in, brought by rail, or shipped during the 6 months of the year when the Port of Churchill is open. The tourist season is relatively short. Tour guides and others who make a living from tourism only have a small window of the year in which to do it. Understand the logistical challenges the tourism industry faces when deciding whether those services are ‘worth it’.
The best Churchill, Manitoba tours
Day 1: Arrive in Churchill, Manitoba
Although getting to Churchill can be an adventure unto itself, for our purposes, your Churchill adventure begins when you arrive. If you fly into Churchill from Winnipeg, you will likely arrive in the early afternoon. Transfer to your hotel or guesthouse. Settle in and then head out for a walk to get the lay of the land. Churchill is a pretty small town with fewer than 900 residents. It won’t take long to get your bearings. Stop off at the beach and walk the length of Kelsey Boulevard. Check out many of the murals around town that make up the SeaWalls CHURCHILL art installation.
How to get to Churchill, Manitoba
Day 2: Get out on Hudson Bay
So much of Churchill’s history, geography and culture is influenced by its proximity to Hudson Bay. Take a trip down to the port and sign up for a zodiac excursion that will take you out onto the water. In August, the waters around Churchill are teeming with thousands of beluga whales.
They come into the Churchill River estuary every summer to calve, and they are remarkably curious and friendly toward humans. This is even more amazing once you realize that Churchill had an active whaling industry as recently as the 1960s! The Port of Churchill is Canada’s principal seaport on the Arctic Ocean. It’s a major employer in town when Hudson Bay isn’t frozen over and shipping routes are open.
After your zodiac tour, which is likely to be windy and possibly a little bit wet, you’ll probably need some warming up. Head down Kelsey Boulevard to the Lazy Bear Café. Built into a cozy log-cabin lodge, this is a popular local restaurant. It serves up local arctic char, bison, and elk, plus artistic hot chocolates that will quickly raise your body temperature.
Day 3: Explore the arctic tundra outside of Churchill, Manitoba
Churchill sits on the boundary between ecosystems, where the boreal forest ends and the arctic tundra begins. You can’t come to Churchill and not go out on the tundra, because that’s where you’re most likely to find polar bears.
Whether you book an excursion on a Tundra Buggy, a Polar Rover, or an Arctic Crawler – odds are that your tour guide will take you out on a specific kind of off-road vehicle, specially designed to keep you safely out of a polar bear’s reach. That means being very high off the ground on massive all-terrain wheels, in a cab that provides a safe enclosure, while also providing a platform for wildlife viewing.
Tours will explore the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. In addition to polar bears, you may encounter caribou, arctic hares and foxes, and more than 200 species of birds. In the summer, vast swaths of brilliant purple fireweed cover the tundra. It’s a beautiful sight.
Day 4: Museums and a Town and Area tour
Museums
This morning, it’s time to tour Churchill’s indoor attractions – making this a great itinerary for a rainy day. Start at the Parks Canada Visitor Centre. It’s located inside the train station, and contains a number of displays about early life in Northern Manitoba, Prince of Wales Fort and York Factory National Historic Sites. (Open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Donations are accepted.)
Next, move on to the Itsanitaq Museum. This small gallery has been beautifully curated. It contains Inuit carvings and artifacts that are among the oldest in the world, some dating back nearly 4000 years. There are also local wildlife displays, and a gift shop featuring local crafts, books and artwork. (Hours vary, so check online before you go. Donations are accepted.)
Town and Area tour
Grab some lunch to fuel up for your afternoon spent on a Town and Area tour. This tour will allow you to get out of town to see some of the surrounding landscapes.
You will also visit many of the Cold War-era military installations in the area, and look for more wildlife. See Miss Piggy, a 1970s-era cargo plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from the local airport (all of her crew survived). Visit the Golf Balls, which are part of an old radar station that was once used to keep tabs on Soviet activity from the north, and later used to study northern lights activity.
Finish the day at the Ithaka Shipwreck. If you’re lucky, sunset will coincide with low tide, and you’ll be able to hike out to the wreck to explore it.
Day 5: Stand-up paddleboarding with beluga whales and northern lights tour
Stand-up paddleboarding with beluga whales
No more arm’s length encounters with beluga whales. Today, it’s time to get up close and personal! Head back down to the port and take a stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) tour with beluga whales on the Churchill River. The whales love to follow the SUPs through the water. They will playfully bump and splash you as you paddle along. And don’t worry about the water temperature. Your guide will supply a very thick neoprene wetsuit, booties, and gloves to keep you warm on this adventure. Departure times vary so as to coincide with low tide.
If you’re not confident on a SUP, kayak tours are also available. This is a more family-friendly option as it can accommodate kids as young as 8.
Northern lights tour
Day 5 was the lucky day for us, when we finally went out on a northern lights tour. Obviously, this is a weather-dependent activity, so you’ll need to build some flexibility into your plans to make it happen. For a nominal fee you can put your name on an aurora call list. Your guide will watch for the northern lights for the duration of your stay in town. If the lights come out before midnight, your guide will call to notify you that the tour is running, and will pick you up at your hotel.
Tours follow the lights to the best viewing locations – usually outside of the town of Churchill, where skies are darker. They can last up to four hours, so it will be a very late night, but well worth it to see the skies light up in shades of green and purple. Bring your camera and your guide will help you set up to get some once-in-a-lifetime shots. Churchill, Manitoba is ideally situated directly under the auroral oval, making it one of the best places on earth to see the northern lights.
Day 6: Dog sledding and Fort Prince of Wales tour
Dog sledding
After such a late night, you’ll probably need to sleep in! Have a lazy morning and then set out for an afternoon of dog sledding. A professional dog musher will regale you with stories about the races he won and the excursions he completed. Afterward, you will have the opportunity to meet the sled dogs – hope you love dogs, because these dogs sure do love people! Finally, you’ll get to go dog sledding – or, if you’re visiting in summer, dog ‘carting’ – on a special cart-on-wheels that you’ll ride through the boreal forest.
Fort Prince of Wales tour
There’s still time this afternoon to squeeze in one more activity. Head back down to the port and board another zodiac for an excursion to Fort Prince of Wales. It’s located opposite the town of Churchill on the western bank of the Churchill River and was once a hub for fur traders. Later, it became a fortification when peace was threatened between England and France. A Parks Canada guide will lead your group and fill you in on the site’s rich history. Riding the zodiac to and from the Fort will give you more opportunities to interact with the beluga whales in this part of the river.
Day 7: Town and Area tour part 2 and zodiac charter
Town and Area tour
On the last full day of your one week in Churchill, Manitoba, head out for another Town and Area tour. See the locations you might have missed earlier in the week, and continue your search for more polar bears and other wildlife. You might see more SeaWalls CHURCHILL installations located on the outskirts of town; come across a local fox den; or visit Cape Merry, where you’ll see Hudson’s Bay Company fortifications as part of the Prince of Wales Fort National Historic Site.
This is also a great time to check out Churchill’s Polar Bear Jail. It’s a holding facility that houses nuisance bears until they can be relocated further away from town.
Zodiac charter
In the afternoon, if you’re looking to splurge on a special private excursion, book a zodiac charter. Since you’ve already explored the Churchill River by zodiac, head out now into Hudson Bay proper, and trawl the shoreline. You will come across more pods of beluga whales, and this time their rubbery white skin will glisten against the blue water of the Bay, rather than the murky brown water of the Churchill River. It will also allow you to conduct one last search for polar bears along a remote section of shoreline where you just might get lucky.
Back in Churchill, head to the Tundra Pub for your last dinner. Pizza Fridays and Saturdays are the most popular nights of the week at the pub, and it’s likely that you’ll be rubbing shoulders at the bar with some of the tour guides you met this week.
Day 8: Polar dip and flight to Winnipeg
Departure day has arrived, and it’s time to pack up and make the trip home. Before you do though, make a quick trip down to the beach. Take a careful look around for polar bears, and if the coast is clear – and if you are brave enough – take a quick dip in Hudson Bay. Because when will you have the opportunity to swim in the Arctic Ocean again?
In conclusion…
There you have it: how to spend one week in Churchill, Manitoba. While this itinerary provides plenty of downtime to stroll around town, peek into the local gift shops, and otherwise relax, time will no doubt fly by. Long visited by photographers and film crews, Churchill is a unique destination. It’s only recently had infrastructure built to support family tourism. Make your way to Churchill now, while it still retains its authentic charm.
What do you think – have you been to Churchill, Manitoba? Tell us about it in the comments below.
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[…] How to spend one week in Churchill, Manitoba […]
[…] August 2021, we spent one week in Churchill, Manitoba. You can visit Churchill with an all-inclusive package tour that includes accommodations, […]
[…] The million-dollar question: with all of these options, when should you go? The truth is that there are many optimal times to visit, depending on what your objectives are. But for a family adventure, our vote is to visit anytime between mid-August and the second week of September. For about 3 weeks, you have a decent chance of being able to see polar bears, beluga whales and the northern lights, all on the same trip. Maximizing the number of nights you spend in Churchill to the extent possible increases your chances. We visited during the third week of August, and spent six nights in town. During that time the northern lights were visible once, we saw six polar bears, and hundreds if not thousands of beluga whales. You can read more about our trip here: How to spend one week in Churchill, Manitoba. […]
[…] The million-dollar question: with all of these options, when is the best time to visit Churchill, Manitoba? The truth is that there are many optimal times to visit, depending on what your objectives are. But for a family adventure, our vote is to visit anytime between mid-August and the second week of September. For about 3 weeks, you have a decent chance of being able to see polar bears, beluga whales and the northern lights, all on the same trip. Maximizing the number of nights you spend in Churchill to the extent possible increases your chances. We visited during the third week of August, and spent six nights in town. During that time the northern lights were visible once, we saw six polar bears, and hundreds if not thousands of beluga whales. You can read more about our trip here: How to spend one week in Churchill, Manitoba. […]