The best time to visit Churchill, Manitoba

Churchill, Manitoba is famous for its polar bears. It’s one of the most accessible places in the world to see polar bears in the wild. But, Churchill is also famous for its beluga whales. And it’s ALSO famous for being a prime northern lights (or Aurora Borealis) viewing location. The problem is that each attraction’s peak season is at a different time of year. So when should you visit? Read on to learn the best time to visit Churchill, Manitoba, as we outline the ideal times of year to see each attraction.

Note that Churchill is a remote destination, and because of this, it’s expensive to visit. The package tours listed below are not cheap. You can save money by arranging your own transportation and accommodations, and booking day trips with local tour providers. We give more tips on how to do that here: The best Churchill, Manitoba tours.

January, February and March: northern lights

January through March in Churchill is peak northern lights season. In order to have optimal northern lights viewing, you need a few conditions to coincide: long nights and cold weather. It’s best if Hudson Bay is frozen over, in order to prevent cloud cover from obscuring the lights. And hours of darkness are required to maximize the chances of seeing them.

Churchill is one of the best places to see the northern lights on the planet. It sits directly underneath the auroral oval, the band of geomagnetic particles that circles the earth near the poles. This means the kP index (which measures geomagnetic disturbances to earth’s atmosphere) only needs to be 1 or higher to have visible northern lights activity.

Multi-day getaways prioritize seeing and photographing the northern lights. While they do incorporate some daytime activities into their itineraries, the primary focus is on spending late nights bundled up and out chasing the lights. Many of these companies have access to heated locations that will make your experience more comfortable, but you should still be prepared and dressed for the weather: overnight temperatures average -25 Celsius in February. (Cold weather gear can be rented in Churchill here.) In addition to offering extended package tours, many of these companies also offer one-night trips to see the northern lights.

(Note that some tour companies close for the off-season months of December/January, and only offer these tours in February and March.)

Discover Churchill’s 7 Day Northern Lights Photography Package

Discover Churchill’s 4 Day Northern Lights Weekend Getaway

Frontiers North’s Northern Lights and Winter Nights

Great White Bear Tours’ Northern Lights & Arctic Exploration

North Star Tours’ Multi Day Aurora Package

March: bear dens

The goal of bear den expeditions is to find and photograph female polar bears and their cubs as they emerge from theirs dens in late winter. For the first few weeks after they emerge, the bears stay close to the den, acclimating to the outside and retreating when signs of danger threaten. Eventually the mother will lead her cubs to the sea ice.

There are several known bear denning areas outside of Churchill. Tours may make use of the Kaskatamgan Wildlife Management Area or Wapusk National Park.

Note that these excursions are deemed ‘challenging’ due to extreme weather. This includes significant cold and the potential for blizzard-like conditions.

Discover Churchill’s Borealis and Bear Cubs Package

Churchill Wild’s Den Emergence Quest

May – July: birding

Churchill is well-known for its bird watching. It’s home to several sub-arctic nesting species, and many migratory species also pass through, making it the best time for birdwatching enthusiasts to visit Churchill, Manitoba. Early in the season is best if you are interested in migratory birds, and later in the season is better for nesting birds. Commonly sighted species include falcons, hawks, Tundra Swans, and Snowy Owls. Several elusive species can also be found, such as Ross’s Gulls and Harlequin Ducks.

Eagle-Eye Tours Churchill and Southern Manitoba

July – August: beluga whales

Every summer, 3000 beluga whales return to the Churchill river estuary to give birth and raise their young. The whales are naturally curious, and will approach boats. Guides will drop a hydrophone into the water so you can listen in on the whales’ conversations as they chirp and sing to one another.

You can get close to the whales by taking a zodiac boat tour, a kayaking trip, or even a stand-up paddleboarding excursion. Whales can even be spotted from shore.

Sea North Tours’ Zodiac Beluga Whale Watching

Discover Churchill’s Changing Colours of the Tundra Tour

Sea North Tours’ Paddleboarding

Sea North Tours’ Kayaking

Custom Churchill Tours’ 1-hour Beluga Whale Tour

Churchill Wild’s Arctic Discovery

August-September: northern lights

As summer winds down and the nights begin to lengthen, your opportunity to see the northern lights in Churchill starts to increase again. But it’s just a short window of opportunity. Once Hudson Bay begins to freeze over, it releases heat and tends to generate a lot of cloud cover. By the time polar bear season is underway in October and November, northern lights sightings are rare again. Your chances of seeing the lights will not be much better until the following year.

Many of the companies named above as northern lights tour operators will offer standalone (one-night) northern lights tours during this timeframe.

October-November: polar bear season

Churchill is one of the best places in the world to see wild polar bears. It’s at the southern limit of where polar bears are able to live year-round. The ice in Hudson Bay melts by early summer, and the bears are forced ashore until it re-freezes in October or November each year. They spend the summer months living off the fat stores they built up over the winter.

Thanks to its location on the Churchill River, the area around Churchill is the first part of Hudson Bay to freeze each fall. As a result, there is an ancient polar bear migration route that draws bears to Churchill each year as they anxiously wait to get back out on the ice and begin hunting again. When the bears begin to congregate around Churchill, it becomes what is locally known as “Polar Bear Season”.

This is the best time of year to observe active bears in large numbers. As such, many people deem this to be the best time to visit Churchill, Manitoba. Although wildlife viewing can never be guaranteed, this is the time of year when you are most likely to find bears around Churchill. Tourists descend on the town to the point that they outnumber the locals. Accommodations fill up, tundra buggy tours are booked solid, and if you didn’t plan your trip months in advance, you just might be out of luck.

Although the bears are typically around Churchill for much of October and November, they do leave town pretty quickly once Hudson Bay freezes over. If you time your trip too late, you might miss them. This can be tricky to judge since weather varies from year to year. Generally speaking, freeze-up happens in mid-November. The recommended time for polar bear viewing in Churchill in the fall is from mid-October until the second week of November.

Discover Churchill’s 8 Day Polar Bear Photography Package

Frontier North’s Classic Churchill Polar Bear Adventure

Churchill Wild’s Polar Bear Photo Safari

Lazy Bear Expeditions Ultimate Polar Bear Adventure

Great White Bear Tours Classic Polar Bear Expedition

When to visit Churchill, Manitoba: our recommendation

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.

Over to you: when did you visit Churchill, Manitoba, if you have visited? Let us know in the comments below.