The best Churchill, Manitoba tours

In August 2021, we spent one week in Churchill, Manitoba. You can visit Churchill with an all-inclusive package tour that includes accommodations, activities, and even transportation to and from Churchill. Package tours are well-organized and make efficient use of your vacation time, but they come at a cost. If you are looking for a more budget-friendly option, arrange your own travel and accommodations. Then, pick and choose which activities you’d like to participate in, and book them with a local tour company. We’d like to share what we think are the best Churchill, Manitoba tours, to help you plan a similar adventure.

The best time to visit Churchill, Manitoba

Churchill, Manitoba tour company #1: Discover Churchill

Discover Churchill is a local company that was founded in 2016 by photographer and guide Alex de Vries. The company began by providing service to photographers and film crews during the fall polar bear season. It has since expanded to year-round operations that include nature, wildlife, and cultural tours led by a team of five guides. Photography remains a principal focus. The team is adept at predicting wildlife behaviour and maneuvering guests into the best location to capture the perfect shot.

We are so convinced that Discover Churchill is one of the best Churchill, Manitoba tour companies that we booked multiple activities with them.

Aurora call list and northern lights tour

Before arriving in Churchill, you can ask to be placed on the aurora call list. For a nominal fee ($25) Discover Churchill will watch for the lights to come out up until midnight each night. If they do, at any point during your stay, you’ll get a call notifying you that the tour is a go. You’ll be picked up at your hotel and head out of town. Skies are darker and the northern lights appear more intensely once you are outside of Churchill.

The tour will last up to 4 hours and you will go to a few different locations. This will allow the best viewing opportunities, following the clearest skies. It will also provide some different scenery as a backdrop for the lights.

Because Discover Churchill specializes in photography, you’ll be ideally situated to photograph the lights. You’ll get some tips regarding the best camera settings and framing opportunities to use for your shots. Discover Churchill will also take some shots of you and your travel party under the northern lights. You will receive copies of these for your own personal use. The other benefit of joining Discover Churchill for this tour is the bear protection they provide. Your guide will provide a safety briefing before heading out. You will have peace of mind being with a defensively-armed guide who can predict the behaviour of local wildlife. This is especially critical when you are outdoors after dark.

As a photography buff and someone for whom seeing the Northern Lights was a bucket list item, this was one of my picks for the best Churchill, Manitoba tours.

Northern lights tours cost $225 per person.

Town and Area tour

Discover Churchill’s Town and Area tour is customized to your interests. On this tour, you will have the services of a private guide and vehicle for a (more or less) set length of time. How you choose to spend your time exploring the area around Churchill is up to you. Depending on your interests, you might choose to focus on the local wildlife that is prevalent during your stay. Or, you might want to focus on Churchill’s Cold War-era military installations. You could also choose to focus on some of the cultural facets of the area.

Your guide will make recommendations based on weather conditions and the latest wildlife sightings. For example, in the days leading up to our visit, a polar bear had been lurking around the Miss Piggy plane wreck. Our guide recommended that we stop by that area. Sure enough, as we explored Miss Piggy, we were able to spot the bear along the waterfront. From there, we drove down to take a closer look.

We enjoyed this tour so much that we wound up booking it twice. We had the opportunity to head out with two different guides. This gave us a broader perspective of Churchill than we would have gotten from just one tour. It also allowed us to see the landmarks around Churchill while also dedicating time to wildlife viewing.

Ithaka shipwreck hike

When Hudson Bay is not frozen, from May to September, Discover Churchill offers Ithaka shipwreck hikes at low tide. The SS Ithaka is a shipping freighter that ran aground during a gale in 1960. It’s located about half a mile from shore, just outside of Churchill. The bottom of the ship has rusted out, and polar bears like to take refuge inside the wreck. Thus, it’s not advised to explore the shipwreck on your own without a guide. Hikes to the wreck take about two hours to complete, round-trip. We really enjoyed this hike. It’s not technically difficult, though proper footwear is recommended. The rocks can be slippery as you slosh through tidepools. (This, plus the cries of sea birds circling overhead, lends a wonderful ASMR ambience to the experience.) Guided hikes cost $150 per person.

More tours from Discover Churchill

Polar Bear tours

During polar bear season, in October and November, Discover Churchill operates full-day polar bear tours. These tours explore the area outside of Churchill in 4×4 vehicles. Experienced guides will get you as close to the bears as is safely and ethically possible. The tours are geared toward photographers and film crews, but will accept other guests as well. Full-day tours, which also include northern lights viewing on nights when they are visible, cost $450 per person.

Package tours

In addition to the above-mentioned activities, Discover Churchill has begun offering several different package tours. They include transportation, accommodations, and a full itinerary of sightseeing. Packages are a good option if you don’t mind paying a bit more to have all logistics arranged for you. Your itinerary will be planned by a professional who will also be able to adjust your trip on the fly if weather or other circumstances warrant a change. Packages are geared toward the wildlife and attractions that are available at the time of departure, and vary throughout the year. Prices vary with the nature of the included activities and the duration of the trip.

Churchill, Manitoba tour company #2: Sea North Tours

Sea North Tours operates out of the Polar Inn and Suites (which we also recommend – it’s where we stayed on our trip.) It’s the oldest Churchill, Manitoba tour company on the water. Sea North is committed to the safety of the Churchill beluga whales. All of their boats use either jet propulsion or prop guards to ensure that the whales aren’t exposed to any dangerous propellors or moving parts.

As the name implies, Sea North offers several different water-based excursions. Their operating season typically runs from June through August. We had the opportunity to join several Sea North Tours excursions while we were on our trip – again, illustrating that we think they are one of the best Churchill, Manitoba tour companies.

Zodiac beluga whale watching

This is a 2-hour-long trip out onto the Churchill River to see the thousands of beluga whales that return every summer. Belugas are curious, friendly animals. They particularly like to swim behind the boats, turning on their sides to watch the people on board. Your guide will drop a hydrophone in the water to pick up the sounds of the belugas ‘singing’ to each other (an act that earns them the nickname ‘canaries of the sea’).

We traveled to Churchill in late August and were a bit worried that we might have missed peak beluga whale season, which runs from mid-July to mid-August. We needn’t have worried. There were thousands of whales in the Churchill River – so many that we could spot them surfacing from the beach and pods of them surrounded our zodiac boat at all times.

In addition to beluga whales, there’s a chance you might also see other wildlife on this tour. Polar bears are sometimes spotted along the coast.

Tours run 7 days a week during July and August. Note that they may be canceled during inclement weather. Departures coincide with high tide. Tours cost $125 per person.

Beluga Whale and Historic Fort Prince of Wales Tour

This 2-hour tour combines beluga whale watching with a trip to Fort Prince of Wales which is across the Churchill River from the townsite. The Fort is a Parks Canada National Historic Site. Upon arriving at the Fort, you’ll be met by a Parks Canada interpreter who will provide a guided tour of the site. The Fort was originally built by Hudson’s Bay Company and acted as an important outpost in the fur trade. Later, it was a strategic fortification in battles between England and France.

As you tour the fort, you’ll notice bear guards patrolling the site on ATVs. Eskimo Point is the northernmost tip of land on the Fort Prince of Wales site. It’s a rocky outcropping that is a popular place for polar bears to lounge. Make sure to scan it (binoculars will help) when you’re up on the Fort.

As your zodiac boat makes the return trip back across the Churchill River, you will take time to visit with the beluga whales.

Beluga Whale and Historic Fort Prince of Wales Tours are $125 per person.

Zodiac boat charters

If you’d like a private zodiac experience, you can arrange a charter tour. This is a great option for photographers and videographers who might want a more bespoke excursion.

On our trip to Churchill, we signed up for two group tours (the regular zodiac tour and the Fort Prince of Wales tour), and then arranged a short charter at the end of the week. The group tours took us out on the Churchill River, and we did see a huge number of whales there. For our charter trip we decided to explore Hudson Bay. This took us along a different stretch of coastline than we had seen before. The water in the Bay is much bluer than the Churchill River, which made for a more photogenic backdrop for the whales. And we were lucky to spot a polar bear on shore (albeit from a distance).

Zodiac charters are priced at $515 per hour.

More tours from Sea North Tours

Kayaking

Kayaking tours allow you to get out onto the water in a more personal way. Beluga whales love to follow kayaks as they paddle around the Churchill River estuary. Single and tandem kayaks are available, making this activity ideal for children as young as 8 years old. Tours will only depart at low tide and during good weather, ensuring that paddling conditions are ideal. Tours are 2 hours in length and cost $180 per person.

Floe Ice Tours

In June, as the ice on Hudson Bay begins to thaw, Sea North offers Floe Ice Tours. These tours are a great way to see sea birds and the ice core shapes that form as the ice breaks up. Seals may still be on the ice, and you may even see the season’s first beluga whales. Tours are $125 per person.

Churchill, Manitoba tour company #3: SUP North

SUP North is a partner of Sea North Tours that specializes exclusively in stand up paddleboarding, or SUP, tours. The company is owned and operated by Erin Greene. Erin leads small-group trips on the Churchill River, where you can interact directly with the beluga whales. Belugas love to follow behind SUPs – don’t be surprised if they give you a friendly push!

You’ll be provided with a thick wetsuit, and neoprene gloves and booties to keep you warm. SUP North will also supply life jackets. A safety zodiac accompanies tours to act as spotters for participants (or to give you a lift if you need one).

On the day of our tour, the water conditions weren’t bad, but it was rainy and cold, and we wondered what we were getting ourselves into. Although Erin assured us that the wetsuits would keep us warm, we were still surprised by just how comfortable they kept us (and I did wind up in the river a few times when I lost my balance). We saw plenty of whales on this excursion, and they were friendly and curious toward us. Our kids ranked this as the best tour of our whole trip to Churchill, Manitoba.

Tours run in July and August when weather conditions permit, at low tide. They are open to participants ages 12 and up, and the cost is $180 per person. Booking details can be found on the Sea North website.

Churchill, Manitoba tour company #4: Frontiers North

A family-owned business that’s been operating for 30+ years, Frontiers North is responsible for the development of the original tundra vehicle, the Tundra Buggy, in 1979. These are all-terrain vehicles that allow you to explore the landscapes outside of Churchill and get up close to the local wildlife.

Frontiers North offers a variety of package tours that include transportation, lodging, meals, and a roster of activities that varies according to the season of departure. For the DIY traveler, they also offer Tundra Buggy day tours that are an independent traveler’s best opportunity to see wild polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba.

Tours are slightly different depending on when you visit – there is a Summer Day Tour (July to September) and an Autumn Day Tour (October and November) available. Both tours will pick you up in Churchill and shuttle you to the Tundra Buggy dock 20 minutes outside of town. Both will conduct your tour on the Tundra Buggy in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, on a network of trails that were once used by Canadian and American armed forces. The tours are all led by local wildlife experts who know (to quote our tour guide, Jim) where the “boulder bears” and “polar rocks” are – i.e. they know how to spot wildlife and how to differentiate it from the landscape (this can be surprisingly difficult!) Both tours also include lunch and snacks.

Differences between Summer and Autumn Day Tours

• Summer tours are 6 hours long and Autumn tours are 8 hours long
• Summer tours cost $249 per person and Autumn tours cost $529 per person
• There are more polar bears in Churchill during the Autumn “Polar Bear Season”. You are less likely to see bears in Summer.
• Autumn tours tend to sell out and Summer tours, being a less busy season overall, do not. The capacity on the Tundra Buggy is 40 passengers. On our August tour, we had 14 passengers.

We spent one day on a Tundra Buggy in August 2021. We were delighted by our guide, Jim, who told some amazing stories about his wildlife encounters. (Jim can still count us among his Instagram followers to this day!) He found us 3 polar bears, including one who sauntered right up to our Tundra Buggy, sniffed our tires, and hung out with us for a while. Jim saw this bear from a distance and knew her habits from his frequent observations of her. He was able to accurately predict where she would go next, and position us perfectly to see her. Because seeing polar bears is such a bucket list item, this was another one of our picks for the best tours in Churchill.

Churchill, Manitoba tour company #5: Wapusk Adventures

Another activity that seems ubiquitous in northern Canada is dog sledding. In our opinion, Wapusk Adventures is the best Churchill, Manitoba tour company for dog sledding. Wapusk Adventures was founded by Dave Daley, an award-winning dog musher who is also the founder of the world-renowned Hudson Bay Quest dog sled race. Dave welcomes visitors to his kennel to hear stories about his adventures, meet his team of 38 dogs, and get a taste of dog sledding on a track that runs through the boreal forest. Tours operate year-round. If you visit when snow is on the ground, you will get an authentic dog sled experience. If you visit during the summer months, your team of dogs will pull you on a wheeled cart instead. You’ll still get to experience the same energy.

Dave’s dogs love to work as evidenced by their excitement when the sled and harness come out. Your experience will also include a cultural talk from Dave that discusses life in Churchill, Métis culture, and everything you’ve always wanted to know about dog sledding.

Dog sled tours cost $129 per person.

More tours from Wapusk Adventures

Wapusk Adventures also offers northern lights viewing on their property ($119 per person), and e-bike rentals ($59/hour) and tours ($129 per person). They will have snow shoe walks coming soon.

In conclusion…

Churchill, Manitoba is an emerging tourism destination. The infrastructure is young, but there are several excellent tours to pick from. We have personally traveled with the companies listed above and believe that they offer the best Churchill, Manitoba tours. What do you think – have you been to Churchill? Have you gone on any of these excursions? Let us know in the comments below.