Churchill Winter – Canada – 2027

Day 1: We are all due to arrive at Winnipeg Airport from our chosen destinations and it will be in the late evening. Flight recommendations will be sent out nearer the time.

Day 2: It’s a very early start in the morning and breakfast is a buffet type affair which is served from 6.15am. This time might change and if it does, I will let you know nearer the time but generally we meet in the hotel reception at 6.00am with all our bags packed and ready to go. We will then have breakfast and join a bus at 7.00am to take us to the waiting plane. We don’t have to go through any security checks as the bus takes us directly to the special chartered plane. Arriving in Churchill is not like a normal airport route, and we won’t have to wait for our luggage. I will give you a special tag for your hold luggage which means your luggage will get delivered to our hotel in Churchill. You will need to wear winter gear ready for the flight up to Churchill as you won’t see your luggage until you get to the Tundra Inn in Churchill. For the duration of the trip, we are governed by the weather conditions, so the overall shape of the itinerary is determined by this, so we must make the most of our photographic opportunities. The flight up to Churchill takes around 2 hours and so we will arrive around mid-morning. A minibus will take us on a short journey to visit some locations en-route to Churchill, and we might even see our first bear along the way, we have done in the past. Our first afternoon will see us in the town of Churchill which we can explore at will and visit some of the well-known sites and local gift shops. We have lunch booked at a local restaurant at 1.00pm. Please note that we don’t have to wait for our suitcases at the airport, the special tag means that they will directly to the hotel, but this can take a couple of hours especially if the weather conditions are adverse. So, make sure you have your winter gear and boots on and any medication that you might need too.

Day 3: It will be an early start and after a hearty breakfast we will head out on to the tundra in our specially designed tundra buggy. We have secured our own tundra buggy for our small group so won’t be sharing with other people or groups and because we have exclusive use there will be lots of space which photographers need. This really is the best way of working from the Tundra Buggies as everyone has a window on both sides to shoot from and so no waiting your turn for other people to finish, basically you won’t miss a shot. If we come across a good situation as well, we won’t be in any rush to move on either and so can wait for the action to unfold instead of searching for it. This is the best way of working in Churchill and during our sorties on to the tundra we will come across many different bears in many different situations. We will also be looking out for the beautiful arctic and red foxes. We will be out until dusk which again gives us the opportunity of working in the best possible light. Packed Lunch and hot soup are provided for our daily Tundra Buggy Trips

Days 4 – 5: We have secured our tundra buggy for four full days for our exclusive use and so these days will follow the same pattern of day 3. Our main target will be the polar bear, and we will be searching for mothers with dependent young, young male bears which spend a lot of time play fighting and spending time looking out for arctic and red foxes. We have timed our trip to run with the best possible chance of capturing these iconic arctic species in the winter landscape. We will be out all day and so a packed lunch will be provided, the days will last until dusk.

Day 6: We will have the use of our minibus to transfer us around the Tundra surrounding the Churchill area. Our mornings will consist of an early start so we can head out on to the tundra looking for subjects in the very best light. After breakfast we will head out for our first full day. We will hopefully be coming across some of the other smaller Arctic specialists of the tundra like arctic fox, arctic hare, and ptarmigan. All these species will be in their winter finery of white coats and plumage. We should also come across the beautiful red fox too. If we find a subject, we will be looking at spending as much time with it as possible. We will also have to be always on the lookout for polar bears though. We feel by adding the chance to work from the smaller vehicles gives us a much better chance of finding the smaller subjects and gives us a different perspective for our images. Lunch will be provided in town, and we will spend all morning and afternoon on the tundra so it will be a long day. At dusk we will head back to town for a deserved hot dinner.

Day 7: We will again have access to our minibus and driver which will give us a completely different perspective from the tundra buggy. We will again be searching for arctic and red fox, arctic hare, and ptarmigan. The unique opportunity to work from a small vehicle will give us some amazing opportunities to capture more intimate images too. Safety is paramount though and so we will constantly be on the lookout for polar bears.

Day 8: After breakfast we will be heading back out onto the tundra in search of these iconic arctic species for one more day on the Tundra Buggy. After our last day on the Tundra, we are due to catch our internal flight back to Winnipeg. Our main suitcases will be collected directly from the Tundra Inn with our new tags to explain where we are so again you won’t see your suitcase until you get back to Winnipeg and back to the Lakeview Hotel. We will have an overnight stay in this hotel in Winnipeg. We won’t be arriving until 8.30pm but Dinner is provided after a long day. The restaurant should still be open but will mean a quick turnaround if we want to get dinner.

Day 9: Unfortunately, we will be heading home from Winnipeg after our stay in this Canadian Arctic outpost but hopefully with some amazing images and memories of these iconic species of the far north. Most people are on different flights out at different times so breakfast on this last morning is not included in the overall price of the trip.

Day 10: After a long flight we arrive back in the UK/Europe.

Please Note: We must be very flexible with our itinerary for this trip so timings can change at the last minute. We can of course bump into anything along the way, polar bears are our top target throughout this trip, but we will also be targeting some of the smaller Arctic species like arctic and red fox, arctic hare, and ptarmigan. The best opportunity for polar bear images will undoubtedly be from the tundra buggy as these unique vehicles allow us to photograph in complete safety. We have timed this trip, so we maximise our chances with the polar bears and the winter conditions. Too early and the first snow hasn’t arrived making the environment look unnatural for the bears. If we leave it too late then the ice would have reformed on the Hudson Bay, and the bears will have disappeared from the surrounding tundra. It is therefore a fine line in choosing this trip and is something you must take into consideration. Over the past 10 years winter has arrived later in the Churchill area than has previously been recorded and therefore the bears have usually started to head out onto the ice by late November.