Polar Bear Tours

The Kingdom of the Ice Bear!  2012 dates are now available - join us this year in the Polar Bear Capital of the World.

The Great Canadian Travel Company was the first tour business to offer tourists the opportunity to visit Churchill and see these magnificent animals in the natural habitat, and since 1980 we have hosted over 15,000 passengers! 

Back in the late 1970s, Len Smith and Roy Bukowski operated the now famous Tundra Buggies, offering trips to photographers to get close up and personal with Polar Bears; in conjunction with Len and Roy we started to offer tours to more conventional travellers and from those days the destination has grown to become one of Canada's tourism icons.

Today we own our own hotel in Churchill, the Bear Country Inn, curiously the same hotel our founder stayed in on his first trip to Churchill in 1978! With this property, and the help of our friends in the local tourism business, we are pleased to offer an ever-growing selection of tours in both the fall polar bear season and the summer time.

The town of Churchill is nestled on the western shore of Hudson Bay about 600 miles north of Winnipeg.  Every autumn polar bears gather along the water's edge, anxiously waiting for the sea ice to form. Once the bay freezes over, the hungry bears move out onto the ice where they will spend the winter hunting seal.

Each of our tour programs is designed not only to introduce you to the many fascinating features of the sub-arctic, but also to maximize the time you have to spend in the region.  We look forward to welcoming you to the Polar Bear Capital of the World - the season is short and the bears are waiting! 

And now, for those unable to join the annual migration in October and November, we are offering tours to see the bears in Spitsbergen in the High Arctic during our summer months. From expedition cruise vessels, we are able to explore the remote and daunting coastline of these remote islands in search of polar bears and other Arctic wildlife. For those who want to travel in the summer time, Spitsbergen Polar Bear tours may be the perfect answer.