[email protected] | +230 452 3731

Canada – Churchill Tundra Buggy Photo Tour 2026

US$0 US$0.00

Spaces Available

25 – 30 October  2026

Join us in Churchill, Canada, land of Ursus maritimus, the polar bear, the largest land carnivore in the world. From our mobile photography platform, the storied Tundra Buggy®, we’ll seek out personal moments with these charismatic bears in their natural habitat as they gather along the shores of Hudson Bay for the annual freeze. Typical wildlife highlights include sparring males, moms and cubs, red and Arctic foxes, predators on the wing like gyrfalcons or owls, and up-close encounters that will test your lens’s minimum focusing distance.  

 

We’ll spend our nights at the Tundra Buggy® Lodge. Each year, this mobile lodge is set up at Polar Bear Point, showcasing the highest concentration of polar bears in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. Unlike photographers who stay in town, staying at the Tundra Buggy® Lodge means that we won’t be travelling far each morning to find our bears. With a commute this short, we’ll have the bears all to ourselves for sunrise and sunset while everyone else is travelling to or from town. 

 

The Tundra Buggy® Lodge is made up of sleeping accommodation units, a lounge, and Dan’s Diner, our reservation for dinner on the tundra. Evenings spent at the lodge will see bears or foxes drop by while we dine and review our day’s photographs. The Tundra Buggy® Lodge has viewing platforms between each unit, with a top-floor deck that provides an elevated view of the tundra and the Tundra Buggy® Lodge itself. Each sleeping quarter has a window; who knows, you might be able to fall asleep and wake up with the bears. The early sunsets at the end of October also offer us the opportunity, weather permitting, to see the Aurora Borealis from the viewing decks dancing above the Lodge. 

Why this Photo Tour is for You

Destination Allure

Our trip to seek out polar bears takes place along the shores of Hudson Bay in Canada’s sub-Arctic. Polar Bear Point, located deep inside the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, contains the highest concentration of polar bears in Churchill! Staying at the Tundra Buggy® Lodge means that you’ll be right in the thick of the action; nobody else operates a lodge this deep in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. This is THE best place to set up our base.

Month of Travel

The photo tour takes place in the northern hemisphere’s fall when polar bears are migrating through the Churchill area in anticipation of the annual freeze up.

Wildlife & Exquisite Landscapes

Trips to Churchill focus on searching out and photographing the world’s largest land carnivore, the polar bear. We’ll also keep an eye out for red foxes in all of their colour morphs (red, cross, and silver), arctic foxes, winged predators like gyrfalcons and owls, as well as the cuter ptarmigan and snow bunting. Less frequently, we can see wolves, caribou, and wolverines. Taking place across three ecosystems, the tundra, the boreal forest, and the maritime, our expedition will give us ample opportunities to take in the stark, unspoiled, and exotic landscape of Canada’s North.

Guided Experience

Each tour includes photography guides and polar bear naturalists that will help you to develop a better understanding of the wildlife while taking home incredible images.

oryx mark dunsmuir

ORYX LEADERS
Mark Dunsmuir

6 Days
10 Guests + 1 ORYX Leader
Canada
Classic
Landscape
Wildlife
  • Departure
    Winnipeg
  • per individual
    To Be Announced
  • Single Supplement
    Please contact us
  • Photographic Highlights
    Polar Bear, Beluga Whale, Caribou, Arctic Fox, Snowy Owl, incredible scenery
  • Guide
    Mark Dunsmuir

From our gallery

Best of Canada

6 wildlife 19let us go photo dunsmuir oryx
6 wildlife 8let us go photo dunsmuir oryx
1 cover blue bearlet us go photo dunsmuir oryx
1

Day 1, 25th October: Arrive in Winnipeg and overnight

You will arrive into Winnipeg and make your way to the Grand Hotel, less than 100 meters from the Winnipeg Airport Arrivals lounge.     This evening, guests will be invited to a welcome dinner hosted by your photographic leader and naturalist guides. We will review the expedition itinerary, discuss bear safety issues, and answer any questions you might have. Dinner will also include a presentation discussing strategies for taking home the best photos you can from your encounters with our bears and the land they call home. 
2

Day 2, 26th October: Flight Winnipeg to Churchill, photography and tour of Churchill (including Polar Bear Holding Facility & Inukshuk) & evening presentation

Today we depart northbound on an early morning flight from Winnipeg to Churchill. We leave early to take advantage of every possible moment on the ground in the sub-Arctic. Our adventure starts well beyond the end of the road. No roads lead to Churchill! After arrival, we will embark on a Churchill area photography excursion. Always keeping an eye out for the wildlife that often makes its home right in Churchill, we will check out some of the main sights of town. We will aim to see Cape Mary, a fur-trade era cannon battery and home to many red foxes, the monstrous port of Churchill, a tour of the street art form Sea Walls mural festival, and a quick trip to Hudson Bay itself.   We will also visit the Polar Bear Holding Facility (“Polar Bear Jail”, where nuisance bears are isolated until such time as they can be relocated), and you will also get to see an inukshuk (also spelled inuksuk; plural inuksuit), which is a stone structure traditionally built by the Inuit and other Indigenous peoples of the Arctic to convey messages or serve as landmarks for travellers. Constructed by carefully stacking rocks or boulders, inuksuit hold deep cultural and practical significance, symbolizing human presence and guidance across the vast northern landscapes. The word “inukshuk” comes from the Inuktitut language and translates to “something that performs the function of a person,” derived from “inuk,” meaning “a human being.” These iconic structures are often associated with Canadian identity and the Arctic, and a red inuksuk is prominently featured on the flag of Nunavut, reflecting its importance to the region’s heritage.   **After lunch and a cultural presentation, there is an option of an hour-long helicopter tour (exclusive of tour fee) over Canada’s great-white North. Keep a look out for bears, moose, and fox while enjoying the starkness of the tundra and boreal forest landscape. Please let us know if you are interested and we will book this on your behalf**    Having concluded our time in Churchill, we transfer out to the Tundra Buggy® Lodge on the famous Tundra Buggy®. We will drive from town out to the buggy dock by bus where we will board our buggy for the two-hour trip out to the Tundra Buggy® Lodge.     The lodge is located at Polar Bear Point. The appropriately named landmark is a waypoint for bears making their migration through Churchill, awaiting the return of the first sea ice on Hudson Bay. This annual migration offers some of the best opportunities in the world to observe wild polar bears. Our accommodations operate deeper in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area than anyone else. This location gives us the opportunity to spend more time with the polar bears and other wildlife that call the Churchill Wildlife Management Area home.   Each night, before dinner enjoy the Thanadelthur Lounge’s atmosphere and appetizers.  Afterwards, a delicious meal prepared by the lodge’s world-class chefs in the dinning unit, Dan’s Diner. The panoramic windows of Dan’s Diner (just meters from Hudson Bay) offer us sweeping views of the tundra and any potential wildlife visitors that might drop by during dinner.      
3

Days 3 and 4, 27th and 28th October: Churchill - Tundra Buggy adventure for Polar Bears

You will spend these days adventuring in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area searching for polar bears on the Tundra Buggy®. First developed in 1979, the Tundra Buggy was the original tundra vehicle designed to explore the Churchill Wildlife Management Area—home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of wild polar bears.   Today, Tundra Buggies remain the original and most advanced vehicles on the tundra. With the introduction of cutting-edge Electric Vehicle (EV) Tundra Buggies, guests now enjoy innovative, silent, zero-emission propulsion wildlife viewing experiences that leave a lighter footprint on this fragile ecosystem." Tundra Buggies are furnished with dual-pane frost-free windows.   Each day, we depart early and board our Tundra Buggies looking for polar bears and other wildlife such as foxes, hare, or ptarmigan. We will enjoy a picnic-style lunch and refreshments while we’re touring. This approach will let us maximize our time with the bears. The goal would be to lunch on the tundra with the bears! Often referred to as the "Lords of the Arctic," polar bears are among the largest land carnivores on Earth. Adult males can weigh over 600 kilograms (1,320 pounds) and reach heights of up to 3.05 meters (10 feet) when standing on their hind legs. Despite their formidable size, they are remarkably swift and agile on both ice and land.     Polar bears possess an extraordinary sense of smell, capable of detecting scents from more than 30 kilometers (nearly 19 miles) away. They are also adept hunters, able to sense the presence of seals beneath layers of snow and ice as deep as one meter (three feet), making them highly efficient predators in the Arctic environment.    Each evening in the Thanadelthur Lounge we will have time to look over images from our day, using feedback to continue to build our photography skills. Nights on the Tundra Buggy® Lodge will include the opportunity to talk with researchers working in the Arctic and sub-Arctic and engage in more photo or wildlife-centric lectures.     Once the sun has set, don’t forget to look up through the skylights or find your way to the viewing deck to search out the Aurora Borealis. Early sunsets in late October provide us with at least a chance to see the sky dance!       
4

Day 5, 29th October: Tundra Buggy adventure for Polar Bears, then depart Churchill, flight to Winnipeg and overnight

After a final breakfast at Tundra Buggy Lodge®, we embark on a last excursion to look for polar bears before making our way back prior to our flight to Winnipeg, where we will spend the final evening of the tour.
5

Day 6, 30th October: Breakfast and depart

Today sadly marks the conclusion of this remarkable adventure and after breakfast the tour draw to a close.   
No testimonials were found.
    Our mailers are sent once a week at the most, and promise to deliver inspiring wildlife, culture and landscape photo tours. Please uncheck this if you don't want to receive mailers.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

You don't have permission to register