From polar bears to the northern lights, adventures in Manitoba, Canada feel larger than life. Find experiences that will stay with you after you leave.
Set along the shores of the Hudson Bay, Northern Manitoba offers landscapes and wildlife rarely found anywhere else. Each autumn, near the town of Churchill, polar bears gather along the shoreline waiting for the sea ice to return so they can head out onto the sea ice to hunt for seals. In summer, beluga whales swim into the Churchill River estuary to feed, mate and calve. Above it all, the northern lights appear often and vividly, stretching across crisp, dark skies.
In July and August, thousands of beluga whales move into the shallow estuary of the Churchill River, with remarkable encounters that can happen safely in the water. Lazy Bear Expeditions’ AquaGliding experience places you flat on a floating mat, gently buoyed by the current as belugas move beneath you. Sounds of playful clicks and whistles travel up through the water before smooth shapes slide past, surface and dive.
Churchill is the polar bear capital of the world, with about 800 of the animals moving around the area as freeze-up approaches. In early summer, the first arrivals appear as white shapes drifting through low tundra lit with magenta fireweed.
By October, the land deepens to reds and ochres with bears gathering across the tundra. Churchill Wild offers the rare chance to explore this landscape on foot. Walks are led by experts trained to read bear behaviour. At ground level, you’re close enough to feel the bears’ presence but distant enough for them to roam as nature intends.
Churchill sits on Indigenous land shaped by centuries of Dene, Cree and Métis stewardship. Sayisi Dene artisan Florence Hamilton shares culture through caribou-hair tufting workshops and cultural presentations. Métis owner and operator Dave Daley is a long-distance dog musher with a number of races under his belt. You can meet the dogs as he talks through their personalities, help clip them into their harnesses then feel the surge as they pull your sled through spruce-lined trails.
This is one of the most active aurora zones on the planet, with the northern lights visible about 300 nights a year. Nanuk Operations’ Nights Under Lights package lets you stay in town, snowshoeing
or riding a dog sled by day and relaxing in a cosy yurt in the boreal forest in the evening, ready to head outside as soon as the sky starts glowing. For a culinary adventure, Frontiers North Adventures combines aurora with a locally inspired, multi-course dinner at Dan’s Diner.
Canada’s heart is calling. Plan your epic adventure at travelmanitoba.com.
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