Welcome to Nature 360 Tours — where the subarctic wilderness isn’t just a destination, it’s an experience you truly feel, and where you step into a close-range polar bear photography experience unlike any other.
This is a tour unique! We keep my groups small — three guests per 4×4 vehicle, each with your own door and window — because being close to nature matters. You stay grounded, literally, so you can photograph polar bears at eye level. No barriers between you and the moment. Just you, your camera, and the wild.
Led by expert local guides, our expeditions allow for more time in the field, maximizing your opportunities to witness and capture polar bears and other Arctic wildlife in their natural habitat.
Out there, you can truly experience the remarkable connection that is possible with these magnificent creatures.
After your arrival on the flight from Winnipeg, you’ll drop your bags at the house and hop straight into our 4×4 truck — designed for small groups, with just three guests per vehicle, each enjoying their own door and window. From there, we head directly to the best areas to begin looking for polar bears suit for small private tour.
As safety allows, your guides will strive to get you on the ground to experience the majesty of these creatures and the awe they inspire. It will take your breath away. Being on the ground with polar bears is truly a defining moment — a distinctly different experience from viewing them inside a van or a large tundra vehicle.
On many days, you’ll enjoy intimate bear encounters, setting up on the ground and allowing the bears to approach naturally, while your guides use their deep knowledge of bear behaviour to maximize both safety and exceptional photographic opportunities.
Each day starts at sunrise and you will shoot until sunset. The ‘magic hour’ in Churchill lasts much of the day, providing some amazing light with nuances and changes that only make it more appealing as the day passes.
An average day features 2-3 bear encounters plus other wildlife encountered along the way.
On weather days or during lunch, you will stop at the world-famous Itsanitaq Museum, get your passport ‘polar bear’ stamp, visit a Churchill cabin complete with bear defenses and explore some local historic sites.
And of course, there’s always a chance to see the aurora — it may even begin dancing early while you’re enjoying dinner in Churchill.
In the evenings, northern lights viewing is always a possibility. When the aurora is already visible, your guides will take you out one evening during the trip to experience and photograph it from the best and safest locations.
A half-day of wildlife viewing and photography is planned before your afternoon flight departs for Winnipeg.
By this point in the week, your guides may also focus on other northern wildlife, such as Arctic fox or a stalking snowy owl.
The final day often includes a stop to visit a favourite bear — sometimes a family group you’ve spent meaningful time with throughout the week — before boarding the plane and saying farewell to the North.
Nature 360 Tours provides bilingual French/English guides.
Roundtrip Airfare Winnipeg-Churchill is not included – Some guests prefer to book it with their airfare with points or take the train to Churchill. We can get you a 55% off on the flight from Winnipeg.
Single occupancy is an extra $2,000.
Most visitors observe polar bears from large tundra vehicles. At Nature 360 Tours, we have chosen a completely different approach.
Our expeditions operate in small, exclusive groups, with only three guests per 4×4 vehicle. This allows us to be more flexible, cover more ground, and most importantly provide a far more intimate and immersive experience in the subarctic wilderness.
When safety conditions allow, we may also have the opportunity to set up at ground level to observe and photograph polar bears. This perspective completely transforms the experience — you are no longer viewing wildlife through a window, but truly becoming part of the environment.
It is a more authentic, respectful, and deeply memorable way to encounter these extraordinary animals.
This expedition has been designed to offer ideal conditions for wildlife photography.
Working in small groups allows you to take the time to compose your images, anticipate bear behavior, and fully enjoy the natural scenes unfolding around you.
In Churchill, the northern light creates truly unique photographic conditions. The long “golden hour” often lasts for much of the day, producing soft, shifting tones that are perfect for capturing the atmosphere of the North.
Between polar bears, Arctic foxes, snowy owls, and the vast subarctic landscapes, each day brings new photographic opportunities.
And when the skies are clear, the northern lights may provide an unforgettable addition to your photography experience.
We believe the most meaningful experiences in nature happen in small groups.
With only three guests per vehicle, every participant enjoys comfortable space, excellent visibility, and the freedom to photograph easily.
This small group size also allows your guides to share their deep knowledge of the landscape, polar bear behavior, and the northern ecosystem.
The result is a more personal, flexible, and immersive experience — where each day can adapt to the conditions and opportunities nature provides.
*Prices are subject to change. A non-refundable 25% deposit is required at the time of booking to secure your spot.
Karine Genest is the owner and main guide at Nature 360 Tours. She is a wildlife and expedition guide, photographer, and lifelong northerner with over 20 years of field experience. Based in Churchill, Manitoba, she leads immersive polar bear tours that offer guests a safe and authentic Arctic adventure. Her deep respect for nature, sharp eye for wildlife, and passion for sharing the land create unforgettable experiences rooted in education and conservation.
Karine is also the founder of Nature 360 Productions Inc., a documentary production company focused on wildlife and remote environments. Her work has appeared on TV5, APTN, Unis TV and Smithsonian Channel, including projects like Polar Bear Town and The Arctic Oasis. Whether guiding on the tundra or filming in the wild, Karine is driven by a deep commitment to protecting and connecting with the natural world.
We tour from dawn until dusk… which is an attainable feat given the latitude and the time of year! The tour usually starts around 730-8am and ends at 430-5pm, depending on conditions. We head out just before the sun crests the horizon and often photograph the sunset to end the day.
Its a fairly basic equation – we drive ‘safari-style’ along our trail system in search of polar bears and other wildlife. On most days, we spot a polar bear with binoculars and anticipate its path. This allows us to set up and let the bear walk towards us. A perfect encounter starts at a long distance and ends with a magical close encounter. As your guide ‘manages’ the encounter, you can simply enjoy the privilege of being on the ground with North America’s largest land
predator.
Our guides are all well-versed in bear behaviour and patterns. Respect for the bear is the absolute goal during each encounter – for some bears this means standing up to them, sometimes it means talking to them and sometimes it means retreating. Our job is to know the bears so that we can manage the humans properly. For example, Peanut is treated differently than Dr. Hook; Brattus is definitely different from Mr. Clean…!!
For the most part, we do not venture far from the vehicles – both for convenience of access to camera gear and lenses but also to reduce our impact – if we stay near the vehicle then the bear views us as ‘one entity’ instead of several stimuli.
Some days we have bears all to ourselves and other days we are among the other tour operators’ vehicles. It is a small but tight knit group of guides and operators, so everything is always fun even if we end up in the ‘crowd’. Everyone is out there for the benefit of the bears and their clients.
Our territory extends from the municipal boundaries of the Town of Churchill east to the edge of the Tundra Vehicle tourism area. We operate on a series of trails that extend from the main highway – the only road – out of Churchill. Along this 20km stretch, there are eight main trails that we use – Miss Piggy Beach, Incinerator Trail, Polar Bear Alley, Mile Three, Ladoon Beach, Ithaca Cove and Bird Cove. All of these locations are on the shores of Hudson Bay and offer magnificent backdrops with high chances for polar bear encounters.
Travelling with us puts a value on maintaining wildlife populations in the Canadian arctic. While Churchill may seem contradictory at times, it is an absolute success story of bears and people coexisting. It is the ONLY location in Canada where polar bears are not hunted and these animals are habituated to people; habituated in a way that we are not perceived as threats. Once fear is removed, then so many doors are opened…
We are also leading members of the Churchill Bear Guide Association which places a high value on trail maintenance and environmental restoration as well as public education in terms of polar bear safety.
Additional trips will be made into the treeline and other locations to search for other species. An afternoon along the coast will be spent with an arctic hare and also with red foxes. The red fox has three phases – the traditional red phase, ‘cross’ fox phase and silver fox; these colour morphs are spectacular especially in the first snow and first frost. Arctic foxes are increasingly rare as the red fox expands its territory in a warming climate, they are more likely to be seen in November or the final week of the season.
From common to rare, this is a list of the species you may encounter in Churchill: Ptarmigan, Gyrfalcon, Hudson Bay Eider, Scoter, Tundra Swan, Spruce Grouse, Snowy Owls, Peregrine Falcon, Northern Hawk Owl, Red Fox, Arctic Hare, Snowshoe Hare, Pine Marten, Arctic Fox, Woodland Caribou, Wolverine and Wolves.
Although never guaranteed, Churchill is one of the best places in the world to view the aurora borealis. We are often right under the ‘Auroral Oval’, an area of the highest northern lights activity circling the magnetic pole. Northern lights viewing or photography can be coordinated depending on the space weather (solar activity) forecast. Sunspot activity usually takes about three days to hit the earth’s magnetic field and create magical aurora. When this combines with a crisp, clear night, the results are unforgettable.
You will want a sturdy tripod and wide angle (or close) lens. A remote trigger is also advisable for aurora photography. Finally, a head lamp is a key piece of equipment for your settings and changing exposure lengths in the dark (don’t worry bear guards will accompany you if you are outside of town limits).
Guests need a good level of fitness and good balance for these trips. We do not walk long distances (unless the group is really keen) but we are outside much of the day. There will be short walks but for the most part, we try to stay in the silhouette of the vehicles. You will need to get in and out the vehicle fairly easily – while we stand our ground with most bears, our policy is to ‘retreat’ if cubs are being too investigative or if there is an older, unhealthy bear. We have operated for 15 years without using our guns as deterrents and are very proud of this achievement.
A slightly higher level of fitness is required for trips in November as opposed to October, due to the ice and snow conditions. Blizzards can hit the Churchill region for 2-3 days in November – while they make for epic polar bear photography, the conditions for clients are more challenging.
We stay in a local house. It can be described as “basic, but comfortable” with a common living room to relax in after a day of bear viewing and photography. The house has four bedrooms and two shared bathrooms. Again, it is not fancy, but it works very well for our purposes. Single travellers of the same gender may be required to share a bedroom.
Continental breakfast is provided. Lunch are provided at the B&B. Dinners are typically eaten at local restaurants, but many guests choose to take advantage of the fully equipped kitchen to make some meals to save money and time. This is especially valuable for lunches, as waiting to be served at local restaurants can use up the daylight hours when you could be out photographing bears!
No. People who want to come to view wildlife without taking photos are most welcome. However, most of our guests do like to take photos and the Churchill area has endless opportunities for great photography. Although this is not specifically a photo workshop, all our guides are accomplished photographers and will do all they can to help you get more out of your photos and your experience
Most people use lenses in the 400-600 mm range most commonly, but also bring a second body with a 100-400mm for closer encounters. Teleconverters are absolutely fine in Churchill given the high quality of light. Wide-angle lenses in the 16-35mm are great for northern lights.
No. It is not permitted to fly drones near the bears and there are very few other opportunities to fly drones safely. Most of the Churchill coast is classified as an ‘advanced’ security zone due to the proximity of the airport so you would need a special certificate to fly a drone and permission from NavCanada.
Special requests can be made as our guides have the necessary certifications and has experience in attaining permissions from NavCanada. We can assist you if a drone image is a high priority, however these requests would require significant advance notice and involve additional fees.
Churchill has cell coverage for most of the coast but there are still a few ‘dead spots’ which are kind of a blessing ☺. Wifi available at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre and at the B&B.
Waivers and medical forms must be completed when you pay your invoice. It is also mandatory that tour participants purchase independent trip cancellation insurance to protect against any unforeseen circumstance.
As featured on the acclaimed APTN documentary series Polar Bear Town, Nature 360 Tours offers real encounters in one of the planet’s most remote and raw environments. Our founder plays an active role in the community’s unique coexistence with these majestic creatures.
Cancellations made up to 90 days prior to the trip departure are fully refundable minus a transaction fee of 25% of the total tour cost.
Given the nature of our seasonal business and the relatively small window of operation, cancellations within 90 days of departure are non-refundable unless the dates in question are able to be filled.
We will make every attempt to try and fill your spot in order to issue a full refund, but if unable we reserve the right to keep payment. Travel insurance is strongly recommended.
