Canadian Arctic Watch 2019 8 days Explore

Canadian Arctic Watch 2019 8 days

Prices From £5,700pp

7 nights

June to July

Canadian Arctic Watch 2019 8 days

Spend time exploring the Canadian Arctic at this unique wilderness lodge and world-class beluga whale observation site on Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada. Situated 500 miles (805 km) north of the Arctic Circle, the lodge offers guests fully guided opportunities for diverse adventure activities, and extraordinary polar photography thanks to 24 hours of daylight. Observe the elusive musk ox, polar bear and more wildlife in their natural habitat and enjoy comfortable accommodations and superb food, all accessible via a scenic flight from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge is a family-run basecamp, hosted by Arctic enthusiasts Josée Auclair and her husband, Richard Weber, along with their two sons, Tessum and Nansen. They are distinguished across the Canadian High Arctic as polar experts, particularly in Nunavut, and specialise in North Pole and Arctic tourism.

Note 1: a mandatory transfer package of GBP1500pp (or equivalent) applies to this itinerary.
Note 2: a 2.5% Canadian tax applies to all components of this itinerary
Note 3: Dates available are June 29th, July 18th & July 23rd

Toni Hart

Namibia Birding and Photography Guide

An accomplished and experienced Namibia birding and photographic guide, Toni holds a Namibia Academy for Tourism and Hospitality Level 3 qualification (the highest level attainable in Namibia) and is widely renowned for her extensive knowledge of the cultures, ornithology, flora, astronomy and wildlife of the country. Read more >

Andy Pollard

Wildlife Guide & Photographer

Andy is a 6th generation Falkland Islander, with a passion for wildlife, plants and photography. Raised in the Falkland Islands, Andy developed a close affinity with the Islands natural environment at a young age. School holidays where spent in the ‘camp’ or countryside with friends and family. For more than 10 years, Andy had the privilege of spending a time on Sea Lion Island, visiting his mother who managed one of the Islands premier tourist destinations. Read more >

Chris Coe

Photographer and founder of the Travel Photographer Of The Year awards

A fascination with natural light and a passion with nature, landscape and travel underpin Chris Coe's photography. His images often have a striking simplicity and graphic quality. More recent work has introduced a subtlety with experimentation with both movement and light.Read more >

Jenny Luxton

Falklands Expert & Guide

Born in Chartres in the West Falklands, Jenny grew up on the family farm where her love for animals was nurtured by the25,000 sheep, horses and cows that lived alongside her. Forever a nature, conservation and wildlife enthusiast Jenny has travelled extensively throughout the Falkland Islands, visiting each and every wildlife island at least once, and even travelling around some by yacht. Read more >

Doug Allan

Special Guest Lecturer

Exclusive to this voyage, Doug Allan, a multi award winning polar photographer and cameraman, will be your special guest lecturer. Doug has been on over 20 expeditions to Svalbard to film its wildlife, and knows the wonders of this area more than most. Read more >

Chris Weston

Special Guest Photography Guide

Chris was 32 when he finally realised he really did want to be a photo-journalist and walked out on his career in IT sales to become a wildlife photographer Read more >

Highlights

Encounter rarely seen Arctic wildlife in natural habitats, including polar bears, musk oxen, Arctic foxes and snowy owls
See hundreds of beluga whales
Travel in specially designed ATVs
Take part in optional kayaking and rafting
Visit historical sites

What's Included

Full board accommodation at Arctic Watch
Expedition parka
Loan of polar quality boots
Pre and post hotel accommodation in Yellowknife including breakfast (as part of mandatory transfer package)
Group transfers to and from charter flight (as part of mandatory transfer package)
Charter flight from Yellowknife to Arctic Watch and return (as part of mandatory transfer package)

Michael Gardiner
Arctic Specialist

Speak to someone who’s been to Arctic. Start planning your tailor - made trip by calling one of our friendly destination specialists on 0800 195 3385 or 44 1625 581143 for outside the UK.

Start Chat Request a Callback

Please notify me if this price drops!

ITINERARY

7 ^Nights 8 ^Days

Itinerary Summary

Day 1 | Yellowknife
Day 2 | Arctic Watch
Day 3 | Arctic Watch & Somerset Island
Day 4 | Arctic Watch
Day 5 | Arctic Watch
Day 6 | Arctic Watch
Day 7 | Arctic Watch - Yellowknife
Day 8 | Yellowknife

1Day

Yellowknife

Arrive at any time and check in to hotel. Evening briefing and distribution of parkas and boots

2Day

Arctic Watch

Today, board your private chartered plane to fly the 1,000 miles (1,500 km) to Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge. During the four-and-a-half-hour flight, you’ll pass over the treeline as you cross the Arctic Circle. Following a refueling stop in the community of Cambridge Bay,circle above Cunningham Inlet, a beluga whale migration site.

3Day

Arctic Watch & Somerset Island

After a hot breakfast, you’ll have the chance to explore Cunningham Inlet, home to ring and bearded seals as well as nearly 2,000 beluga whales, on one of Arctic Watch’s new fat bikes. You’ll ride out on the sea ice to visit Flatrock Falls and Kayak Falls. Formed as the result of shifting fault lines, these two spectacular geological formations have steep walls that vary in height from 200 to 1,000 feet (61 to 305 meters).

4Day

Arctic Watch

After a full breakfast, you’ll tackle the tough arctic terrain on ATV—one of the most popular activities at Arctic Watch—travelling along the Muskox Ridge Trail, which offers scenic vistas of the entire area. Along the trail, you’ll also pass by an impressive Arctic fox den, where you may have the opportunity to watch fox cubs at play. You’ll likely encounter muskoxen, too.

5Day

Arctic Watch

After breakfast, long-distance hikers and runners will get their hearts pumping on this once-in-a-lifetime trek across the tundra! From the lodge, you’ll run or hike across the varied terrain of Somerset Island, following along ridges, passing fossil beds and crossing over striking red iron-oxide stone up to Nansen’s Ridge, where you’ll be rewarded with spectacular views of the Northwest Passage.

6Day

Arctic Watch

Following breakfast, you’ll head out on a full-day ATV excursion across Somerset Island, from Cunningham Inlet to Garnier Bay. Take in the memorable scenery as you ride over the rough arctic terrain, from riverbeds to ridges, and keep a lookout for muskoxen, which are common here. Not far from the bay, we’ll stop at Inukshuk Lake for a picnic.

7Day

Arctic Watch - Yellowknife

Today, you’ll bid a fond goodbye to the lodge team and the High Arctic. You may have time to take advantage of one more activity before you depart: hiking and stand-up paddle boarding in Google Canyon. Wander between the narrow walls of this cool-looking canyon, named after a Google research balloon crashed here. Herds of muskoxen can often be found grazing in the area. At Sunday Lake, you may encounter snow geese as you savour a picnic lunch, before returning to the lodge.

8 Day

Yellowknife

After breakfast and boot return, you are free to stay in town or continue to airport and home.

See All Itinerary

Your Itinerary Accommodation

Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge

This unique wilderness lodge and world-class beluga whale observation site is located on Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada, 500 miles (805 km) north of the Arctic Circle.
The lodge offers guests fully guided opportunities for diverse adventure activities, and extraordinary polar photography thanks to 24 hours of daylight. Observe the elusive musk ox, polar bear and more wildlife in their natural habitat and enjoy comfortable accommodations and superb food

This is a family-run basecamp, hosted by arctic enthusiasts Josée Auclair and her husband, Richard Weber, along with their two sons, Tessum and Nansen. They are distinguished across the Canadian High Arctic as polar experts, particularly in Nunavut, and specialize in North Pole and arctic tourism.

What Our Customers
Say...

Ann Macleod, Scotland Sarah & David, Portsmouth James and Pamela Chapman, Halifax Geoff & Magda, Adelaide, Australia Ann & Paul, East Grinstead, Sussex Chris Janner, Manchester Gavin Burnett Stirling, United Kingdom Chris Pye, North Wales Chris Pye, North Wales Chris Conlan, Manchester, UK Boyan Todorov, Holland Karen Worton, Suffolk,UK Malcolm Green , UK Malcolm Green , UK Frances Hadfield, East Sussex, UK Mike Unwin, Brighton, UK Christine Matthews, London, UK Jan Broderick, Northumberland

Superlatives abound – a truly amazing experience...awesome. Thanks to all for making it such a memorable experience.

We have just returned from our Spitsbergen trip with Wildfoot and had to tell you what an amazing time we had! We saw 6 polar bears including a mother with 2 cubs as well as whales, walruses and lots of birds. The ship (Expedition) was really comfortable and the guides were so helpful and friendly. Thank you so much for making it all so easy.

I came to Wildfoot because a friend had booked with you when you were Antarctica Bound and they were right. Everything went perfectly, even when our flight was cancelled, you made sure we still made it to the ship with time to spare. L’Austral is a beautiful ship with first class service and food and the guides looked after us well. Very happy to recommend Wildfoot and L’Austral...

We had always wanted to see the Arctic and travelling all the way from Australia needed lots of information. After getting nowhere, we came across Wildfoot and found people who knew what they were talking about! Sara and John were so helpful and made the process easy, suggesting Iceland Greenland and Spitsbergen. This was perfect for us – amazing scenery and lots of wildlife, especially the polar bears in Spitsbergen. Thanks for everything. Ps, the ship was great too!

Just wanted to say thank you for suggesting a trip to Franz Josef Land as something different for the Arctic. We had a super trip and really enjoyed the Sea Spirit. Galapagos next!

Standing on the North Pole has been an ambition of mine since childhood and now I have done it! Thank you for making the process so easy - seeing polar bears and whales too was a real bonus.

The Sea Spirit expedition was excellent and the team organising it all were extremely good. 10 out of 10. Everything went very smoothly. The Iceland extension worked perfectly, all the organisation, connections etc. were excellent

The cruise was beyond my expectations. Got to see everything the captain wanted, even a polar bear mother with three cubs. Coal Miners Cabins were smashing. I did loads of birding and exploring over three days. All the people were great from the expedition leaders down to the passengers. So glad to have achieved my ambition of some 50 years standing and got amongst the ice of the Arctic, walked amongst it’s islands and witnessed the antics of its wonderful wildlife. What’s next??? I’ll need to speak with Sara again.

Thanks so much for enabling me to get to places I had always wanted to see from a very young age. “Ace” as my boys used to say!

Just wanted to send a quick note to say thank you very much for all your help in arranging our recent trip to Svalbard. Everything ran smoothly and the trip was a great success. Unfortunately I had to flew back a few days early and missed out on Isfjord Radio, which the rest of the team said was a brilliant place with amazing food, still the Basecamp Hotel and Nordenskiold Lodge were pretty amazing places, so I’m not complaining!

Writing back to tell you that the trip to the Arctic was all that it promised and more. It was a great wild-life sightseeing opportunity and the staff were really good.I had an excellent trip and have thousands of photos to go through.

I had an absolutely fabulous time won the Sergey Vavilov, it is an excellent ship. Sara was indeed right in her recommendation that they would be the most likely to push north into the ice to find the polar bears. We even circumnavigated Spitsbergen which was awesome and not o n the itinerary.It is such a wonderful way to take a trip when you are on your own – so if any of your potential single clients are unsure, definitely recommend it – I didn’t feel alone from the moment I stepped on board. I will be at the Birdfair next weekend and so will catch up with whoever is there – regarding this trip, and potentially my next!

Great cruise, staff and expedition team. Had a great trip.

We had a wonderful time, even though we didn't do all the places we were supposed to but we all felt were we went instead couldn't beaten. Saw animals I wanted to see. Bit worried what the food was like as some of the ships cooking leaves something to be desired, but food was very good. We thought all the guides were brilliant and informative, friendly and knowledgeable It was far better than we expected and even my husband thoroughly enjoyed it!

I wanted to let you know that I had a wonderful cruise in the Russian Far East. The landscape and destination were inspiring, we had some excellent wildlife sightings (sea otter, grey whale, Steller's sea eagle, snowy owl and Arctic fox were all firsts for me), and the Heritage team were superb. Rough seas forced a few changes to the itinerary but we also had some fabulous weather. All in all, a thrilling travel experience.Thanks once again for all your efforts

I thought you might like to know that this was an excellent holiday. Our guide, Brad, was absolutely wonderful, his enthusiasm and knowledge made the holiday even better. All in all the whole trip was excellent and we saw lots of bears, 24 on the first day. Fewer on the second and third days but still plenty, as well as arctic foxes,silver foxes and snowy owls. Even on the last day near the town we saw a bear on rocks by the beach.

What a great trip! Wildfoot built a great trip for us and every aspect was spot on. Our Iguazu guide was fun, interesting and helpful and all the transfers were timely and comfortable. The Antarctica Trip was superb - WIldfoot had given us the best advice and helped us choose the right ship and tour for what we wanted - A truly memorable Experience Thank You Wildfoot

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Canadian Arctic Watch 2019 8 days

Canadian Arctic Watch 2019 8 days