Arctic Travel Forum

Hi:

I really want to take a photography holiday to the Arctic Circle. I'm not exactly where to enter the circle for the desired results. I am a budget-minded traveler. I wish to photograph the landscapes and artic animals inhabiting the arctic circle. I am particularly interested in photographing the polar bears. Is it better to travel there from Greenland or Norway than Alaska? I know that the Europeans have the largest population of polar bears. From what I've heard on the news lately about the Canadian Arctic Circle losing thousands of the polar bear population due to global warming, I don't anticipate that being a good choice. I have found it difficult to get the information needed to travel to the Alaskan Arctic Circle. It seems that everyone wants to sell their adventure-guided tours in Alaska. This definitely isn't the way a budget-minded traveler takes in their vacations. Is it really necessary to have a guide while traveling to the arctic circle? I would definitely like to hear from those who have done what I intend to. What is the best route to get me there? I really don't need to spend too much time in the arctic circle. I'm assuming 3-4 days will be sufficient for the photography. I also need to know when to arrive for the best possibility of seeing the wildlife I'm interested in photographing.

If you want pictures of Polar Bears, I would suggest you go to Churchill, Manitoba. It's not near the Arctic circle, but it is tundra and there are plenty of Polar Bears there. Getting to Nunavut would give you a more authentic 'Arctic' experience, but it's considerably more expensive to get to.

Contrary to your assertion that Europe has more Polar Bears than Canada, I'm pretty sure that Canada has a considerably larger population since European Polar Bears are limited to Svalbard, Russia and Greenland. I believe about 60% of the world's Polar Bears call Canada home.

The best time to visit the arctic is usually the spring time from now until about mid-june. I'm sorry to say however that travel anywhere in the arctic is quite expensive.

canadian arctic is an option
From ottawa or montreal>Iqaluit>Pangurtug/Pond Inlet>Arctic Bay etc
Pang is beautiful,.. good for photograpers.. for polar bears,,the best may be an arctic cruise
for details to fly down to anywhere in baffin go to fisrtair.ca

I have been to Svalbard a few times, and last time I saw polarbears, 3 actually! You can get there by plane from Tromsoe, it's not that expencive if you order the ticket months in advance. You can stay in Longyearbyen quite cheap. To go to the polarbear areas you either have to go by boat (pretty expencive) or by snowmobile (cheaper). The best photooptions would probably be by boat. If you go by snowmobile you probably have to go with a guide. It's illegal to go outside the town without a rifle as "bear-protection" and you would also need someone to show you to the bears. But with the snowmobile most of the time you won't get very close to the bears, since it, ofcorse, is illegal to follow the bears on a snowmobile. This is to protect them from stressful situations. Svalbard is a beautiful place, both summer and winter, for more info you could look at www.svalbard.net or www.svalbard.com