Bear watching travel guide

They say bears are solitary creatures. However, if you find yourself around an Alaskan salmon spawning river in late summer, that myth is quickly busted. This is a veritable bears’ banquet, as grizzlies gather en masse to devour the salmon which look like they were merely invited to dance at the party. Nature is harsh. And nowhere better to see that in action than in the world of bears. Which may sound like the name of a toy store, but watch a polar bear savage a seal and all notions of cuddly will be long gone.

There is a lot of choice when it comes to bear watching too, budget wise and bear wise, and our bear watching travel guide reveals all the best spots. And species. Because with grizzlies in Canada, brown bears in Finland, Romania and Spain, and polar bears in the Arctic and Alaska, you have a great chance for sightings. These bears get everywhere. One even made it all the way to London from Peru.

Polar bear watching holidays can either be water based or land based. If you opt for the European Arctic they are water based, staying on small cruise ships travelling around North Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, the main island of which is Spitzbergen. Most people fly to Spitzbergen from Oslo or Tromso and then spend a night here to acclimatise. From here you take a cruise around part of the archipelago or circumnavigate it, depending on the time of year and rate of ice melt. All of the polar bear watching tours in this region are on small cruise ships and you seldom go on land during these trips, but may board a smaller Zodiac boat to get a little bit more up close and personal, taking you up fjords and past glaciers, with chances to see not only bears, but also walruses, puffins and a bevy of birds. It is, in fact, illegal to follow polar bears in the Svalbard, or to actively try to find them. The ethos is to, quite simply, come across one while cruising, observe from a distance, and in no way disturb it. And if you are on land at any time, and a polar bear comes into the sight, the emphasis will be on getting you back on board as quickly and safely as possible.

These cruises usually last between 8-10 days, often on board former expedition ships that are well equipped for extreme conditions. But with good cabin facilities, around twelve cabins, some ensuite and others not. You won’t get expedition style food on board though, but a fine array of buffets by day and a la carte by night. However, the emphasis on polar cruises is wildlife watching, adventure and going with the floe. So to speak.

For grizzlies (a subspecies of the brown bear) and black bears you need to head to Canada or Alaska with trips varying in style and length. On a trip to British Columbia’s snow-capped Coast Range Mountains, you take a seaplane up into a mountain valley and spend a few nights on a floating cabin at the mouth of a salmon river. Over three days, you take boats out into the estuary to watch grizzlies and black bears feeding on the estuarine grasses in spring, berries in summer, and salmon jumping from the river in autumn. If you want to explore more by foot, opt for an eight day wildlife hike with an expert bear biologist and guide in British Columbia’s Kootenay Rockies, tracking and following wildlife along trails, through meadows and creeks. Or take a ten day tour around all the watering holes of Vancouver Island, staying at hotels or plush lodges every night but exploring the bear hangouts by day. Such as the salmon filled temptations of the Campbell and Orford Rivers, with a day of obligatory humpback and grey whale watching in Pacific Rim National Park thrown in, where bears hunt on the shores.
 
For something different, and for the more adventurous who like being on boats, you can spend seven days in Alaska tracking Kodiak bears - the largest grizzlies in the world. Arriving in summer, in peak salmon season, you can watch bears from float planes, skiffs and because you’ll be staying on a boat too, maybe even from your cabin.