Great Bear Rainforest Tours
North America’s Coastal Safari
Discover the raw beauty of the Great Bear Rainforest, a protected natural wonder larger than Ireland.
View Itineraries
Great Bear Rainforest
Embark on a Great Bear Rainforest Tour
The Great Bear Rainforest is a land of fjords, islands and great river estuaries. It’s the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest where bears and wolf packs thrive as they have for millennia.
Get ready for days of adventure and wildlife, supported by a very comfortable expedition ship, gourmet chef and welcoming guides. Maple Leaf Adventures is a pioneer of tourism in the Great Bear Rainforest, having designed tours here starting in 1991 and advocated for its protection.
Trip Highlights
Explore the wildlife, the waterfall-filled wonder, and the human history of one of the planet’s most spectacular coastlines.
Experience the Great Bear Rainforest
See the Great Bear Rainforest through the eyes of our guests.
Activities
Our Great Bear Rainforest expeditions were rated “Best of the World” by National Geographic.
- Moderate walking
- Bear viewing
- Natural history through hands on experience
- Sailing (on a sailing ship)
- Village sites
- Small boat rides
- Marine mammal viewing
- Talks with your naturalist and any scientists encountered
- Kayaking and fishing (optional)
- Beaches and hot springs
What People Say
What guests like you loved about our Great Bear Rainforest tours.
Featured Wildlife
As Seen In The Nature Documentaries
Expeditions offer visitors a true safari while supporting a conservation-based economy.
Grizzly Bears
The largest bears in North America. Observe their natural behaviours in pristine habitats.
Spirit Bears
Found exclusively in the Great Bear Rainforest, a remarkable sight to behold.
Humpback Whales
Keep an eye out for their unique feeding behaviour known as bubble-net feeding.
Coastal Wolf (Sea Wolf)
Elusive and adapted to the coastal environments of the Great Bear Rainforest, exhibiting a semi-aquatic lifestyle.
Cultural History
Explore with the invitation the worlds of several northwest First Nations: the Heiltsuk, Kitasoo Xai’xais, Haisla, Gitga’at and Henaaksiala. Everywhere is evidence of their civilization. You’ll have the opportunity to visit the remote towns and communities that shape Alaska’s Southeast as part of your expedition.
Fish traps, bark-stripped trees and longhouse remains give testimony to a way of life tuned to the rhythm of nature.
You’ll visit modern villages, talk with local residents, and see the ancient art traditions still in place today.
Nature and Landscape
The Great Bear Rainforest is a land of fjords, rainforests, islands and great river estuaries. There are no roads. Instead, people travel by water.
The many protected, unlogged and ancient rainforests, and the quiet, nutrient-rich ocean, support wildlife and ecosystems as they would have been thousands of years ago across the continent – where grizzly bears and wolf packs roam free and live from what they naturally have always lived from, including abundant salmon runs.
Seasons of the Great Bear Rainforest
Our experienced crew and naturalist will take you to areas where you’ll be able to witness peak nature and wildlife events.
Spring brings bird migrations, newly awakened grizzly and black bears grazing on green sedges, pink salmonberry blossoms, spectacular snowcapped mountains and deep fjords where mountain goats come down almost to sea level, hot springs, and calmer weather.
In summer, we see humpback whales, fin whales, killer whales, porpoises, other marine mammals, seabirds, mountain goats, porpoises, and dense intertidal life. West coast, sandy beaches beckon, some of them home to elusive wolves.
In the fall we witness the return of the salmon to spawn, which draws grizzly, spirit and black bears to the estuaries, along with whales, sea lions, seals, eagles and coastal wolves.
Great Bear Rainforest Itineraries
Choose between one of many nature-based small ship tours, timed to coincide with extraordinary wildlife events.
Great Bear Rainforest
View ItineraryFollow magnificent runs of wild salmon to the home of black, grizzly, and the elusive white-furred spirit bear.
Great Bear Rainforest and Kitlope
View ItineraryBird migrations, newly awakened grizzly and black bears grazing on green sedges—experience it all on a small ship adventure.
Great Bear Rainforest in Spring
View ItineraryBird migrations, newly awakened grizzly and black bears grazing on green sedges—experience it all on a small ship adventure.
Whales and Wild Isles of the Great Bear Rainforest
View ItineraryEmbark on a summer expedition across one of the richest coastal ecosystems in the world.
