The best way to see polar bears

Traditionally, there's not a great variety of options for seeing these magnificent creatures (and if things carry on as they are, there'll be even fewer fairly soon, some would say). And the fact remains that if you're going to do, it's going to cost you. A lot. But there's one or two special options about for making the most of the opportunity.

There are really two places where the bears come close enough to civilisation to be accessible to you and me. One is Spitsbergen, off the very far northern coast of Norway, for which the best season is summer when the bears are foraging for food; the other Churchill, in the remote north of Canada, where they gather in huge numbers in October and November each year.

The default option for this sort of thing is a cruise, which is great, but really expensive. A 6-day Spitsbergen cruise in the lowest available class of cabin starts at £1195 with Hurtigruten, based on two sharing, and that's only once you've got to Longyearbyen, which isn't the cheapest place in the world to reach... Hurtigruten's Spitsbergen cruises are the cheapest we've found of the sort, and they've good, if not outstanding, environmental credentials.

One better is to travel round Spitsbergen under your own power. Hurtigruten offer two trips of this sort - a 9-day kayaking trip (covering much the same territory as the 6-day cruise) at £1365, or a 13-day trekking holiday costing £1755. These trips both sound incredible, though the idea of going on polar bear watch during the night while your fellow holidaymakers snooze in their tents around you is mildly unnerving!

Getting to Spitsbergen - Hurtigruten will book it for you if you ask them to, quoting a price of £670 return at the moment (including offsetting), which includes an overnight in Oslo. The most environmentally friendly way we could find takes you from Newcastle to Bergen by overnight ferry (from £43 return, and offering a chance to take in the fjordlands on your way), followed by a flight from there which will cost about £250 with SAS, though will involve changing planes in Tromso.

Perhaps the ultimate polar bear greenhike, though, actually takes you to North America. This isn't something we'd normally go in for, but then, there aren't any other places where you've actually got the opportunity to help study the environment at the same time as having a dream encounter with polar bears.

Earthwatch have an expedition in October from Churchill which they call 'Climate Change at the Arctic's Edge'. You spend 11 days staying at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, helping scientists from the University of Alberta monitor ecosystem responses to global warming - in the middle of the highest concentration of polar bears in the world. Once in Churchill, the trip comes in at £1395, though it should be said this is a true 'offset yourself' trip - you will be working!

Again, it's getting to Churchill that spirals the cost, and of course the environmental impact. Flying there from London will cost something in the region of £800. But again there is an incremental improvement you can make, and boost the scope of your trip at the same time. Fly to Toronto, which costs from £250 return, then take the train up to Churchill via Winnipeg. This will take you through some of the most spectacular scenery in the world, and cost in the region of £250 return. That saves you £300, which could happily fund a few days looking around Toronto and Winnipeg on the way.

STOP PRESS - VOLUNTEER TRAVEL DEALS

Check out i-to-i. They've got a sale on until the end of the month (10 days to go!), with 15% off every trip. On a normal basis, we're slightly suspicious of i-to-i prices - we've found a couple of projects that you can book direct for considerably under the i-to-i rate. But with 15% off, and the level of support (often including level 1 TEFL qualifications in the cost), it's hard to argue!


One trip we're particularly keen on is the China Train Experience. With the 15% off, this 14-day trip currently costs £718.25. It's a small group trip, with a tour leader, but with a fair bit of independence as well - you've got 2-3 days in Beijing and Shanghai at the beginning and end of the holiday, either side of a week in Xian, the city corresponding to the ancient capital of the first emperor. If you do feel like booking it (and we're thinking about sending a representative along ourselves), pop along to the British Museum and see a few of the Terracotta Warriors. They'll help you make your decision!

As ever, we're not hugely keen on flights. But the week you'll spend in Xian will be a much more effective form of offsetting than most, so we're all go for this one. BA or Air China fly direct into Beijing and back from Shanghai, and you can usually get BA's cheapest prices direct from them. If you don't mind changing, the cheapest option is probably the Russian airline Aeroflot, but the older planes and the two take-offs (you stop in Moscow) mean the emissions are probably a fair bit higher. Again their prices are cheapest at their website.

January Big Green-hike: Volunteering overseas

The point of greenhiking isn't to stop flying completely, rather to recognise that flying is a privilege and a big deal - not something to be done lightly. That's because the true cost of flying is way in advance of what we pay; a short haul European return causes about 400kg of emissions. Turning your washing machine to 30 degrees saves about 230kg per year, to put that in context.

So if you do fly, make it worth it. Go for a decent amount of time - take a sabbatical! - and spend some of it volunteering. But, as ever, don't go through the obvious operators, most of them charge you through the nose, and that money all disappears into admin fees. Here's a few ideas to get you started - as ever, anyone with more let us know, and anyone who tries these out, let us know how you get on!


Our feature suggestion is APES - This is a primate rescue and rehabilitation centre, based in a bush camp in KwaZulu Natal, the wilder end of South Africa. Not only will you get stuck in with the monkeys, there's a small rural school nearby where you'll get the chance to meet the local kids, and the APES gang can organise homestay visits with local Zulu families. They ask for £195 per week, or £495 for a four week stay - this covers everything except your transport to the bush camp. Unbelievable bargain, unbelievable experience. Nearest airport is Durban, but Joburg's not a million miles away. Click here for more.

Keen divers should check out Blue Ventures, based in Madagascar. You can get a 6 week diving-based conservation trip from £1,765, covering everything but your flights and your 'personal' diving gear. None of us are big divers, but it does sound amazing - they've been awarded by National Geographic twice. Click here for more.

There's a company that are setting out to be the real experts in this field, and though some of their trips are a little short and a little expensive for the immediate taste of the greenhiker, the Observer's ringing endorsement for their Sunderbans Smiles trip (it won the accolade of 'Ultimate Eco Trip') suggests they're doing something right. We wonder if the Observer just hadn't found out about APES though! Click here to find out more about the wonderfully named Hands Up Holidays.

Happy hiking!