Getting there: Flights to Iqaluit originate in Montreal and Ottawa. The town of Rankin Inlet can be reached from Winnipeg or Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Round-trip airfares under $1,000 are hard to come by. Within Nunavut, most smaller communities are served by twice- or thrice-weekly scheduled flights. There are no highways into Nunavut or connecting its far-flung towns.
Climate: In midwinter, most of Nunavut gets only about three hours of daylight, and daytime temperatures average around -20 F (-30 C). In the summer, when the sun is up nearly around the clock, daytime temperatures are usually around 50 F (10 C) in Iqaluit and around freezing in the farthest-north areas. Most of Nunavut receives relatively little precipitation, but frequent high winds can create blizzard conditions in the winter.Accommodations: Iqaluit has four full-service hotels, with good dining options and rooms costing roughly $100 per night. Accommodations are more scarce, more spartan and often more costly in the smaller towns, and guests may be required to share bedrooms or bathrooms.
Food: Most of Nunavut's restaurants are in the hotels, and offer straightforward meals based on a mix of flown-in food and local specialties such as caribou, musk ox and arctic char, a fish tasting somewhat like salmon. A community feast might also include raw seal meat or whale blubber.
Activities: Nunavut offers a wide range of outdoor activities, particularly for adventure-seekers: dog-sledding, snowmobiling, river and sea kayaking, hunting and fishing, an array of wildlife-watching trips. Expedition costs can be high -- a 16-day trip led by Iqaluit-based Northwinds Arctic Adventures to Ellsmere Island costs $4,220 per person. There are colorful festivals in April to mark the coming of spring, and a variety of Inuit art and crafts available, especially carvings.
Information: The Nunavut Tourism Office can provide brochures, travel and accommodation details, and information on outfitters and tour guides: Telephone: 867-979-6551. Fax: 867-979-1261. E-mail: nunatournunanet.com. The Nunavut Handbook, published by Nortext Multimedia, has a wealth of travel information and can be obtained by calling 1-800-263-1452 from North America and 1-613-727-5466 from overseas. The handbook has a Web site: www.arctic-travel.com.