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Viewing coastal Grizzly bears in their natural habitat - Viewing other wildlife of the Great Bear Rainforest - Wilderness gourmet meals - Comfortable floating Lodge - Small group intimate experience

Sample itinerary based on a three night stay

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From	To	Description	Num Days	Price	Booking
07-May-2011	31-Dec-2012	Operative May - October Prices differ for length of stay (2-7 nights) and season (spring, summer, autumn). Sample price for 3 nights in spring is CAD$2140.	7	£1337.50 what's included? Kind Points:300
Included in the price: Accommodation Activities Alcoholic drinks All meals All meals and activities Bed Linen Breakfast Dinner Electricity Guide/ Tour leader Internal flights Lunch Room Towels Transportation NOT included in the price: Country visas Gratuities and tips Insurance International flights

• American Express

Our goal is to safely view bears in a natural setting while eliminating or minimizing impact on them. The wildlife’s need to forage, rest, or travel takes precedent over our viewing activities or desire to get a closer look. We are ever diligent to ensure that bears do not have access to human food or garbage, thus ensuring that the bears in our ecosystem can remain truly wild. All of our office paper is recycled, as are glass, aluminium and plastic containers. We strive to produce as much of our power from local renewable resources such as microhydro, solar, and wind power as possible. We use naturally-derived, bio-degardable cleaning products. The water we use at the Lodge is from a fish free river and is purified by purified with a filter and UV light.

ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY

The economy of Port Hardy has traditionally been based on resource extraction: logging, mining and fishing. Tourism provides a viable alternative to these industries. It encourages more responsible stewardship of the rich habitats of the Great Bear Rainforest and Vancouver Island. One of our owners, Lloyd McGill, has moved from a livelihood of logging and fishing to work exclusively in ecotourism.

We believe that supporting Port Hardy businesses will benefit us in the long term. Encouraging these business to survive and thrive will ensure that they can provide services and products for many years to come. To that end:

• We encourage our guests to spend at least one night in Port Hardy before and after their tour with us. This benefits local accommodation, restaurants, tourism operators, transportation companies and retail stores. The majority of businesses in Port Hardy employ local residents.

• All transportation needs are filled from local operators, including seaplanes, boat charters and land transportation.

• All supplies are purchased locally in town, when available. Anything that is unavailable is purchased in the closest large town, Campbell River.

All employees live in Port Hardy, our base of operations.

We are passionate about living responsibly on this earth. It’s as simple as that. It is why we run an ecotourism company. We have the privilege to guide people into a pristine wilderness area and take our responsibility as environmental ambassadors very seriously. In addition to ensuring that we impact our environment as little as possible, we also like to encourage our guests to do the same.

We employ people from the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw First Nation each year.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY:

The Great Bear Lodge uses solar, hydro and wind power generation. A floating lodge ensures that terrestrial animals and plants are not impacted to the same degree as with a land-based lodge.

Here are the principles we follow:

• Our grizzly bear viewing program is organized using the protocols developed at McNeil River State Game Sanctuary on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula and the Commercial Bear Viewing Association of BC, of which we are one of the founding members. This management philosophy is consistent with our goal of safely viewing bears in a natural setting while eliminating or minimizing impact on them. While our first priority is the safety of our guests, our second and very important priority is the safety and health of the grizzly bears and other animals. The wildlife’s need to forage, rest, or travel takes precedent over our viewing activities or desire to get a closer look.

• We are ever diligent to ensure that bears do not have access to human food or garbage, thus ensuring that the bears in our ecosystem can remain truly wild. Here in British Columbia, they often say, “a fed bear is a dead bear”. We agree and go to extreme lengths to ensure that doesn’t happen. We have had no aggressive bear encounters, but instead negotiate our way out of the rare surprise encounters through defusing the alarm of the bear.

• Each tour begins with a discussion on the environment we are entering, including how to minimize impacts on the animals and plants.

• We purchase organic foods whenever they are available; both for fresh produce and processed foods. If the choice is available, we purchase foods that have been locally grown.

• We use organic shade-grown coffee and encourage our guests to do the same when they return home.

• All of our office paper is recycled, as are glass, aluminium, tin and plastic containers.

• Local water sources are used for our drinking water at the lodge instead of bottled water.

• Guests are encouraged to participate in other ecotourism and cultural activities in the area, including kayaking, hiking and whale watching.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

We are proud to work in cooperation with the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw First Nation. The peoples of this nation have granted us permission to operate on their ancestral lands. We are in the process of setting up a university scholarship for members of the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw nations.