Yukon and North West Territories – Beyond the Arctic Circle 13-day Mile Zero Tour – July 29 – August 10, 2025
This is my first time travelling with Mile Zero Tours, departing from my home in Victoria, BC to the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada, returning 13 days later. 22 fellow travellers make up this group, but two people had to return home from Whitehorse before the actual ground tour started, so our group was 20 travellers, our Tour Director and bus driver.
The weather was nearly perfect, with warm and sunny days, but we had a few days with overcast skies and rain showers one evening. The bonus on this trip was not encountering any serious mosquito problem and no black flies at all, making this trip in the north of Canada most enjoyable!
If you just want to see a photo album of the whole trip, view 2025 Yukon & Northwest Territories – just over 200 photos and videos – a 17-minute slideshow or pick and choose as you wish.
My full itinerary is listed below. Feel free to click on what interests you, however if you click on the top-most item, there are links at the bottom of each page (just above the Comments section) to take you to the next destination – from beginning to end. This is the best way to explore the whole trip as I experienced it.
Travelogue
- Victoria to Whitehorse – fly from Victoria to Vancouver and onward to Whitehorse
- Whitehorse – local guided tour, McBride Museum (colonial history), Beringia Centre (Ice Age animals and First People)
- Whitehorse to Dawson City – road trip on the Klondike Highway, with points-of-interest along the way
- Dawson City – local guided tour, including the gold fields
- Dawson City to Inuvik – flight to the Northwest Territories
- Tuktoyaktuk & Mackenzie River delta – drive Inuvik to Tuk, Arctic Ocean and local culture experience, scenic flight back to Inuvik over the Mackenzie River delta
- Inuvik to Dawson City – local tour of Inuvik and flight back to Yukon
- Dempster Highway – drive southern part of the highway to Tombstone and Blackstone Valley
- Dawson City to Mayo & Carmacks – lunch and cultural stop at Mayo
- Carmacks to Whitehorse – drive back to Whitehorse
- Carcross & Yukon Wildlife Preserve – a day trip from Whitehorse
- Whitehorse – a day off for me
- Whitehorse to Victoria – experience sled dogs and the Transportation Museum before flying home to Victoria
How it started and evolved
I had a 14-day Alaska cruise booked with Holland America for September which offered a unique itinerary, and it departed out of Vancouver, making it very convenient for me. After the anti-Canadian rhetoric ramped up shortly after the USA Presidential elections earlier in 2025, I was no longer looking forward to my Alaska cruise so I cancelled it. Friends had taken Mile Zero tours before and liked them, so I found their Northern Canada tour for August, contacted them and booked it within just a few days.
Since I was now travelling within Canada, I didn’t need expensive travel medical insurance, my mobile phone roamed at no additional cost, and my travel funds were supporting Canadian businesses. Perhaps most importantly, I felt happy about travelling to these interesting destinations in Canada’s north, and avoiding the anxiety of dealing with crossing the border into the USA.
Costs
Mile Zero prices their tours to include many meals, all airfares, admissions, baggage handling, and gratuities to both the tour director and bus driver. They also include limousine service to and from their clients’ homes on southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland of BC to Vancouver or Victoria airport. This means their tour prices are higher, but additional expenses are minimal when taking their tours. Since the tour price included so many meals, I ended up spending a very modest amount for meals and beverages.
The bottom line cost for me on this 13-day tour: CA$640/day (US$457/day) single occupancy. If I had taken the Alaska cruise, the cost would have been $795/day (US$568/day), considerably more expensive.
So was it worth it?
I was very happy with Mile Zero, the tour director and drivers, since they did a wonderful job of enriching the experience of Canada’s north. There were a couple of hiccups along the way, but our tour director and the staff back at Mile Zero in Victoria dealt with them quickly and efficiently, and kept the group informed of the changed plans. I heard no complaints from my fellow travellers, who were all very nice people, many who enriched my experiences on our journey together.
Travelling above the Arctic Circle all the way to Canada’s northern ocean shoreline was certainly a bucket list item checked off, however the scenic flight over the Mackenzie River delta was the highlight of the trip for me. Experiencing the southern Dempster Highway through the Tombstone territory and the gorgeous Blackstone Valley surrounded by the Olgivie Mountains was a wonderful surprise. Of course, the history surrounding the Klondike and Yukon rivers was a big part of why the communities we visited along those rivers were established and flourished in their heyday. All this provided a glimpse into Canada’s north which few Canadians have experienced in-person.