North Star Adventures - Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

lily C.

We decided what we had wasn’t enough so we needed to rent parkas and snow pants and shoes from them. Currently they are not providing service through phone but directed me to the email address. We emailed out requests and they delivered the clothes to our hotel. Overall, all communication was clear; they sent us an email confirming the pick up time and what their van looks like. The guide for the night was Joe and he tried several spots so we can get the best glimpse of the aurora. He explained where we were heading to and why that would be a better spot. We did see the aurora and took some great pictures! The pictures from the night before were emailed to us by the next afternoon, just as promised. Overall, knowledgeable and trustworthy tour company, highly recommended.

kris V.

We recently took the Ice Road Tour, and it was an unforgettable experience! Joe & his team were fantastic—knowledgeable, funny, and incredibly helpful.
North Star Adventures provided a well-organized and enjoyable experience from start to finish. If you’re visiting Yellowknife, I highly recommend this tour for a unique and authentic northern adventure!

W

Joe and Jess are informative and gregarious tour guides! As a solo traveler, I immediately felt at ease with them. I booked two nights of aurora hunting, a few nights apart, and both nights, they worked extremely hard to find the aurora for us. They spoke honestly about how the weather may affect our chances. The first night, we all spent the whole night in laughter and great conversation about travel all over the world. The second night, we were treated to an amazing aurora display -- a brilliant and vivid show that significantly peaked for only a few minutes. I felt very lucky that Joe knew when we needed to leave the warmth of the bus to catch it! I was grateful and honored to learn about the aurora from the First Nations/Indigenous perspective. Thank you, Joe and Jess, for an awesome time!

Alison W.

Booked three nights Aurora hunting tour and saw Aurora every night! Also booked the city tour with them as well.

Joe is a wonderful guide - very friendly and very knowledgeable. He's a local so he has recommendations for food, souvenirs, sights, and things to do!
Even for camera settings on how to best capture the northern lights, he's there to assist! He also takes professional photos for you with the Aurora so you don't have to worry about having a fancy camera (which we did not have).

Highly recommend!

WildCreatures

We went out last night with Joe Buffalo Child and had an amazing experience. Raj was our driver and he was fantastic too. This is a unique approach to chasing down the aurora borealis that feels like an adventure in many ways. We saw the aurora from several viewpoints over several hours. Each sighting was different in terms of light, colour, and movement. It felt like Joe had carefully planned with respect to location, viewing angles, and timing. He was using his phone to track the aurora activity and seems to really know what he's doing.
The advantages of Joe's approach are obvious. Remaining stationary would present problems with cloud cover, landscape and trees and even the moon affecting the view. I think the mobile approach gave us a much better experience.
Joe is a charismatic tour leader who blends personal experience, storytelling, and scientific facts to create a memorable experience. We came away with pictures, video, and a glimpse of culture that leaves us with great appreciation for what we have seen. We will be going again on Monday.
Joe claims that Yellowknife is the best place in the world to view the aurora borealis. If this is true, it's at least partly because North Star Adventures (aurora Hunters) is here. We were thrilled by the whole experience and we learned a lot from our time with Joe.
Dave and Kristy

Lynn T.

Did 2 tours this time, and already started planning our next trip on the plane back. Joe and his team will get you the best aurora experience in the best place in the world to see it. Truly a gem and keeps the energy and morale up, even on a rainy, cloudy night. Will always remember to drive into the storm to get past it. 🙂

Julie S.

We had the best time in Yellowknife with North Star! They handled everything from booking our hotel to daytime tours, dropping off our rented gear at the hotel, dinners. It was perfect! Highly recommend Joe and his team! I can’t say enough positives about our experience!

Anvita S.

We traveled as a couple to YK for northern lights for 2 nights on the good Friday long weekend and went with Joe for the Aurora Hunting tour. Our 1st night, we left the hotel around 10.30 and started seeing Aurora just 3-4kms outside of YK. Joe estimated the directions where the lights would be best and took us to 3-4 more spots through the 4hrs to spot Aurora. The display was mesmerizing throughout the night and we got memorable pictures. Joe is a great conversationalist so we talked a lot about life in YK, northern lights and our cultures. His camera and sense of photography is amazing , so he took great pictures of us and the Aurora.
The 2nd night when we left YK around 10pm, Joe drove us around 40kms outside the city towards east for Aurora hunting . But due to the cloud cover being very dense, we couldn't spot any. So we came back to YK and went west and around 12.45am reached a spot where the sky was clear and Aurora started to show up, not so intensely though as we had seen the previous night but Joe didn't leave any stone unturned to make sure the group sees it. Overall, North Star is an amazing way to see the Aurora and its totally worth it!