Baffin Island Travel Guide

Baffin Island comprises half a million square kilometres of Arctic vastness, whose main attraction is Auyuittuq National Park Reserve on the Cumberland Peninsula, Canada's northernmost accessible national park. With a treeless landscape, mountains towering over 1500m, icy glacial streams and 24-hour daylight from May to July, hiking in Auyuittuq offers one of the most majestic experiences in Canada. However, with temperatures rising to a mere 6°C from June to August, it's a brutal environment that will appeal only to the truly adventurous; expensive though they are, package tours are definitely recommended if this is your first venture into such a forbidding place. Be sure to bring all necessary gear with you, as the island supplies arrive just once a year.

The main gateway to Baffin Island - and capital of Nunavut - is the rapidly growing IQALUIT (formerly Frobisher Bay), whose name means simply "fish" and whose population of four thousand-plus is dominated by Inuit. The Nunavut Tourism office is here (tel 867/979-6551 or 1-800/491-7910, fax 979-1261, www.nunatour.nt.ca ), as is the Unikkaarvik Visitor Centre (July-Aug daily 9am-5pm, other times on request; 867/979-4636, nunatour@nunanet.com ). So, too, are many of the tour operators who run trips into the interior. Things to see include the St Jude's Anglican church - an igloo-shaped affair like the one in Inuvik - and the collection of Inuit art and artefacts in the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum (call for latest times; tel 867/979-5537).