Planning a Trip

Getting There

Yellowknife Airport is 5km (3 miles) northeast of the town. First Air (tel. 800/267-1247 or 613/688-2635; www.firstair.ca), flies direct to Yellowknife from Edmonton and Whitehorse. Canadian North (tel. 800/661-1505; www.canadiannorth.com) provides daily flights from Ottawa, Edmonton, and Calgary.

If you're driving from Edmonton, take Highway 16 to Grimshaw. From there the Mackenzie Highway leads to the Northwest Territories border, 475km (295 miles) north, and on to Yellowknife via Fort Providence. The total distance from Edmonton is 1,524km (947 miles). Most of the road is now paved.

Visitor Information

For information about the territory in general or Yellowknife in particular, contact one of the following: the Northern Frontier Regional Visitors Centre, No. 4, 4807 49th St., Yellowknife, NT X1A 3T5 (tel. 877/881-4262 or 867/873-4262; www.northernfrontier.com); or NWT Arctic Tourism, P.O. Box 610, Yellowknife, NT X1A 2N5 (tel. 800/661-0788 or 867/873-7200; www.explorenwt.com)

A useful phone number for motorists is the ferry information line at tel. 800/661-0750 (NT only), which lets you know the status of the various car ferries along the Dempster and Mackenzie highways. At breakup and freeze-up time, there's usually a month's time when the ferries can't operate and the ice isn't yet thick enough to drive on.

City Layout

The city's expanding urban center, New Town -- a busy hub of modern hotels, shopping centers, office blocks, and government buildings -- spreads above the town's historic birthplace, called Old Town. Together the two towns count about 18,000 inhabitants, by far the largest community in the Territories.

Most of New Town lies between rock-lined Frame Lake and Yellowknife Bay on Great Slave Lake. The main street in this part of town is Franklin Avenue, also called 50th Avenue. Oddly, early town planners decided to start the young town's numbering system at the junction of 50th Avenue and 50th Street; even though the downtown area is only 10 blocks square, the street addresses give the illusion of a much larger city.

The junction of 48th Street and Franklin (50th) Avenue is pretty much the center of town. A block south are the post office and a number of enclosed shopping arcades (very practical up here, where winter temperatures would otherwise discourage shopping). Turn north and travel half a mile to Old Town and Latham Island, which stick out into Yellowknife Bay. This is still a bustling center for boats, floatplanes, B&Bs, and food and drink.

South of Frame Lake is the modern residential area, and just west is the airport. If you follow 48th Street out of town without turning onto the Mackenzie Highway, the street turns into the Ingraham Trail, a bush road heading out toward a series of lakes with fishing and boating access, hiking trails, and a couple of campgrounds. This is the main recreational playground for Yellowknifers, who love to canoe or kayak from lake to lake or all the way back to town.

Getting Around

Monday through Saturday, Yellowknife City Transit (contact Cardinal Coach Lines at tel. 867/873-4693, or city hall at tel. 867/920-5653) loops through Yellowknife once an hour -- sometimes with a bus available every half-hour -- with stops at the airport and throughout downtown. The fares are C$2.50 (US$2.50/£1.25) for adults, C$1.50 (US$1.50/75p) for youth ages 6 to 17, and free for children 5 and under; tickets are available at City Hall and at various local shops.

For car rentals, Budget (tel. 800/527-0700 in the U.S., 800/472-3325 in Canada, or 867/920-9209) and National (tel. 888/878-5557 or 867/920-2970) have offices at the airport. Rent-A-Relic, 356 Old Airport Rd. (tel. 867/873-3400), offers older models at substantial savings -- and they'll pick you up and drop you off at the airport. At all these operations, the number of cars available during summer is rather limited and the demand very high. Try to book ahead as far as possible.

Taxis are pretty cheap in Yellowknife; call City Cabs (tel. 867/873-4444) or YK Cabs (tel. 867/873-8888) for a lift. A ride to the airport costs about C$15 (US$15/£7.50).

Special Events

The Caribou Carnival, in late March, is a burst of spring fever that morphs into a month-long celebration of all things Northern: aurora viewing, erecting the Snow King's ice palace on Yellowknife Bay, igloo-building contests, and Inuit wrestling. The highlight is the Canadian Championship Dog Derby, a 3-day, 240km (149-mile) dog-sled race. The brief summer starts with late June's Raven Mad Daze and the Solstice Celebration (tel. 867/766-3865; www.solsticefestival.ca), which draws throngs to Franklin Avenue for music, dancing, and street food. The Festival of the Midnight Sun is an arts festival in mid-July. There are a one-act play competition, various arts workshops (including lessons in Native beading and carving), and fine art on display all over town. Also in mid-July, the Folk on the Rocks Music Festival (www.folkontherocks.com) features a mix of northern (arctic) and southern Canadian folk, rock, blues, and other genres, plus Native musical performances.