The price of a bear is published, which is more than can be said for most things on this coast. Knight Inlet Lodge prints a tariff, Wildcoast prints a grid, and Berry Island prints its terms and asks you to enquire for the number. What none of them print is the whole bill: the tax, the tips, the night before, the flight to the coast and the glass of wine that was not the one with dinner. This is that bill, line by line, from the operators’ own figures, for one person and for two.
The package is most of the money and almost all of the trip. The rest is the lines the tariff leaves out, and they add about a fifth.
The package
Everything starts from the package price, per person, double occupancy. The three on the record:
Knight Inlet Lodge, 3 nights (2 at the lodge, 1 in Campbell River), 2027: $4,365 in the summer adventure season, 1 July to 30 August; $4,755 in the spring season, 21 May to 30 June, and the fall bear-viewing season, 31 August to 15 October. A single room is $6,290 in summer and $6,895 in spring and fall. A child of 6 to 16 sharing with two adults is $2,805 in summer or $2,990 in spring and fall; a third adult sharing is $4,010 or $4,360. Four to seven night packages step up from there.
Wildcoast Adventures, Whales and Bears, 7 days, 2026: $3,693 on departures to 22 August, $4,043 from 25 August when the Orford River grizzly day replaces the zodiac day, sharing a tent.
Berry Island Lodge, 4 to 7 days: priced on enquiry by dates and group size. The Ledger holds the inclusions and terms; the number is a conversation.
What the package buys
At Knight Inlet: the Comfort Inn night, the floatplane both ways, the room, three meals a day and wine with dinner, rain gear and boots on loan, and the guided outings, one platform trip a day guaranteed in the fall.
The food is better than a floating lodge in a cove has any business serving. Appetisers on the deck at five, dinner at seven, and the kitchen knows about the dietary note you sent in advance.
The tax
GST at 5% on the package at Knight Inlet and Wildcoast; there is no PST on accommodation packages of this kind. On a $4,755 package that is $238. Berry Island’s package includes the BC hotel tax and the guest conservation fee.
The night before, and the lines the lodge leaves out
Knight Inlet folds the Campbell River night into the price; dinner that evening is yours, call it $60 a head. Berry Island and Wildcoast ask you to be on Vancouver Island the night before at your own cost: a room in Campbell River or Port McNeill runs $150 to $250 in season.
Gratuities are the biggest line the tariff leaves out. Knight Inlet built $40 per person into its 2026 price and took it out for 2027; 10% of the package is the norm on this coast, pooled among the guides and staff. On $4,755 that is $475 a head. The bar beyond dinner wine is perhaps $25 a lodge night if you drink. Parking at the Campbell River floatplane terminal is paid, roughly $45 for the stay if you drive.
The small lines
A bottle of BC white on the deck rail at Knight Inlet. Wine with dinner is in the price; the bottle on the deck at five is not, and nobody minds.
The gift shop is where the last of the budget goes: bear-paw bottle openers, the lodge crest on a robe, jewellery by coastal artists. Bring a card.
Getting to the coast
The packages start at the gateway dock. From Vancouver, Pacific Coastal flies to Campbell River and Port Hardy from the South Terminal, and the drive is the Horseshoe Bay ferry to Nanaimo then two hours up the island to Campbell River, four to Port McNeill. A return flight from Vancouver to Campbell River is a few hundred dollars a person in season; the ferry with a car is about $150 return. The Book the legs block on the getting-there page has the flight search, the ferries and the car.
Travel insurance with cancellation cover is the last line, and the one people skip. A policy covering cancellation and interruption on a $10,000 trip typically runs 4 to 8% of it; Knight Inlet’s $500 deposit is refundable only until 90 days out and the whole package is forfeit inside 30; Berry Island’s $500 deposit is non-refundable from the day you pay it; Wildcoast takes the whole trip at booking, refunds it in full for seven days and less 3% until 60 days out, then keeps half inside 60 and all of it inside 30; and a floatplane grounded by fog is not the lodge’s problem.
The whole bill, for two
Knight Inlet Lodge, 3 nights, fall bear-viewing season 2027, double occupancy, on the lodge’s own figures and my estimates for the rest:
- Package, 2 x $4,755: $9,510
- GST at 5%: $476
- Dinner in Campbell River, 2 x $60 (estimate): $120
- Gratuities at 10% (norm, at your discretion): $951
- Bar, 2 x 2 nights x $25 (estimate): $100
- Flights, Vancouver to Campbell River return, 2 x about $350 (estimate): $700
- Travel insurance at about 5% (estimate): $550
About $12,400 for two, or $6,200 a head, of which the lodge’s own package is 77%. The same trip in summer is about $800 less for two. The calculator does this arithmetic for your party, season and package, and lets you change every estimated line; the plan can be emailed to you or opened as a link.
The cheaper routes to a grizzly exist and are honest: a day trip by boat from Campbell River to the Homalco platforms on the Orford River in salmon season, which I have not done and so do not price here, or Wildcoast’s week, where the grizzly day is one of seven and the week costs less than a lodge. What it costs, ranked puts every experience on the record on one footing, and the Ledger has every number here with the date I read it.
