Getting to Yellowknife

The city of Yellowknife  is the capital of the Northwest Territories and located on the north shore of Great Slave Lake and approximately 500 km from the Arctic Circle. Not only is it the gateway to Canada’s Arctic, it is also one of the best locations to view the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis overhead.

Yellowknife Flights & Airlines

Daily scheduled airline flights serve Yellowknife and connect to all major Canadian and many U.S. cities.

When you arrive at the Yellowknife Airport, look for our free shuttle service van to The Explorer Hotel.

Three of Canada's major airlines Air Canada - Jazz, First Air and Canadian North operate scheduled service on the following routes:
• Edmonton -Yellowknife
• Calgary - Yellowknife
• Ottawa - Iqaluit - Rankin Inlet - Yellowknife
• Montreal - Iqaluit - Rankin - Yellowknife
• Winnipeg - Edmonton - Yellowknife
• Vancouver - Yellowknife (seasonal)

Yellowknife also has direct service to many communities in the Northern, Western and Eastern Arctic.

For more information on flights to and from Yellowknife, please refer to the Yellowknife Airport for flight arrival and departure information.

Driving Directions to Yellowknife

If you're driving from Edmonton, the total distance is 1,524km (945 miles) and most of the road is now paved. From Edmonton, link to the Mackenzie Highway which leads to the Northwest Territories border and then travel on to Yellowknife via Fort Providence .

For information about Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories contact the Northern Frontier Regional Visitors Centre, No. 4, 4807 49th Street, 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.nwttravel.nt.ca).

Also keep in mind that there are various car ferries on the highways around the Northwest Territories.  A useful phone number for motorists is the ferry information line at 800-661-0750 (NT only), which lets you know the status of the various car ferries along the Mackenzie highway.  At breakup and freeze-up time, there is usually a 30 day period during which the ferries can not operate and the ice is not yet thick enough for driving.