Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway

this is where you fly in from Oslo, Tromso, etc.. This place is a village- very small. But, this is the staging area for cruising around the islands. I have been to Churchill but honestly, I have to say viewing Polar bears in Svalbard is at least hundred times better. The only catch is that you are not guaranteed to see bears since you are out in the wild. Where as in Churchill, the Polar bears show up to wait for the ice bridge to form. On this particular trip, I was very lucky to have seen 31 Polar bears.
The company I used is called Oceanwide Expeditions which is a good company. Galapagos Travel ( http://www.galapagostravel.com ) is another excellent company which offers similar tours. The only reason why I did not use Galapagos Travel because they did not offer this tour when I wanted to go.