Cambridge Bay, or Iqaluktuuttiaq, is the main settlement on Victoria Island and the practical hub of western Nunavut's Kitikmeot region. It sits on the Northwest Passage, but this is not a cruise-polished Arctic stop. It is a working northern community where the wind, the supply plane, the sea ice, and the price of groceries are part of the story.
The best reason to come is the sense of being on the edge of the map without being cut off from culture. Start at the Arctic Coast Visitor Centre and the May Hakongak Community Library and Cultural Centre, which give useful context on Inuinnait life, archaeology, language, and the land around the bay. The Canadian High Arctic Research Station adds a very modern layer: a major polar science campus in a hamlet of fewer than 2,000 people.
If you have a spare day and local conditions allow, go out to Ovayok Territorial Park. Its low hills rise from a huge, open tundra landscape, with muskox, Arctic birds, old travel routes, and stories that are still part of local memory. Cambridge Bay is expensive and weather-bound, but for travelers already this far north, it has a stronger identity than many larger places.