Arctic

Explore the northernmost part of Earth on an epic voyage

to the beguiling Arctic region, following in the footsteps of the few intrepid hearts who have reached the top of the world - pioneers, polar scientists and those with insatiable wanderlust. Your once-in-a-lifetime journey on board our powerful polar-class icebreaker towards the Polestar and the midnight sun will be an adventure to join an elite group of people who have traversed these magical, remote frozen waters and ice-covered lands. This is a life goal that you will never forget with extraordinary landscapes from serrated mountain peaks, rich river valleys and narrow fjords to beautiful wildlife including walruses, polar bears and majestic whales.

Destinations

Cape Dezhnev

On a clear day you can see Alaska from this rugged mountainous wilderness. It’s a good hike up the headland where you will see a lighthouse and a monument to the Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev, who rounded the Cape in 1648. Further up the coast overlooking the Bering Strait is the village of Uelen - the closest Russian settlement to the US. Known locally as “Land’s End”, it is home to some of the Siberian Yupik Eskimos who continue their ancestors’ tradition of whale and walrus hunting for a few weeks of the year. Fossilised ivory and walrus teeth feature in the Yupik’s intricate carvings.

Kolyuchin Bay

Nesting puffins are the show stealers at Kolyuchin Bay on the north shore of the Chukotka Peninsula. Both horned and tufted puffin cram the craggy rock faces and, above, guillemots, kittiwakes, pelagic cormorants and thick-billed murres swarm and dive for fish. Herds of Pacific walrus bask on nearby rocks. Heading into the tidal areas of Kolyuchin Bay, watch out for more birdlife on the dunes. Onshore, our conservationists will guide you over the soft tundra and point out rare lichens, mosses and wildflowers where scurrying ground squirrels hunt for food.

Wrangel Island

Tusks strewn across tundra and beaches are testament to the long-extinct woolly mammoth that once roamed this remote Siberian island. Largely untouched by humans, this ancient and protected natural reserve lays claim to one of the world’s largest populations of bellowing Pacific walruses and one of the only colonies of nesting snow geese in Asia. Arctic foxes and white snowy owls hunt down the pocket-sized Wrangel lemmings who forage on the cushiony tundra moss and lichen alongside hairy muskoxen and domestic reindeer. There are polar bears, too and twitchers might catch a glimpse of spoon-billed sandpipers and migratory birds such as peregrine falcons and seabirds including Arctic tern, gulls and skuas. Breaching grey, beluga or bowhead whales and ring seals or bearded seals swim close to the shore.

Medvezhiy Islands

Also known as Bear Islands - on account of the polar bears having taken up residence on this isolated archipelago - this far-flung island group is located above Russia, in the inhospitable East Siberian Sea. It’s the Arctic flora that draws naturalists from around the world to this six-strong island group. Although it remains ice-bound for much of the year, the lush tundra hosts wildflowers (buttercups, yellow poppies and rockfoil), lichens and mosses in abundance. Natural rock pillars stand sentinel on Chetyrbok Stolbovoy (Four Spires Island), where you can go ashore and hike to see the pillars, as well as an abandoned weather station. Trips to other low-lying Bear Islands include hiking to the old lighthouse on Pushkareva Island.

Zhokhov Island

Renowned for its preserved mammoth remains found in the boggy tundra permafrost, the treeless landscape on Zhokhov Island is in the De Long archipelago, part of the larger New Siberian Islands in the Russian Arctic’s extreme north. Budding palaeontologists regularly discover washed-up fossilised ivory on its shores. As the permafrost melts due to global warming, the mossy cliffs are slowly disintegrating into the sea. On land, the Arctic tundra is made of mosses and lichens, while wildflowers flourish alongside Arctic foxes, lemmings and snowy owls.

Bennett Island (Ostrov Benetta)

Four glaciers form a solid ice cap on this far-flung island near the top of the world in the Russian Arctic. The largest of the De Long Islands, one of three island groups of the New Siberian Islands, Bennett Island is also home to the 1,398 ft high Mount De Long. Plumes, sometimes visible from space, are thought to be methane escaping from the melting tundra permafrost, but they remain scientifically unexplained.

Komsomolets Island

Little auks, a tiny black-and-white Arctic seabird, breed here on this remote frosty isle in the Russian High Arctic. Mostly covered by glaciers and Russia’s largest ice cap, Komsomolets Island is the northernmost of the archipelago Severnaya Zemlya (meaning “Northern Land”). The island group is a birdwatcher’s paradise with black-legged kittiwakes, black guillemots, ivory and glaucous gulls, and three tundra shorebirds including snow bunting, purple sandpiper and Brant goose. You might also spot Arctic lemming, Arctic foxes, wolves, stoats, Arctic hare and reindeer tracking their prey across the frozen tundra.

Nome

Join our luxury expedition ship in Nome, a remote frontier town on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula. Located on the Bering Sea this is the departure point for your cruise across the Northeast Passage. The mostly ice-free journey crosses the Bering Strait (51 miles across at its narrowest) between Russia and North America. Nome is the most famous gold rush town in Alaska (the town’s welcome sign is marked on the state’s largest gold pan). Visitors still come to celebrate the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, held each March. At the turn of the last century ‘mushing’ was the only form of transport. Nome has been inhabited by eskimo communities for thousands of years, and is also known for some of the best Eskimo dancing in Alaska. Excursions include mushing, panning for gold on the beaches and trips to the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, which protects a remnant of the Bering Land Bridge that once connected Asia with North America. This wind-swept tundra landscape on America’s western tip is also a haven for wildflowers. Hardy muskoxen and reindeer forage, bear and caribou roam, and the mountain streams provide a freshwater habitat for spawning Wild Alaskan salmon.

Provideniya

The gateway to the Russian Far East, this former Soviet military port on the Komsomolskaya Bay is at the southern limit of the Arctic ice pack. The town has a small museum charting the history of whaling and fishing and the displacement of the indigenous Yupik Eskimos. To learn more about the Siberian Yupik’s culture, from seal fishing to their renowned dancing, you can visit a settlement overlooking a picturesque fjord at Novoye Chaplino. The region’s relatively mild Arctic climate and scenic tundra is a big draw for photographers and provides a habitat for arctic fox, wolverine and lemmings, with the occasional bear. More than 170 species of bird have been spotted from eider to Arctic loons, as well as kittiwake, gulls, cormorants and puffins. Marine wildlife includes grey, bowhead, white, humpback and minke whales plus ringed, spotted and bearded seals, sea lions and, last but not least, the lumbering long-tusked walrus.

Yttygran Island

The mysterious Whale Bone Alley is the main attraction on this remote Siberian island. The eerie archaeological site is lined with 600-year-old whale jaw and rib bones that have been stuck into the ground and erected like archways, some five metres high. This unique 550-metre path is the perfect place to stretch your legs and ponder its mystical origins as either a shrine or a gathering place for hunters to store their food. Keep an eye out for white beluga whales swimming slowly around the shore.

This unforgettable polar cruise tracking

the firmament to the Polestar will leave memories that will last a lifetime. A birdwatcher’s paradise, keen-eyed naturalists will see black-legged kittiwakes, black guillemots, ivory and glaucous gulls, and tundra shorebirds including snow bunting, purple sandpiper and Brent goose. Watch closely also for wolves, arctic hare and reindeer that track their prey across the frozen terrain. And while the silvery luminosity of this region can be bewitching, you will see lush tundra with colourful buttercups, yellow poppies and rockfoil. In the cerulean waters, grey, bowhead, white, humpback and minke whales plus ringed, spotted and bearded seals, sea lions and lumbering long-tusked walrus swim. While high above, peregrine falcons, Arctic tern and skuas circle, beak to heel. From hardy muskoxen foraging and bears roaming to Wild Alaskan salmon leaping, this sometimes harsh landscape is a celebration of some of the most enchanting wildlife on earth.

An expedition trip to the spectacular Arctic

is very much a moving adventure in an emotional and real sense. This is an extraordinary encounter with a region of intertwining elements from Russia to Northern Canada and Greenland to Alaska and its constantly shifting parts in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas. The one constant in the Arctic is change. You will witness a wilderness where preserved mammoth remains have been found in the boggy tundra permafrost, pacific walruses bellow, snowy owls swoop and Arctic foxes jump through wildflowers. Your adventure will be enriched by our wildlife experts with fascinating presentations to bring your magical environment to life.

As you enter the Arctic Circle and the most northern of the five major circles

of latitude on our ice-strengthened expedition vessel, designed both for speed, comfort and manoeuvrability, a region of dramatic scenery unfolds. Snow-capped mountains and unique landforms from fjords to monumental cirques come into view; a destination of raw beauty that was only recently fully-charted by navigators from the last century. The Midnight Sun, Polar Night and Northern Lights of yellow, red and violet that fill the sky are only matched by the audio fireworks on a cruise where you’ll hear the sound of a thousand seabirds, seals bark and walruses growl, whistle and produce bell-like rings below water. However you choose to experience the Arctic, this is a miraculous and ever-changing destination that will leave you changed forever, too

Our Cruise Itineraries

Iceland Circumnavigation

Experience the wild and fantastic landscapes of Iceland - the land of fire and ice - on our luxury boutique ship. Circumnavigate the geologically active island, accompanied by breaching whales, to see the puffin capital of the world. Along the way, we will discover the phenomena of fjords, spectacular waterfalls and neverending volcanic scenery. Book our Iceland in Depth cruise so you can soak in mineral-filled geothermal pools, hike to thundering waterfalls, duck under the spray of hot geysers, spot millions of puffins and trek across remote locations where only arctic fox live, to bring home memories that last a lifetime.

Arctic Discovery: Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitsbergen

Board our boutique expedition ship in the land of fire and ice for our 14-day Arctic Discovery
cruise and explore Iceland’s fjords and waterfalls as well as lava formations and bubbling mud
pools. We then set sail for Jan Mayen, a rarely visited island dominated by a snow-covered
stratovolcano in the middle of the Greenland sea. Our journey continues on to the northern
archipelago of Svalbard inside the Arctic Circle where the midnight sun throws shadows on the
icy landscape in our pursuit of arctic wildlife. Polar bears, walrus, seals and whales, and millions
of seabirds make our arctic cruise an unforgettable trip of a lifetime.

Svalbard Encompassed

Embark on this incredible 8-day Svalbard Circumnavigation cruise on board a boutique
expedition ship touring Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago within the Arctic Circle. Feast
your eyes on the alluring icy blue waters of the polar region as we sail past glaciers calving
icebergs to the edge of far-reaching slabs of pack ice that can only be seen in this part of the
world. Experience the unique arctic environment, endless days and the rarely seen wildlife that
populates it. Very few people ever spot polar bears, walrus, reindeer and arctic foxes in their
natural habitat, while thousands of seabirds, beluga whales track our voyage through this
unforgettable icy wilderness.

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