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A New Take on North Norway

Having returned from a week in Northern Norway on s/v Noorderlicht, my husband and I felt the need to write a trip log of our experiences. (Spoiler: They were great.) Northern lights were seen, whales watched, and wonderful meals wolfed down.

Polar Mountain High: Interview with a Ski and Mountaineering Guide

There are good jobs, and there are great jobs. And then there are jobs where you climb mountains and ski back down them and get paid for it. These are different jobs entirely. Tim Blakemore, one of Oceanwide’s mountaineering and skiing guides, has one of these jobs.

No Landing Today

Together with some 100 fellow passengers, I am aboard the vessel Ortelius on a whale safari to Fair Isle, Jan Mayen, and Svalbard.

Five Reasons You Should Cruise the Ross Sea Immediately

In our quest for the little-known holiday destination (that’s still popular enough to have its own fully developed spa and gift shop), we travelers sometimes overlook the truly underrated gems this planet has hidden up its sleeve.

Plancius and the Polar Bug

Standing on the outer deck of Plancius as we sailed out of Longyearbyen, I looked down to see a puffin staring back at me. It was bobbing next to the ship, sunbeams glittering on its sleek body, which it lifted up and skimmed over the water in the direction of something on the horizon. I shielded my eyes to get a closer look and discovered dolphins wave-riding against the setting sun.

Why a Polar Diving Cruise Should be Your Next Great Decision

Not so very long ago, all you had to do to qualify as a thrill-seeker was hop a ship to the polar regions and make it back with all your fingers – or your life, if you weren’t picky.

Research in the Arctic

At Wageningen Marine Research, we are working with our international partners to monitor ecological changes in the Arctic. Our research on the arrival of marine non-native species in Svalbard required us to travel around these Arctic islands in 2018, sampling and surveying different beaches.

Es war meine erste Expeditionsfahrt überhaupt und sie hinterliess tiefe Spuren in mir

Dies betraf nicht nur die perfekte Organisation an Bord, die abwechslungsreiche Verpflegung, das zwanglose Miteinander von Crew und Reisenden, sondern auch das Tourprogramm selbst, welches nur von den Wetterverhältnissen bestimmt wurde. Das machte die Reise so spannend, da die Natur entschied, was sie vorführen wollte.

Six Must-See Svalbard Sites

It’s home to humanity’s last-ditch supply of crop seeds, the world’s northernmost settlement over 1,000 people, and is one of the best places on the planet to spot a polar bear.

Where the Polar Bears Roam

Going to the Arctic without clapping eyes on a real-life polar bear might reasonably be compared to visiting Africa without seeing a giraffe or a zebra or, most analogously, a lion. Not that that’s unusual. Polar bears, after all, aren’t overabundant no matter where you go. And if you see one, you should thank your lucky stars (and watchful expedition guides) that you did. Still, if you wrap up an Arctic cruise without spotting one polar bear, you can certainly count on spotting your share of disappointed faces when you get back – your own among them.

15 Falklands Bird Photos

Few places offer as unique and abundant a selection of birds, particularly seabirds, as the remote sub-Antarctic archipelago of the Falkland Islands. With this in mind, we’ve compiled 15 images of the most photogenic birds in the Falklands. Some were taken by you, some by us, but every one of them was lovingly photographed during our exciting Falkland Island voyages.

North Norway, Northern Lights, and All the Pretty Whales

At first glance, visiting Northern Norway at any other time except a blazing-hot summer might seem an undertaking unfit for the average traveler. Legends abound of Norway’s months of unbroken darkness, tracts of untamed wilderness, and history of bone-chilling winters that could make even the most committed Viking consider a career change.

Right up with the Best: Oxford to Arctic with Roly Pitts

Having returned to a rather hot Oxford after 12 days of exploring Arctic islands on a century-old historic schooner, I decided to pen a few thoughts.

8 Scientific Wonders of the Arctic

The Arctic’s frozen landscape not only contains scenic gems, it also prompts fascinating advances in research. Here are some of the eight best.

Tracking Greenland’s Wildlife from Space

Despite Greenland’s harsh environment, life has found a way to thrive there. If you’re lucky enough to embark on a Greenland cruise, you stand the chance of encountering many species of cold-adapted mammals, birds, and fish. Over recent decades, comprehensive research has been undertaken into the migratory patterns of these animals.

The Ice-Jewelled Geology of Spitsbergen

The Svalbard archipelago is found in the Arctic Ocean, approximately 660 km (410 miles) north of the northernmost tip of Norway. It is a geologist’s paradise, having a rich geological history that can be traced back through the Mesozoic era (65-245 million years ago), the Cambrian era (570 million years ago), and all the way to the Archean era, over 3.5 billion years ago.

Hello, Hondius: Former Passengers Visit Our Future Vessel

It’s hard not to be flattered when our former passengers speak highly of our voyages, vessels, and staff. But it’s altogether impossible when they travel far from home to visit one of our ships, especially one that’s still under construction! Naturally, Swiss aviation workers Samuel Gantenbein and his girlfriend Valérie didn’t fly all the way to Croatia just to wish our new ship luck, but the fact that it was on their agenda at all pleases us greatly – and is, in our opinion, call for a cozy chat.

El mejor viaje de nuestra vida

Estuvimos en Spitsbergen el pasado 1 de junio hasta el día 10, navegando en el precioso barco velero Rembrandt. Ha sido una experiencia inolvidable por la belleza de los paisajes y por la fauna ártica que tuvimos la suerte de ver, dos osos polares, mors

The First Float of m/v Hondius

On the morning of Saturday, June 9, a newly constructed polar expedition cruise vessel slid down the timber-and-steel slipway of a sprawling Croatian shipyard, plunging into the pale blue waters of the rocky Adriatic coast. The launch of this vessel, one of 28 new expedition ships currently on order, might have seemed commonplace, even insignificant, to the world at large.

The Art of the Arctic: Interview with Udo Prinsen

Most of us lucky enough to visit the Arctic recognize instantly how picturesque it is, far more striking than even the most expertly captured photograph can convey.

Bring out the Bowheads: Our Largest Whale Count in Years

Researchers aboard Oceanwide Expeditions vessel m/v Plancius spotted between 104—114 bowhead whales during a June 1st cruise along the east Greenland pack ice. Hailing from Wageningen Marine Research and staffed as Oceanwide expedition guides, the scientists spotted the whales over the course of seven hours while on a voyage organized by Oceanwide, Inezia Tours, and Natuurpunt, Belgium’s largest conservation entity. This number exceeds all previous bowhead whale counts, potentially a good sign given the rarity of the whale as well as its classification as critically endangered by the IUCN.

A Diving Dream Fulfilled

Last January, Mark Hatter accomplished a dream he’d been training two years to fulfill. Booking his berth aboard our m/v Ortelius and making the long flight to Ushuaia, Argentina, he and two of his friends sailed down the famous Drake Passage, bound for Earth’s southernmost continent.