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Arctic Invaders: Interview with a Marine Ecotoxicologist

Despite all we read about the warming planet, the polar species struggling to keep up, and the hive of business interests unrepentantly trying to turn the world’s natural reserves into personal cash registers, there are a few people actively trying to make things better.

Clean Seas, Please: AECO, UNEP, and the Clean Seas Campaign

In Robert Frost’s famous prophesying poem, Fire and Ice, the New England poet speculates as to how the world will end. Will it be by fire or by ice?

Experience the Arctic Polar Night

As of late November, the polar night began darkening the skies of Northern Norway. Right now there is no sunrise in Tromsø.

Kayaking in Antarctica and the Arctic

Though our focus is always providing our passengers maximum possible polar shore time, sometimes off-shore time is just as important. For this, there’s no better adventure than polar kayaking.

Meat, Mate, Move: a Polar Bear Story

Silent as the wind through your fur, you creep over the ice to the small, dark hole. At the bottom, well within reach of your tensing paws, a black circle of lapping water stares back at you like the pupil of some enormous, unreadable eye.

AECO, IAATO & OEX: Polar Travel Partnerships

Nature-based travel asks its share of responsibilities to the planet, and travel in ecologically vulnerable areas even more so. Thankfully, the polar regions have two vital and widely respected organizations in their corner: AECO and IAATO.

A Moveable Feast: Interview with a Polar Cruise Chef

Polar cruises are luxurious, but they aren’t luxury cruises. The beds are wonderfully comfortable, but nobody expects goose-down pillows. The bar is appropriately well stocked, but no bottles of triple-cask Macallan 21 glow atop the shelves. The food is delicious, ample, and hearty, but…

Arctic Mythology: Inuit, Saami, and the Ancient Greeks

The Arctic locations we visit aren’t merely made up of phenomenal landscapes, exotic wildlife, and more adventure than a Hardy Boys novel. They’re also interwoven with ancient cultures, all of which have their own particular and fascinating cosmologies.

Two for the Snow: Polar Cruises for Couples

You know the old saying, “Cold hands, warm heart.” We’re not doctors or anything, but in our opinion that bodes well for couples who visit the polar regions.

Keep It Green: Our Commitment to Sustainable Polar Travel

It doesn’t make much sense for polar travel if every time we visit the Arctic and Antarctica we leave them worse than we found them. And that’s just considering things from a purely human perspective, which we don’t.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Polar Perfectionism: Interview with Captain Levakov

Turning our attention to the control room, we steal a few informative (and highly entertaining) moments with one of our most seasoned polar captains, Evgeny Levakov. A veteran of the colder side of nautical life, Captain Levakov has been piloting ships since 2002, leading everything from week-long Arctic cruises to expansive 33-day Antarctica voyages. And among the many things he’s learned in all those berg-bejeweled years is that polar captaining isn’t a gig for gamblers.

A New Flag for a Veteran Vessel, Ortelius

Vlissingen, located in the south western part of the Netherlands, has been Oceanwide Expeditions “Homeport” since the company was established more than 20 years ago. When our vessel Plancius was being built, there was no hesitation which name should be mentioned as homeport for the vessel and thus since it’s delivery in 2009 Plancius is flying the Dutch flag and has Vlissingen on its stern as being its homeport.