Spitsbergen Tours

Discovered in 1596 by Dutch captain Willem Barentsz, the High Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen was the focus of early whalers and adventurers for more than 400 years. Legendary explorers such as Scott and Amundsen used Spitsbergen (also called Svalbard by the Norwegians, who administer the islands) as a launching point for their polar explorations. Today, only some 2000 people live in these far-flung islands, mostly in two communities. The vast majority of the territory is uninhabited, except for a few hundred polar bears, several thousand walrus and millions of seabirds. It’s these ‘other’ inhabitants that attracts us here.

Using small Russian research icebreakers (210 feet in length, with 50 passengers plus crew), we have developed several itineraries ranging from 8 to 11 days, which explore the vast inlets and fjords. Our Spitsbergen tours offer 24 hours of daylight and the near certainty of seeing polar bears as well as walruses and a variety of seabirds rarely found outside the High Arctic. We visit fjords where, as the season progresses, we can hike for several hours across a tundra dotted with an astonishing array of wildflowers.

We’ve scheduled several departures from June-August aboard four Russian research vessels, the Maryshev, Molchanov, Multanovskiy and Mikheev. Please note: The North Spitsbergen itinerary is three nights shorter than the Around Spitsbergen voyage, shown below, but otherwise follow a similar itinerary as the 10 night/11 day cruises.