Coast & seascapes,  Eco-tourism,  Svalbard

Arctic diary one: expedition overview

August 22, 2025 / 76 Comments

No, the Arctic does not yield its secret for the price of a ship’s ticket. You must live through the long night, the storms, and the destruction of human pride. You must have gazed on the deadness of all things to grasp their livingness. In the return of light, in the magic of the ice, in the life-rhythm of the animals observed in the wilderness, in the natural laws of all being, revealed here in their completeness, lies the secret of the Arctic and the overpowering beauty of its lands.

Christine Ritter, Woman in the Polar Night

For several years now I have longed to visit Svalbard. A land where the sun never sets in summer, nor rises in winter. A land 60% covered with glaciers and home to exciting wildlife such as polar bears and walrus. And finally this year I made it.

I spent a lot of time deciding which company to travel with and on what ship. I didn’t want too large a vessel; I dislike large cruise ships and besides, they can’t access many of the most interesting sites. And my husband didn’t want too small a one! Of course price, and the company’s reputation, were also important factors, as was the itinerary.

We settled on an expedition cruise with Quark Expeditions on their Ocean Explorer, a ship with an innovative bow designed to tackle sea ice. It can accommodate 138 passengers although there were slightly fewer, 128, on our trip. It has plenty of comfortable public areas and two observation decks, while even the cheaper cabins (‘cheap’ being a relative term!) like ours have, for the most part, picture windows and a small balcony. And we chose their eleven day ‘Svalbard Explorer: Best of High Arctic Norway’ itinerary as it would give us a good chance of seeing a lot at a reasonable (another relative term!) price.

The Ocean Explorer

Why ‘expedition’ cruise?

The term ‘expedition cruise’ is usually used to describe adventures at sea in the world’s more remote regions. These are not cruises in the traditional sense. Ships are generally smaller and facilities less extensive, although as we found with the Ocean Explorer comfort isn’t necessarily sacrificed. You won’t get the traditional forms of entertainment either. There are no ‘shows’, no organised fun, and there’s no requirement to dress for dinner, although we found that many people make a small effort. Your day is spent exploring off the ship as much as possible, either in zodiac rides along the coast or shore landings. Between these activities, and in the evenings, there are educational talks helping you to understand and appreciate what you are seeing.

Zodiac rides

The Ocean Explorer and the Quark expedition team embraced this philosophy to perfection. While we had comfortable cabins and good food and drinks, this always felt more like an adventure than a holiday. Our expedition leader Ryan balanced his twin responsibilities of keeping us safe and keeping us informed and engrossed equally well, and the rest of the team were great at communicating their specific areas of knowledge: birds, mammals, history, geology, ice etc. We also had an excellent photographer, Kris, recording our adventures in great detail. I can’t wait to receive the promised copy of his photo journal in a few weeks’ time, and I already have his permission to share any images I want to with you!

Just a few of the expedition team (with the leader, Ryan, top left)

Our itinerary

This is the outline itinerary as displayed on their website

Over the coming weeks I plan to share a day by day account of the places we visited and sights we saw. An expedition cruise is characterised by serendipity and flexibility. Whatever itinerary is proposed at the start of the trip, you will almost certainly deviate from it. A good expedition leader will be monitoring weather conditions continuously and will know which sites are feasible in those conditions and which will be most rewarding. They will always have not only a plan A, but also a plan B, C and probably D and E!

In our case Ryan would let us know in a late afternoon briefing each day what the plan was for the next. But even then, not all plans came to fruition. One day thick fog and strong winds made it unsafe to take the zodiacs out so we were confined to the ship and entertained with extra talks. On two others, the presence of polar bears near a landing site made any thought of going ashore impossible, though we were able to cruise in the zodiacs. But whatever we did it was always fascinating and often amazing, as you will read …

The advertised itinerary promised a thorough exploration of the west and north coast of Spitsbergen, the main island. It added that we would try to visit Nordaustlandet too, conditions permitting. Longer cruises circumnavigate Spitsbergen but not this one.

Spot the difference!

This is what we actually did …

Our route around Svalbard

Base map from https://shadedrelief.com/svalbard/, where individual sources are cited. My annotations were done with Canva, based on the map displayed in the ship’s lounge and updated daily.

Our ports of call were, in order:

1. Longyearbyen

2. Osbornebreen

3. Fortende Julibukta

4. Tinayrebukta

5. Camp Zoe

6. Lillehookfjorden

7. Monacobreen

8. Texas Bar

9. Alkefjellet

10. Sea ice at 82.25N 21.58E (polar bear encounter!)

11. Kraemerpynten

12. Kapp Lee

13. Sundneset

14. West Burgerbukta

15. East Burgerbukta

16. Camp Millar

17. Midterhuken

18. Longyearbyen

I’ve included links to my separate posts about each of these places, which of course have lots of photos of the landscapes and wildlife we saw. My feature photo was taken from our first landing spot at Camp Zoe in Tinayrebukta on the west coast.

I visited Svalbard in August 2025

76 Comments

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