Svalbard Expedition Cruises Compared

What makes a Svalbard expedition cruise different?

Picture a glacier front calving into a still fjord at midnight, the sun still up, a bearded seal hauled out on a floe and everyone gone quiet at the rail. That's why people go. An expedition voyage is built to get you as close to that scene as the rules and the ice allow, and it's what separates expedition cruising from an ordinary holiday at sea.

There's no fixed timetable. The captain and the expedition leader read the weather, the wind and the sea ice every morning, then pick the fjords, bird cliffs and beaches for the day. You leave in small inflatable boats called Zodiacs and step out onto shingle or tundra with no pier, no road and no settlement in sight. Guides go first, armed, to check for polar bears.

It's a world away from a big cruise liner that calls at Longyearbyen and sails on. Our guide to what an expedition cruise is covers the format in depth, and our page on the wider Arctic cruise looks at routes that add Greenland, Iceland or the coast of Norway.

The voyages side by side

The table above sets out length, price, flights and hotels. This one looks at what you'll do once you reach the Svalbard archipelago, taken from each operator's own page when we checked.

Two patterns jump out: only Travelsphere and Titan look after you from a UK airport, and only the smaller vessels make the beaches the heart of every day.

Why ship size matters in Svalbard

Svalbard now has some of the tightest cruise rules anywhere. The Governor of Svalbard caps the number of passengers on board in the protected areas, which cover most of the archipelago, and tourist groups may now only go ashore at a short list of named sites there.

Small and mid-sized expedition ships

The G Adventures Expedition Ship and Exodus's Ocean Explorer sit at the small end. Fewer people means quicker Zodiac runs, so more of your day goes on the beaches and among the ice floes rather than queuing at the gangway. Travelsphere's own page puts it simply: a smaller vessel can reach remote places a larger one can't. There's more about life on board, from the cabins to the lounge, on our G Expedition ship page.

MS Fram and MS Spitsbergen are larger, and their itineraries still take in the national parks. You get more space, all-inclusive dining with drinks, and on MS Fram a Science Centre for learning about the wildlife and the ice. The trade-off is slower trips to the beach, with more people to ferry.

The Svalbard Line is a different kind of trip

Hurtigruten's coastal ships are much bigger, and the Svalbard Line runs port to port. It's a classic voyage up Norway, deep into the Arctic Circle and calling at towns with excursions, before Longyearbyen and the sail back to Bergen. An expedition team gives talks, but it won't put you on a remote beach by Zodiac. If walrus haul-outs and glacier walks are the point, pick a smaller vessel.

Circumnavigation or a week on the west coast?

Look closely at each itinerary and you'll see two shapes of trip.

Attempts to sail all the way round

HX's Realm of the Polar Bear and Titan's Arctic Wonders both try to circle the archipelago. That takes you through Northwest Spitsbergen National Park, north to the ice edge past the 80th parallel, then east into a quieter, icier corner of Svalbard where bears hunt from the pack ice, before you turn south for Hornsund and Bellsund.

The key word is attempt. If the sea ice blocks the east, the captain turns back or threads another route, and Titan's page says it may cut through the Hinlopen Strait to circle Spitsbergen alone. You'll still have a full holiday, just not the one on the map.

A week on the west and north coasts

The Arctic Explorer, HX's Svalbard in Summer and the Exodus voyage spend a shorter week among the western and northern fjords. Think of the old mining town turned research base at Ny-Ålesund, where Amundsen's airship set off for the North Pole, the vast glacier fronts of Krossfjorden, cliffs loud with guillemots and little auks, and the red rock of Woodfjorden. With less sailing between stops, there's often more time off the ship.

What wildlife could you see?

Here's what the operators say their guests look out for in summer, and where:

• Polar bears on the sea ice and along the northern and eastern shores
• Walrus resting in heaps on beaches and floating ice
• Svalbard reindeer, short-legged and stocky, grazing the tundra
• Arctic fox patrolling below the bird cliffs
• Whales feeding where the shelf drops away, and now and then belugas
• Seabirds packed onto the cliffs: guillemots, little auks and puffins

Every wildlife sighting depends on the day. Reindeer, walrus and the bird cliffs are a much safer bet than bears, and on a calm evening the whales can steal the show! Our guide to Svalbard wildlife has more on each.

A day on board an Arctic expedition ship

Days follow the ice, not the clock.

Going ashore, with the bear watch

Most days bring a couple of outings. Before anyone leaves, guides scan the shore with binoculars, then land first and spread out with rifles while the group follows. If a bear turns up, everyone heads straight back to the boats. Away from town, Visit Svalbard says you shouldn't go without someone carrying polar bear protection, and an organised voyage deals with that for you.

Getting in and out of a Zodiac takes care. Travelsphere warns of steep stairs, no lift and wet landings onto shingle or rocks in a swell, and Exodus says most of its trips ashore are wet too.

Talks, deck time and photography

Between outings, guides give lectures on the wildlife, the ice and the history of the region, from the early whalers to the trappers whose huts still stand on the shore. MS Fram has an observation deck and a photographer in the crew. On the smaller vessels you'll spend hours outside with your camera, as whales, seals and seabirds can appear at any moment, all under the midnight sun.

Kayaks, hikes and other activities

HX and Exodus offer sea kayaking among the icebergs, and Titan's itinerary mentions kayaking too. Some voyages add a beach clean-up or hiking on the tundra, with mountains and glaciers making a landscape you won't forget.

Polar bears: what a voyage can and can't promise

No honest operator guarantees a polar bear, and none of the voyages here do. What the crew can do is take you where bears are likely to be, with people trained to spot them.

Svalbard's bears follow the sea ice, because that's where they hunt seals. Researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute have found the Barents Sea losing its ice faster than most polar bear regions, so the summer ice edge often lies far to the north. That's why itineraries chase it past the 80th parallel, and why voyages reaching the north and east usually give better odds than a week only in the western fjords.

Season matters too. Early summer brings more sea ice into the fjords, while late summer pushes it north. Our guides to Svalbard polar bears and the best time to see polar bears in Svalbard explain the patterns, and our polar bear holidays page compares the trips built around them.

What each voyage leaves you to arrange

There's no direct flight from Britain to Longyearbyen, so the joins between flights, hotels and the harbour are where most of the work lies. Check these before you book any Svalbard cruise:

The Arctic Explorer covers most of that list, with a host who's with you throughout. With HX, Exodus and Hurtigruten, the journey to Oslo, Helsinki or Bergen is down to you. Our page on a cruise to Svalbard from the UK walks through each route.

Which Svalbard voyage suits you?

You'd like everything arranged from home

The Arctic Explorer is built for this, and it's the simplest way to go. Time in Oslo with the Fram Museum, a stay in Longyearbyen with the Svalbard Museum, then a week in the wilderness on a small ship, with your Holiday Director handling every flight and transfer in between.

You want the full circuit and the ice edge

HX's Realm of the Polar Bear and Titan's Arctic Wonders both aim to go all the way round, ice permitting. Choose HX if you're happy to reach Oslo yourself, or Titan if you'd like a tour manager from Gatwick.

You're already in Scandinavia

The Exodus voyage starts in Helsinki, on a small polar vessel built for Zodiac trips, while HX's shorter summer departure fits well if Oslo is easy for you.

If the physical side worries you, our page on Arctic cruises for over 60s goes through what each day asks of you. When you're ready, compare every voyage on our Svalbard cruise home page, or see how the flights fit together on the Svalbard cruise from the UK page.

Questions people ask