With huge swathes of the USA, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia poking beyond 66° north, travellers enjoy a freedom beyond the usual cruise schedules and seasons in the Arctic. Whether hunting down the northern lights in winter, following a reindeer migration in spring, hiking the Kungsleden in summer or heading off on early autumn cruises to spot polar bears in the Russian Arctic, the north gives you plenty of choice.
With people also comes culture. The Arctic is a richer experience in terms of human history. Occupied towns are found as far north as 78°, and indigenous peoples as diverse as the Sámi (Lapland), Chukchi (Russia) and Inuvialuit (Canada) welcome curious visitors. Then there’s the history, from Viking ruins in the High Arctic to the ghostly mining towns of Svalbard – this isn’t a frigid relic, it’s a living, breathing land.
That’s not to say the northern fringes don’t have their wild frontiers, too. Arctic seas have warmed over the past few decades, opening up previously impossible routes, as cruises in the High Arctic (May-September) follow in the wake of great explorers, revealing glaciers as big as mountains and wildlife fierce in beak and claw.
As far back as the early 1600s, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via Canada’s Arctic archipelago was the Holy Grail for explorers. Success promised new trade routes and accompanying riches, but while Roald Amundsen first threaded the needle in 1903-1906, rounding the tip of Baffin Island to weave through Lancaster Sound before dipping south to skirt mainland Canada to the Bering Sea, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that things changed. The Arctic climate warmed and its infamously thick pack ice began to melt (it became fully clear for the first time in 2007). Now, every late-summer (August–September), ice-strengthened ships forge courses that once confounded the bravest of the Heroic Age.
Last year, some 33 vessels made the full North-West Passage, inching its seven main routes. Most sample only a small part of the archipelago, looping west from the Greenland coast to spot narwhal off Devon Island, meet the Netsilik Inuit of Gjoa Haven – where Amundsen holed up for two years – or ford the creaking pack ice of the Fury and Hecla Strait. It’s worth the longer trip, though, if only for the bragging rights, but also to spy some of Canada’s lesser-seen sights, including the great rises of flaming bitumen (Smoking Hills) that combust off the North-West Territories.
Duration: 14-24 days
Start/finish: Kangerlussuaq (Greenland) to Nome, Alaska (USA)
Why go? To complete one of the great journeys of our age.
Just as warming Arctic seas have opened up Canada’s North-West Passage, the same goes for its lesser travelled Russian equivalent. Yet, until recently, the North-East Passage – which runs from the Bering Strait through to the White Sea – was off limits to all but local ships. Then, in 2014, the first non- Russian cruise cast off, and now a handful of vessels are following in its wake, opening up frozen Siberian islands, far-off cultures and little-seen seas during August and September.
Trips typically begin in the Chukchi Peninsula (see ‘Russian Arctic’) amid the wild flora of the Medvezhye Islands, before crunching through ice floes to the Kara and Barents seas, scanning for walruses and polar bears on the ice. The remote archipelago of Franz Josef Land is arguably the highlight, its barren, craggy islands rising up in great cathedrals and spires of rock, with cliffs inhabited by vast colonies of kittiwakes, guillemots and skuas.
Along the way are the 19th-century relics of explorers past, including the hut of Benjamin Leigh Smith, who first landed on Bell Island in 1881. Just glimpsing this remote, frozen world makes this an Arctic trip like no other.
Duration: 27-30 days
Start/finish: Tromsø (Norway) to Nome, Alaska (USA)
Why go? The great Arctic journey you don’t know about.
Top tip: You can’t predict an aurora, but you do need to be between 60- and 72-degrees north, where the magnetic fields are strongest. From November to January yields the best sightings, with the prime sighting hours between 10pm and 2am.
Unlike the proverbial Carnegie Hall, there are two ways to get to the North Pole: by air or sea. Trips come at a premium, though, and which you prefer may depend on the time you have available. But both result in the only thing that matters: standing at 90° north.
The simplest but no less breathtaking route is to fly from Longyearbyen (Svalbard), a 2.5-hour charter flight to the ice runway at Barneo Ice Camp. This permanent site is run by the Russian Geographical Society and lies on the cusp of the pole (89°, to be precise). Trips only happen in April and cost a hefty £15,995 for three days, as you spend nights under the glare of midnight sun, while helicopters whisk you north to the tip of the world during the day.
A much slower burn of a journey is to climb on board the 50 Let Pobedy (‘50 Years of Victory’), a hulking red-and-black leviathan, as dainty and subtle as a nuclear-powered Russian icebreaker ought to be. Tours of its vast engine room are well worth it, as it crunches out of Murmansk in summer (June-July) on a fortnight’s voyage past the icy archipelago of Franz Josef Land. Polar plunges and hot-air balloon trips are the icing on the cake as you finally plant your feet on the North Pole.
Duration: 3-14 days
Start/finish: Murmansk (Russia)/ Longyearbyen (Norway)
Why go? Bragging rights and to set foot where so few have been.
Russia’s ancient Chukotka coastline and the wild islands off its northern fringes are what makes this route utterly unique. Like much of this Arctic region, the pack ice that clogs up the Chukchi and Bering seas makes them impenetrable during winter, but the summer thaw brings smoother waters and a brief window to discover a remarkable land of barren steppe, Chukchi culture and more polar bears you ever thought likely.
Most trips (August-September) set off from Anadyr, working their way up the Chukotka coast and past the eerie Whale Bone Alley of Yttygran Island before hitting Arctic waters. Here, the Inuit villages of Cape Dezhnev lie at the tip of Eurasia, their culture and traditions unchanged for thousands of years, with visits offering rare insight into life on the frozen edge.
The true star, however, lies in the zapovednik (restricted nature reserve) of Wrangel Island. This polar bear breeding ground is home to as many as 400 denning mothers over winter, and encounters are common as visitors make their way onto the raw steppe. It is a genuine lost world, where you’re as likely to stumble across mammoth bones (it was one of the last refuges for this long-gone creature) as Arctic foxes, terns and barracking walruses – coastal rookeries here can number as high as 100,000. Utterly unique.
Duration: 15 days
Start/finish: Anadyr (Russia)
Why go: Explore wealth of Arctic wildlife and indigenous cultures.
Busy is a relative term in Greenland, a country that sees fewer than 18,000 visitors a month in peak season. But if there is a ‘busy’ part, then the eastern coast isn’t it. Settlements are sparse, with most towns scattering the Ammassalik district, an area the size of the UK but with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants. Here, the main town of Kulusuk (flights link it with Iceland) lies just outside the Arctic Circle, with kayaking tours to the sheer ice walls of Sermilik Fjord able to take you to the very edge of 66° north.
For true Arctic grandeur, head north to the only other inhabited region, on the world’s largest and deepest fjord system. Flights take you to Constable Point, from where it’s a short helicopter ride to the remote village of Ittoqqortoormiit, with hikes nearby into a national park that spans a quarter of the country. It’s more typically visited as part of a longer cruise, though, and cinematic views of its giant glaciers calving into the sea are breathtaking when seen from the water.
Cruises (June–September) run the length of the north-east coast, with Zodiac trips weaving grounded ’bergs – some 100m high – to spy the ruins of the old Thule (early Inuit) winter houses at Sydkap. Elsewhere, treks ashore see you tread dwarf birch and Arctic blueberry to spy grazing musk oxen at Hofman Halvo, gaze at the northern lights at night or wander the old settlements of Danmark Ø in a land that gives little quarter but makes those hard-won sights feel all the more rewarding.
Duration: 1-10 days
Start/finish: Flights/ships go via Akureyri / Reykjavik (Iceland)
Why go? Monster icebergs, Inuit culture and a side to Greenland few see.
Arctic chills and thrills