Svalbard & the Arctic Circle

Day 1 | Embark Aqua Lares, Longyearbyen | 7 Nights

*This itinerary includes two route variations, dependent on time of year.

Arrive in Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost town, where heritage meets crisp Arctic light. After a warm welcome aboard Aqua Lares, you will settle into your cabin and meet the expedition team for a safety briefing and outline of the voyage ahead.

As the ship eases out of Isfjorden, you head for Alkehornet, a dramatic headland capped by a guillemot and kittiwake colony. Below the sheer rock, tundra rolls to the sea, punctuated by wildflowers in summer. Keep watch for Svalbard reindeer, their compact frames browsing quietly, and for Arctic foxes that quarter the ground in pale summer coats. Conditions permitting, you will take to the tenders for a shoreline perspective, learning how nutrient-rich waters feed this prolific bird cliff.

Returning on board, the lounge becomes a cosy observatory as evening light glows across the sound. Dinner showcases Nordic-inspired flavours, and your guides fine-tune plans based on wind and swell, reinforcing the expedition ethos that allows Aqua Lares to pivot toward opportunity.

Tonight, step out on deck, breathe in the cold, and feel the stillness that defines the High Arctic as your voyage begins.

DAY 2

This morning you approach Gravneset, a glacier-ringed headland with a starkly beautiful whaling cemetery that speaks to early Arctic enterprise and hardship. You will land, conditions allowing, to walk among the low, lichen-flecked graves and hear stories of Dutch seafarers who braved these waters in the seventeenth century. The setting is haunting yet serene, framed by mountains and tidewater ice.

After lunch on board, the ship continues to Smeerenburg Fjord and the narrows of Sorgattet. Here, you step ashore at Smeerenburg, once the bustling hub of Dutch whaling, now a lonely beach where Arctic terns stitch white arcs over the surf and barnacle-etched timbers whisper of industry long gone. Your guides will help you read the shore, pointing out traces of blubber ovens and the natural history that drew people here in the first place. Back aboard, warm drinks in hand, you retrace the day’s encounters and watch for whales in the fjord mouth.

The evening briefing introduces tomorrow’s objective, with the team weighing ice charts, wildlife reports and weather to keep the voyage responsive and rich in sightings.

DAY 3

Overnight, Aqua Lares navigates toward the drifting pack ice, a silent, scintillant world that seems to erase distance and time.

After breakfast, you’ll board the tenders to nose among floes, eyes sweeping for the creamy outline of a polar bear or the whiskered profile of a bearded seal. Ivory gulls may pass ghost-white over steel-blue leads, while kittiwakes gather at the edge of melting pans. Your guides frame the ecology of sea ice, explaining how this seasonal realm underpins the Arctic food web. If conditions are right, the crew will stage a polar plunge, an invigorating dip that etches itself into memory, always conducted with safety lines, hot towels and cheering shipmates at the ready.

Back aboard, a hearty lunch thaws you from within, and the afternoon becomes a moving panorama from the observation deck: pressure ridges, wind-sculpted snow and distant bergy bits catching the light. You will learn how the bridge team reads ice to choose a respectful path, never forcing the ship, always yielding to nature’s design. As evening settles, the quiet feels cathedral-like, interrupted only by the creak of floes and the occasional exhale of a whale.

DAY 4

Today typically follows one of two compelling routes, chosen for the best conditions and wildlife. If the ship steers east, you will greet Alkefjellet, among Svalbard’s most celebrated bird cliffs. Basalt walls soar straight from the sea, crowded with tens of thousands of Brünnich’s guillemots. From the tenders, you witness a living snowfall of birds, while Arctic foxes and glaucous gulls often work the scree below. Later, you may cruise along the astonishing glacier front of Bråsvellbreen, an outflow of the vast Austfonna ice cap. In summer, meltwater rivers etch bright threads down its ramparts, some of the most photogenic falls in the Arctic.

Alternatively, the western option leads into Liefdefjorden for a visit to the rustic Texas Bar hunter’s hut and a guided walk across soft tundra with views to crevassed glaciers and saw-toothed peaks. In the afternoon, Raudfjord stages a classic Arctic tableau of blue-tinged ice and cliffed headlands, with opportunities to explore by tender and absorb the silence ashore. In both scenarios, the ship’s flexibility ensures unhurried time where birdlife, ice or light is finest.