Seabourn Venture - Arctic Norway Expedition

Where this cruise calls, day by day

7 ports and 5 sea days over 11 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Tromsø

   NorwayDepart

   At 69°N, 350 km inside the Arctic Circle, and larger and livelier than people expect - a university town with bars, a brewery and a working fishing fleet. Summer calls get 24-hour daylight from about 20 May to 22 July; winter calls come for the aurora. The Arctic Cathedral's white concrete triangles are across the bridge on the mainland side.

   • Fjellheisen cable car to Storsteinen, 421 m above the strait
   • The Arctic Cathedral (Tromsdalen Church) and its stained-glass east wall
   • Polaria's Arctic aquarium and bearded seals
   • Polar Museum in an old customs warehouse on the quay

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock alongside at Prostneset in the centre, a two-minute walk to the main street; the largest ships use Breivika, about 3 km north, with a shuttle.

   Best months

   Jun-Aug for midnight sun; Oct-Mar for northern lights

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Lofoten Islands (Svolvær)

   NorwayPort

   The main town of the Lofoten islands, about 4,500 people, with a harbour ringed by peaks and the Svolværgeita rock horns visible above the rooftops. It is the practical Lofoten call - shops, galleries, restaurants and boat operators all within a few streets - and the departure point for trips into the narrow Trollfjord.

   • A boat trip into Trollfjord, only about 100 m wide at its mouth
   • Magic Ice, a gallery of ice sculptures in an old fish-processing plant
   • The Lofoten War Memorial Museum's uniform collection
   • The fishing village of Henningsvær, 25 minutes away, and its football pitch on the rocks

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock alongside at the town quay in the centre of Svolvær; larger vessels sometimes anchor and tender.

   Best months

   Jun-Aug

4. Day 4

   Lofoten Islands (Reine)

   NorwayPort

   A fishing village of a couple of hundred people on Moskenesøya, at the far end of the Lofoten chain, with red rorbuer cabins on stilts against granite peaks that come straight out of the sea. There is essentially no infrastructure for large numbers of visitors - one road, a few cafes, and drying racks for stockfish.

   • The steep stone-stepped climb up Reinebringen for the classic view over the village
   • The bridges and photo stops at Hamnøy and Sakrisøy
   • Å i Lofoten and its Norwegian Fishing Village Museum at the road's end
   • A sea-eagle RIB trip into the Reinefjord

   Getting ashore

   Ships anchor and tender ashore here - the village pier is small and the surrounding water shallow, so calls are weather-dependent.

   Best months

   Jun-Aug (midnight sun late May-mid Jul)

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   North Cape (Honningsvåg)

   NorwayPort

   Honningsvåg is a small fishing town on the island of Magerøya at 71°N, rebuilt after the German retreat burned it in 1944 - only the church survived. Nearly everyone boards a coach for Nordkapp, the cliff plateau marketed as the northernmost point of Europe, where a steel globe stands over a 307 m drop to the Barents Sea.

   • The North Cape plateau, globe monument and underground North Cape Hall
   • A king crab safari with a catch-and-eat lunch
   • Puffin and gannet boat trips from Gjesvær to the Gjesværstappan islands
   • A Sami camp visit with reindeer on the road out to the cape

   Getting ashore

   Ships usually dock alongside in Honningsvåg with the small town a short walk away; North Cape is 34 km north, about 45 minutes by coach, and larger ships occasionally tender.

   Best months

   Jun-Aug (midnight sun mid-May to late Jul)

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8 · At sea

9. Day 9

   Longyearbyen

   NorwayPort

   The main settlement on Svalbard at 78°N, a former coal-mining company town of about 2,400 people with more snowmobiles than residents. Colourful boxy houses on stilts, wooden mine head-frames on the hillsides, and a rule that you do not leave the settlement without a rifle because of polar bears. Sunlight is continuous from late April to late August.

   • Svalbard Museum on mining, trapping and Arctic wildlife
   • The exterior of the Global Seed Vault, cut into the mountain by the airport
   • Dog sledding on wheeled carts in summer
   • A boat trip to the Russian settlement of Barentsburg or the Nordenskiöld glacier

   Getting ashore

   Smaller expedition ships berth at Bykaia; larger vessels anchor in Adventfjorden and tender, and the port is roughly 2 km from the town centre, so most lines run a shuttle.

   Best months

   Jun-Aug (midnight sun late Apr-late Aug)

10. Day 10

    Svalbard (Ny-Ålesund)

    NorwayPort

    A research station on Kongsfjorden at 78°55'N, described as the northernmost year-round settlement in the world - around 30 people in winter, a couple of hundred in summer, run as an international science base by Kings Bay. It was a coal town until a 1962 mine disaster closed it. Mobile phones must stay off ashore to protect the instruments.

    • The airship mooring mast used by Amundsen's Norge in 1926 and Nobile's Italia in 1928
    • The world's northernmost post office and its postmark
    • The Amundsen bust and the small mining museum
    • Zodiac cruising to the Kongsbreen and Blomstrandbreen glacier fronts nearby

    Getting ashore

    Expedition ships either come alongside the small quay or land passengers by Zodiac; the whole settlement is a ten-minute walk across.

    Best months

    Jun-Aug

11. Day 11 · At sea

12. Day 12

    Tromsø

    NorwayArrive

    At 69°N, 350 km inside the Arctic Circle, and larger and livelier than people expect - a university town with bars, a brewery and a working fishing fleet. Summer calls get 24-hour daylight from about 20 May to 22 July; winter calls come for the aurora. The Arctic Cathedral's white concrete triangles are across the bridge on the mainland side.

    • Fjellheisen cable car to Storsteinen, 421 m above the strait
    • The Arctic Cathedral (Tromsdalen Church) and its stained-glass east wall
    • Polaria's Arctic aquarium and bearded seals
    • Polar Museum in an old customs warehouse on the quay

    Getting ashore

    Ships dock alongside at Prostneset in the centre, a two-minute walk to the main street; the largest ships use Breivika, about 3 km north, with a shuttle.

    Best months

    Jun-Aug for midnight sun; Oct-Mar for northern lights