Length
19 days
Departs
Vlissingen (NL)
Price
On quote
Sails
mid-May – Sep
19 days from Vlissingen in the Netherlands to Longyearbyen, sailing via Fair Isle and volcanic Jan Mayen aboard a Polar Code-compliant expedition vessel under the midnight sun. This is the longest passage on the schedule — a continental departure, the full North Sea and Norwegian Sea crossings, and the most Svalbard time of any voyage on arrival. Zodiac landings run where conditions allow.
Nineteen days is the maximum version of the same idea: reach the Arctic entirely by sea, then stay long enough to explore it properly. Where the 17-day route adds a few Spitsbergen days, this one builds in a deep block of fjord and ice exploration before you disembark.
The route
| Leg | Waters | What you’ll likely see |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vlissingen (NL) | Board ship, North Sea departure |
| 2–4 | North Sea | Seabirds, gannets, shipping lanes |
| 5 | Fair Isle | Seabird cliffs, Zodiac landing |
| 6–9 | Norwegian Sea | Dolphins, whales, open-ocean birds |
| 10 | Jan Mayen | Volcanic landfall, Beerenberg, seals |
| 11–13 | Northbound crossing | Whales, drift ice, first fjords |
| 14–18 | Spitsbergen fjords & ice | Walrus, polar bears, glacier fronts, landings |
| 19 | Longyearbyen | Disembark, transfer to airport |
Life on board
The vessel is built and run to the Polar Code for ice-affected waters and carries roughly 57 crew, including 15 polar specialists and an onboard physician. All meals are served on board, and naturalist lectures fill the long crossings with seabird identification, ocean ecology, Jan Mayen’s geology, and the ice and wildlife of Svalbard. Zodiac excursions run at the landfalls and across the extended Spitsbergen block, conditions allowing. The open-water legs can be lively.
Wildlife odds, honestly
The crossings deliver seabirds throughout, with strong chances of dolphins and whales and seals around Jan Mayen; the long Spitsbergen block then offers walrus and the best polar bear potential of the passage voyages, simply because you spend more days in bear country. Even so, nothing is promised — ocean wildlife is scattered, landfalls hinge on weather, and bears move with the ice. More days on station mean better odds, not certainty. The naturalists read conditions daily and route for the best chance.