Four settlements on one frozen archipelago

The world's northernmost town: roughly 2,400 residents at 78°N, founded 1906 as a coal settlement, now the gateway for every Svalbard trip. Airport, hotels, and the UNIS centre.

A Soviet coal-mining town abandoned in 1998 and preserved by the cold. The northernmost Lenin bust, a grand cultural palace, and empty streets, reached by boat or snowmobile.

An active Russian coal town of around 400 residents on Svalbard. Soviet-era murals, the northernmost brewery, and a working mine, reached by boat or snowmobile from Longyearbyen.

The world's northernmost permanent research community at 79°N. A science-only settlement of rotating staff, visited only on expedition-cruise calls, not as an independent day trip.