Tromsø is the largest city in northern Norway and the ninth most populous municipality in the country. It surprises visitors with its sophisticated art scene, its contrasting modern and historical architecture, international cuisine, multicultural events, and festivals throughout the year. Situated 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Tromsø is within the land of the midnight sun during summer months and the elusive northern lights in winter. However, thanks to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream, the sea doesn’t freeze here in winter, and there is no permafrost in the vicinity. Tromsø is noticeably milder than other towns at the same latitudes in other parts of the world. Tromsø is also ‘The City of Explorers’ and has seen a number of expeditions set off from its shores to the probe the polar realm. Both Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen frequently recruited men in the city. Nowadays home to the Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø continues a tradition of being one of the key centers in explorations of the Arctic.

Just west of the North Cape lies the Gjesvaestappen island chain, a designated nature reserve and birdwatcher’s paradise. These hilly, grass-covered islands – of which Storstappen is the largest — are home to some of Norway’s largest colonies of cliff-breeding seabirds, including 100,000 puffins, 10,000 black-legged kittiwakes, and 5,000 razorbills. Great cormorants, European shags, gannets, and thick-billed Murres are among the other nesting birds spotted here, as are predatory white-tailed eagles. While visitors are not allowed to set foot on Storstappen, your Zodiac excursion will take you up close to its puffin-covered cliffs. Witnessing the parade of seabirds overhead with its constant cacophony of cries, flapping wings, and splashing plunge-dives is one of Nature’s great thrills.  

Until the mid-20th century, visitors to the North Cape had to arrive by sea, then be transferred ashore for the rather steep hike to the actual plateau 1,000 feet above. (The road to Nordkapp was only completed in 1956.)  Most landed at Hornvika, set along a sheltered cove on the plateau’s eastern side. Seabourn guests reach the site via Zodiac departing from the fishing village of Skarsvåg; along the way, pass by a spectacular rock formation known as the Horn or Hornet. (The Sami People considered the Horn to be a sacred place, offering gifts there in the hope of good fortune.) Follow the series of stairways and trails up to the plateau for snaps from the northernmost point of the European mainland — and relax knowing that your return to the ship is by road.

The tall plateau looming over the Arctic Ocean is scalloped on the east side by a sheltered cove called the Hornvika. To reach it, you will board a stable, rigid inflatable watercraft at Norway’s northernmost fishing village of Skarsvåg. On the way to the Hornvika, your boat will pass the free-standing rock feature called the Horn (Hornet in Norwegian), a place sacred to the Sami people, who sacrificed offerings there for good fortune. From the cove, a stairway and trail leads up just over a thousand steps to the plateau 307 meters (over a thousand feet) above and thus to the North Cape Monument. Once there enjoy the views and the informational visitors center. And relax, you’ll go back to your ship overland by road! Others can drive to the Cape from Skarsvåg.

The looming cliffs of Norway’s North Cape rise directly from the sea 1007 ft/307m to a plateau as flat as a table. This impressive headland has been selected to represent the northernmost point of Europe, even though it is technically located on an island, Magerøya, connected to the mainland by a bridge. At 71° 10’ 20” N latitude, it is just 1,306 mi/2012 km from the North Pole. At this point, the Norwegian Sea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean, meets the Barents Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. Further north, the mountainous archipelagoes of Franz Josef Land and Svalbard are the last lands before the Polar Ice Pack. The Midnight Sun does not dip below the horizon here at any time between May 14 and July 31 each year. Sheer and formidable, the North Cape pays its role to the hilt, emphatically declaring itself the end of Europe’s landmass.

Russia’s important ice-free Arctic port is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle. It sits on a rounded peninsula less than a hundred miles from the border with Norway and a bit further from the Finnish border. A towering, stylized statue of a soldier memorializes the city’s importance during World War II, and a red-and-white lighthouse is dedicated to its seamen, as is a white Church of the Savior on the Waters. It was the main terminal for Allied materiel flowing into Russia from the Arctic convoys in WWII, and later the center of the Soviet submarine and icebreaker fleets during the Cold War. See its history and art museums, and several picturesque Eastern Orthodox churches.

Enjoy onboard amenities and faciities. 

Discover a world of icy wonders in Novaya Zemlya (“New Land”), a remote archipelago in the Russian High Arctic. Few travelers have ever set foot in this glacier-covered place, located far above the Arctic Circle. Russians knew of its existence as early as the 11th century, and had an established hunting trade there by the 1500s when European explorers first arrived while searching for the Northeast Passage. (Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz, for whom the Barents Sea is named, died here on his third expedition in 1596.) Until recently, Novaya Zemlya was closed to tourism and used exclusively by the Russian Armed Forces; abandoned military installations stand as stark reminders of the Cold War era. The archipelago is now part of the protected Russian Arctic National Park.
Your Seabourn expedition spends two full days exploring Novaya Zemlya, which comprises two large islands — Severny (northern) and Yuzhny (southern), separated by the narrow Matochkin Strait — along with a handful of smaller ones. The strait also divides the arctic desert topography of the north from the southern tundra landscape dotted by dwarf birch, lichen, creeping polar willow, and delicate wildflowers. Nearly half of Severny Island is covered by an ice cap, which feeds a series of glaciers. Novaya Zemlya is home to millions of seabirds, while its frigid waters host migrating beluga and bowhead whales, seals, and Atlantic walruses. The archipelago also is an important denning area for polar bears, and retreating sea ice has forced many bears to venture further inland for food — creating more frequent encounters with humans.

Venture deep within the world’s northernmost archipelago, a seldom-visited chain of nearly 200 uninhabited islands in the remote Russian High Arctic. Few travelers have ever seen Franz Josef Land, which, until quite recently, was buried beneath a sheet of ice for much of the year. It was closed off to foreigners during the Cold War, when two Soviet military airfields were built there. Franz Josef Land was declared a nature sanctuary in 1994 and, in 2012, became part of the Russian Arctic National Park — the largest marine reserve in the region. The designation protects the islands from future oil and gas exploration, while also granting protection to their incredible wildlife.
Your Seabourn expedition voyage spends five full days exploring this glacier-covered wonderland. Anticipate wide open vistas and overall spectacular arctic scenery, with a varied and unique array of flora and fauna. Bowhead whales feed in the frigid waters and Atlantic walruses haul out on the diminishing sea ice, while colonies of kittiwakes, little auks, and other seabirds claim the scree slopes and cliffs. On shore, polar bears reign over graceful tundra ecosystems in which delicate yet resilient species like purple saxifrage and Polar willow thrive during the short summers.  

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Severnaya Zemlya (“Northern Land”) is a frozen, far-off archipelago separating the Kara and Laptev seas in the Russian High Arctic. It also is one of the last places on earth to be explored, only discovered in 1913. (The island chain remained uncharted for another 20 years). One reason for the delayed discovery: Severnaya Zemlya’s harsh, desolate climate, with blistering winds and below-zero temperatures most of the year. Bolshevik — the second-largest and southernmost island in the archipelago — is mostly mountainous with sparse vegetation; nearly a third is covered by glaciers. Prima Polar Station, located to the north near Cape Baranov, is the sole polar station operating in Severnaya Zemlya. The only other humans living here are a few hundred miners operating the island’s gold fields, leaving the rest to resident lemmings, arctic foxes, and polar bears.

Emjoy onboard amenties and facilities. 

During the early 1800s, Russian merchant and trapper Yakov Sannikov claimed to have seen a new land north of Kotelny Island. The legend of this mysterious “Sannikov Land” inspired numerous expeditions, many of which met tragic ends. What Sannikov actually spotted was this vast and frigid archipelago, comprising three island groups spread across 14,500 square miles between the Laptev and East Siberian seas. The New Siberians, which are covered in permafrost, have provided some of the most significant and well-preserved fossil ivory deposits on the planet. Copious woolly mammoth bones — including entire skeletons — have been found along the islands’ beaches and riverbeds, along with the remains of rhinoceros, horse, buffalo, and saiga antelope. The melting permafrost also has revealed the world’s northernmost Paleolithic settlement, the Taba-Yuryakh site on Kotelny. Today’s inhabitants include such fauna as arctic foxes, reindeer, polar bears and lemmings, along with abundant birdlife during summer months.

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Wilderness reigns supreme on remote Wrangel Island, located in the Russian Far East about 90 miles from the Siberian mainland. The Wrangel Island Nature Reserve (which also includes nearby Herald Island) boasts the highest level of biodiversity in the High Arctic, thanks to a self-contained ecosystem that evolved uninterrupted by glaciation. The mountain ranges and tundra landscape here appear much as they did when woolly mammoths roamed the region; indeed, while these giant creatures vanished from the mainland during the last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago, the last-known mammoths survived another 6,000 years or so on these isolated, ice-choked shores.
Today Wrangel Island Nature Reserve — designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004 — is home to the greatest density of denning polar bears on Earth. While the summer ice melt brings many of the region’s bears here to rest and feed, hundreds of females stay behind during the winter to give birth and raise their young in snow dens, earning Wrangel the nickname of “polar bear maternity ward.” Spend three fascinating days exploring the island reserve, which also claims the largest population of Pacific walrus on the planet and plays host to some 100 migratory bird species, including the last major population of breeding snow geese in Asia. Nearly 420 plant species and subspecies have been identified here — more than the entire Canadian archipelago — and its nutrient-rich waters provide a major feeding ground for migrating grey whales.

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Approaching Yttygran Island off the southern tip of the Chukchi Peninsula, a strikingly haunting image comes into view: rows of giant whale skulls, jaws, ribs, and other bones stretching for nearly a third of a mile along the island’s northern coast. The massive scale of Whale Bone Alley signifies the importance of this “Chukcha Stonehenge,” first discovered in 1977. Yet the eerie boneyard remains shrouded in mystery: Was this an ancient Eskimo ceremonial site? Some sort of religious complex? Archaeologists have determined that the alley, created around 600 years ago, actually was used as a sort of whale slaughterhouse, where local Native tribes would gut the great beasts and store their meat. Supporting this theory: more than 100 pits found behind the bones had fossilized whale bits still in them. Seabourn guests venture ashore via Zodiac to explore this unearthly site with your ship’s Expedition Team, perhaps joining a hike through the lush, tundra-covered landscape for an elevated perspective of the boneyard.
Alternatively, guests may join an optional kayaking excursion along the shoreline of Yttygran Island close to Whale Bone Alley. The site is located near a whale migration route, and the chance to encounter whales and other marine life is always present.

Provideniya serves as gateway to the Chukchi (Chukotka) Peninsula, part of Russia’s Chukchi Autonomous Okrug (District) and the easternmost headland in Asia. The port sits along a fjord in Provideniya Bay, sheltered from the Bering Sea and surrounded by a range of snowy peaks that reach upward of 6,500 feet high. Settlements were founded here as early as the 17th century to service ships along the Northern Sea Route; yet it wasn’t until 1946 that the Soviets officially established it as a military port. The okrug is homeland to the indigenous Chukchi (Chukchee) People, and Provideniya also has a significant Yupik (Asiatic Eskimo) population. Seabourn guests enjoy a guided walking tour through its downtown, stopping at the Provideniya Regional Museum as well as the local cultural center for a traditional Russian music and dance performance.
Alternatively, guests may join Expedition Team members for a longer walk out to the city’s lighthouse for outstanding views back down the fjord. This group will join the others for the cultural performance.  

The International Date Line is an imaginary line of navigation on the surface of the earth running between the North Pole and the South Pole to demarcate a change from one calendar day to another. It passes across the middle of the Pacific Ocean approximately along the 180th degree of longitude, but deviating at various points to include overlapping areas governed by some island groups and territories to maintain internal uniformity. It is located halfway around the globe from the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian at 0 degrees longitude. Traveling from east to west, the local time gains one hour (clock set back one hour) for each 15 degrees of longitude traveled. This would amount to 24 hours gained for one circumnavigation, unless the calendar date was changed one day forward upon crossing the halfway point. Likewise, when traveling west to east, the calendar date is changed one day backward when crossing the date line. Seabourn voyage itineraries are based upon days actually spent on board, and the dates are noted for convenience, including days lost or gained in crossing the International Date Line. Departure days and disembarkation days are always quoted in local time and date.

As the locals like to say, “There’s no place like Nome.” Set at the southern tip of the Seward Peninsula and only accessible by air or the Bering Sea, this Arctic Alaska town offers a rich mix of gold rush history, Inupiat Eskimo culture, rugged adventure, and abundant wildlife. Gold was first discovered here in 1898; a year later, the population had ballooned to more than 20,000. (Nome has around 3,500 residents today.) Gold mining remained a vital industry well into the 20th century, and the region’s retreating sea ice has brought a new generation of treasure hunters who dredge in converted fishing boats just offshore. You can learn more at the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum, and snap a selfie next to the “World’s Largest Gold Pan.” During the winter of 1925, a diphtheria epidemic raged among the area’s Alaska Natives; when fierce blizzard conditions prevented airplanes from leaving Anchorage with the life-saving serum, a rescue effort was organized to deliver it via dog sled. The annual Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race still follows the same path as those heroic mushers. 

Disembarkation after breakfast.