The High Arctic: Beyond Baffin Bay

Arrive in Reykjavik and transfer from the airport to your hotel. Check in at Reykjavik Charter Hotel or similar. Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, was founded around 870 C.E. and is home to about 200,000 people. It is the world’s northernmost national capital and is known for being clean, safe, and environmentally conscious.

Transfer from your hotel to the airport and take the Reykjavik Air Charter to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Transfer by bus to your ship and board Seabourn Venture. The ship departs in the evening. Kangerlussuaq is home to about 500 people and lies at the end of a 170-kilometer fjord. The town began as a U.S. Army Air Force base in 1941 and served as a refueling stop during World War II. Its flat alluvial plains make it ideal for an airport, and the area has also been used for upper atmospheric research.

Enjoy a full day at sea on Seabourn Venture. Take in the Arctic scenery, spot marine wildlife, and join optional onboard activities.

Named in 1818 by explorer Captain John Ross for the English astronomer John Pond, Pond Inlet is a town with over 1,600 inhabitants. It stands out as one of northern Canada’s most interesting, culturally rich, and welcoming communities. The town offers a glimpse into the life of the modern Inuit, with caribou antlers and skulls adorning private homes, and hides of seals, caribou, and occasionally polar bears drying on racks in the sun. The local market features parts of seal, whale, caribou, and a wide variety of fish. Wooden sledges, known as qamutiqs, now towed by snowmobiles instead of dogs, can be seen in front yards, ready for the first snowfall. The local museum and cultural center host cultural performances that showcase unique Inuit throat-singing, with dancers dressed in traditional sealskin anoraks and mukluks.

Disclaimer: This port is a clearance port on nearly all itineraries, however when conditions perfectly align, excursions to this port may be featured.

Sailing through the Northwest Passage is a rare travel experience that has been hundreds of years in the making. The passage — more specifically, a series of channels through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans — extends approximately 900 miles from Baffin Island to the Beaufort Sea above Alaska. Your Seabourn ship spends nine days traversing this famed sea corridor, and while the exact route taken through the islands can vary, your expedition is sure to be one of contemplation and discovery.

The glacier-carved landscape here is dominated by sea ice, which is used as a platform by marine mammals such as walruses and Arctic ringed seals — as well as the polar bears that hunt them. Yet the region has experienced monumental change since Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen first mapped the Northwest Passage in 1906, and the rapidly shrinking sea ice coverage now allows ships to navigate the route year-round — while also creating existential challenges for the animals that rely upon the ice for survival. Many of the areas you pass through were traditional Indigenous hunting and fishing grounds, and archaeological discoveries show that the Pre-Dorset people occupied this region some 4,000 years ago.

Highlights along the Northwest Passage include:

Devon Island: The world’s largest uninhabited island, located west of Baffin Bay, is known as “Mars on Earth” for its barren, rocky terrain and polar desert climate.

Beechy Island: This tiny island, connected to Devon by a thin isthmus, is the final resting place for four members of the doomed Franklin Expedition of 1845.

Cambridge Bay: A visit to this small Inuit town — the administrative hub for Canada’s Nunavut territory — offers insight into how people survive in such a remote and harsh environment.

Bellot Strait: Steep slopes, strong currents, and thick sea ice make this narrow gap between Somerset Island and mainland Canada a navigational challenge. (Fear not, though: if it proves impassable, your Seabourn captain has other options!)

INCLUDED EXPEDITIONS:

Zodiac Excursions

Get an up-close perspective of this icy realm on regular Zodiac cruises, navigating huge icebergs and glacier fronts while your Expedition Team members point out marine mammals and wildlife ashore.

Nature Hikes

Set out on foot to explore beautiful, tundra-covered landscapes with your Expedition Team members, who delight in pointing out delicate plants and flowers that thrive in this hostile environment. You can hike to an ancient Thule settlement of stone pit houses on Devon Island, and encounters with arctic foxes, hares, and other wildlife are always possible.

OPTIONAL EXPEDITIONS (whenever possible):

Kayak:
Join your Kayak Team for a paddle along the shores wherever your expedition stops. The chance to experience this wild, remote place from a water-level perspective is a rare and special privilege.

Journey to the edge of the known world with an expedition to Ellesmere Island — Canada’s northernmost landmass and one of the most remote, pristine environments on Earth. Part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, he northern edge of this Arctic wilderness lies just a few hundred miles from the North Pole and is dominated by towering ice caps, jagged mountain ranges, and ancient glaciers that spill into sapphire fjords. It’s also home to Quttinirpaaq National Park, the second most northerly park on the planet, where the silence is broken only by the wind and the occasional call of a snowy owl. Your Seabourn expedition voyage offers rare access to this stark and stunning landscape, where few humans have ever set foot. The island’s raw beauty is matched by its extraordinary wildlife: muskoxen roam the tundra, Arctic wolves and foxes prowl the ridgelines, and pods of narwhals and bowhead whales glide through the frigid waters. The skies are alive with migratory birds, while the ice shelves and floes offer a chance — if luck allows — to spot a polar bear on the hunt. This is true frontier exploration, with no fixed itinerary and every day shaped by weather, ice, and opportunity. Highlights may include: Zodiac landings on a remote Arctic island Scenic cruising through ice-choked fjords, in search of wildlife. Wildlife encounters in one of the world’s last untouched ecosystems Visits to historic expedition sites and Inuit cultural landmarks
 

Enjoy a full day at sea on Seabourn Venture. Take in the Arctic scenery, spot marine wildlife, and join optional onboard activities.

Venture into the remote and rugged realm of Northwest Greenland — the legendary Thule region, often described as “the end of the world.” This is the Arctic at its most elemental: vast, silent, and sublime. Isolated from other settlements, Thule is one of the last places on Earth where traditional Inuk practices remain largely intact. Here, dogsleds are still the primary means of transport, and hunting — including the rare pursuit of narwhals from kayaks — remains a vital way of life. Your Seabourn expedition explores this pristine frontier over several days, navigating ice-filled fjords that are almost never visited. Highlights may include Qaanaaq, one of the northernmost inhabited communities on the planet, where the rhythms of life are shaped by the Arctic environment and centuries-old traditions. The coastline is carved by ancient glaciers like Sermeq Kujalleq (Jakobshavn Glacier), one of the fastest-moving glaciers in the world and a major contributor to global sea level rise. Icebergs born here can drift as far south as Newfoundland. The landscape is dominated by towering ice walls, deep blue meltwater lakes, and tundra plains stretching to the horizon. Wildlife sightings may include humpback whales, walruses, and Arctic hares, while glaucous gulls and snowy owls patrol the skies. This is Greenland’s true frontier — raw, remote, and unforgettable. Zodiac cruising among cathedral-sized icebergs Visits to UNESCO-listed Ilulissat Icefjord Cultural exchanges with Inuit communities Opportunities for polar wildlife photography

Enjoy a full day at sea on Seabourn Venture. Take in the Arctic scenery, spot marine wildlife, and join optional onboard activities.

In October, 1941 the United States Army Air Force constructed an airbase at the site of Kangerlussuaq. It served as a refuelling stop for single-engine military aircraft being flown to Britain during World War II. From their last port of call, Goose Bay, Labrador, it was 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to Kangerlussuaq until they could refuel. Kangerlussuaq fjord (‘Big Fjord’), is 170 kilometers (105 miles) long and was often shrouded in fog, providing a serious navigation problem for those aircrews.

Today, with the use of modern technology, navigation is no longer an issue. The landscape was ideal for the site of an airport. A large alluvial plain, deposited by the nearby glacial-outflow river, provided a perfectly flat environment for an airport. Kangerlussuaq is the largest commercial airport in Greenland and supports a population of 500. A little known fact, from 1971 to 1987, 33 missiles from various countries, were fired from Kangerlussuaq for upper atmospheric scientific research.

Steeped in history and bursting with contemporary flair, Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, was founded around 870 C.E, marking the birth of the first permanent settlement on this island nation. Today, it is home to approximately 200,000 inhabitants, making up nearly 60% of Iceland's population. Reykjavík holds the title of the world's northernmost national capital, and it takes pride in its reputation as one of the cleanest, greenest, and safest cities globally. Its commitment to sustainability and eco-consciousness is evident in every corner, from its energy-efficient buildings to its pollution-free skies.