One of the best things about expedition cruising is the educational component. Each of the guides on board has a different area of speciality and can answer questions and help passengers learn about the history, natural history, animals etc. of the destination . I’m a huge rock nerd. I took every single Geology class my college had to offer, and spent three months in Mongolia on a geology-focused study abroad. So it's no surprise that I was thrilled to learn what an incredibly diverse and geologically exciting place Svalbard is. In fact, there is no where else in northern Europe where you can see examples from so many geological periods. The process of mountain building has always fascinated me. And let me tell you, the mountains of Svalbard are spectacular, dramatic and bald. Which means lots of rocks! Since there is such little vegetation to hide the rocky outcrops, it is easy to see the good stuff.
Gasbergkilen. (Molly Stanko)
We were lucky enough to have a glaciologist as one of our guides, who excitedly shared with us information on basement rocks, moraines and glaciers. During our single sea-day, a day we spent completely on board the ship, she gave a lecture on geology of Svalbard. One of my fellow passengers joked he felt bad for her, and that no one would be attending a talk about rocks. It's true- the crowd was smaller than the lecture on whales, but I was there in the front row scribbling away in my note book.
Bird cliffs of Alkefjellet. (Molly Stanko)
Every place we stopped was geologically diverse. We saw excellent examples of Svalbard's igneous and metamorphic basement rock, the oldest rocks, particularly in the northwest of Spitsbergen. We saw mountains made of sedimentary limestone and sandstone deposits. These were once under water, 400 million years ago. We also saw many relatively "recent" deposits such as moraines, scree fields and fluvial deposits that were from the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. I was delighted that we were able to see so much diversity and so much of the archipelago during our trip.
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
3 days ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.
Mary Warren
4 days ago
Jess was very easy going and answered all our questions. It’s not easy dealing with 6 people at once but she did an outstanding job!
Diane Foster
6 days ago
Kassandra and the Adventure Life team have been incredible! Kassandra was very knowledgeable and attentive to our asks while making sure we kept within our budget. This was our first experience with a travel agent and we were blown away by the booking/initial exploration service. We will use Adventure Life again.