Expedition

I just returned from an unforgettable cruise to the high Arctic, and I spent 11 nights in a suite that costs over $450 per person, per night.

Polar expedition cruises are far from the cheapest cruise options out there, but they provide an unparalleled way to discover Earth’s most remote, untouched destinations. On my Arctic itinerary—a repositioning cruise from Edinburgh to Svalbard—I saw polar bears, sailed through narrow fjords, and visited the northernmost towns on the planet.

The mountains were silent, but the threat of a polar bear was omnipresent.

I had arrived in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago well above the Arctic Circle, and I was closer to the North Pole than almost everyone else on Earth.

Signs of familiarity were rare. Polar bears outnumbered humans, the only “city” had a population of 2,400, and mammoth glaciers could be found around any corner. This no man’s land is somewhere I truly never thought I’d be—a year ago, I doubt I could have pointed it out on a map.