My friend and I, in 2023, went to the Antarctic and we had a fabulous trip (reviewed on here, of course). This year we decided we would like to do a similar trip to the Arctic and we booked the Travelsphere Land of The Polar Bears tour. We flew out to Oslo in July (Travelsphere are always good at making sure they have someone at the airport to see you off and make sure you have no problems). At Oslo airport our tour group gathered around the ‘mother hen’ Tour Guide, Sue. We were taken to the Hotel Bristol which is very central and, not having been to Oslo before, we were very grateful for the city tour that was included. We had plenty of time to explore on our own (only slightly hindered by the World Cup fans who had flooded the city for the Norway/England game!) Oslo is nice but very expensive. Not a lot of drinking was done as a glass of wine could set you back £20!!
On the third day we were taken to the airport for our flight to Longyearbyen/Svalbard. It was strange leaving the 34 degree heat of Oslo (yes, they are having a heatwave too!) and getting off the plane to a 5 degree chilly climate! Longyearbyen airport must be the smallest in the world, it only opens when a flight is due! As it was too early to check into our hotel we were given a small tour of this former mining town (now a ski resort) and it was interesting to see the Svalbard Global Seed Vault which houses thousands of seeds in case of world chaos. (Well, I say interesting but all you see is a door to a concrete bunker as no one is allowed inside!) At each end of Longyearbyen is a sign telling you to go no further because of Polar Bears. (I just hope that the bears can read so they don’t walk straight past the sign into town!!) Our hotel for one night was The Radisson Blue Polar Hotel which had a great restaurant and a pub known as “the most Northernmost pub in the World”. There is not much to see in the town, the car park areas are full of skidoo’s instead of cars, there is a supermarket, a museum, some tourist shops and a wonderful café called “Huskies” where you can, indeed, play with husky dogs whilst enjoying your coffee! It was 24 hour daytime when we were there which is very weird and disorientating. Waking at 4am and realising the sun is high in the sky is very very weird!
The next morning we were taken to our ship, The Expedition (run by G Adventures). We had thought this was the same ship we had travelled on in the Antarctic but, in fact, that one had been replaced, so it was a different ship with the same name. However, a lot of the staff were familiar to us and they even remembered us! G Adventures even put a bottle of wine in our cabin for each of us as a ‘welcome back’ gift! It was so nice to meet up again with some of the Philippine crew who were manning the bar and restaurant.
The next 7 days were spent travelling around the Svalbard Archipelago. We went ashore on some of the islands. One of the highlights was landing on Torellneset and trekking across the beach to find a pod of about 50 walruses. As we viewed them from afar some of them swam along the coast to get a better view of us!
We went out on the zodiac boats to see ice breaking and shuddering down into the water. (Quite an incredible sight and if you don’t believe in Global Warning, you will do after seeing that!). We went to Alkefjellet where we cruised along the cliff in the Zodiacs looking at thousands of guillemots nesting. They are called the “flying penguins of the North” because they look so much like penguins.
On other islands we saw reindeer and a couple of arctic foxes (fleetingly).
So, seeing as we were on The Land of the Polar Bear tour, you may be asking yourself whether we did actually see any polar bears. Yes!! We saw 7 in fact, some solo, some with cubs. But when I say we saw them, they were so far in the distance that you needed good binoculars or a good zoom camera lens to see them properly. To the naked eye they were just a white spot in the distance. Luckily the ship photographer on board got some great shots for us. (Not that I wanted a “close encounter” with a polar bear! They are still the worlds most dangerous carnivore and when we did go ashore there were spotters with flares and rifles all around us to keep us safe).
The staff on the ship were all lovely. Our Tour Guide, Sue, had little to organise on the ship but she rushed around making sure we were all OK and enjoying ourselves.
So now for the question everyone has asked me since I got back. Do I prefer the Antarctic or the Arctic?
The answer is The Antarctic! The wildlife is much more abundant there, you are almost falling over penguins and seals when you do a shore excursion. (We saw few seals in the Arctic which made me worry about what those 7 polar bears were feeding on!) We saw a couple of whales in the Arctic but in the Antarctic they were often swimming alongside the ship. However, going to the Arctic did not require the nerve wracking sail through Drakes Passage. The Arctic is easier to access but it was not quite as awe inspiring. If you are thinking of doing both trips in the future, I would suggest you do the Arctic first as it is stunning but it will be slightly overshadowed by the Antarctic.
The ship itself was nice but the services had been better down in the Antarctic. My friend, who loves her afternoon tea, was rather disappointed with the Arctic offering!)
It was an incredible, once in a lifetime trip and I think we were spoiled because we did the Antarctic first so I would never put anyone off going. In fact, I think we should all go just to see what climate change is doing to this wonderful part of the world!
