Svalbard Iceland and Greenland East Coast

Arrive in Oslo and transfer to your centrally located hotel. Spend the day exploring this vibrant city at your own pace. Check in with the hospitality desk this afternoon to make final arrangements before your charter flight the following day.

Depart Oslo on a charter flight and enjoy breathtaking vistas over icy fjords and the Barents Sea enroute to Longyearbyen. On arrival to this Arctic outpost, explore the world’s northernmost settlement, which has morphed from a coal mining hub to a base for exploration and science in recent history. Witness daily life, and delve into this history, before embarking National Geographic Resolution, your base for the next fifteen days.

Your day-by-day itinerary, in keeping with the nature of an expedition, is a thoughtfully considered framework based on Lindblad Expeditions’ long experience in this dynamic arctic region. Your experienced captain, expedition leader and naturalists—as well as technological resources—will guide you through this wonderous area. Armed with the latest satellite imagery, they will chart where the ice is impenetrable and where there are leads guiding you to exciting discoveries. The ship has an ice-strengthened hull and forward-searching sonar, plus agile Zodiacs and kayaks, allowing you to make forays among the icebergs. The undersea specialist deploys the ROV, bringing back imagery few, if any, have ever seen. And with unforgettable days in the ice and two photographers on board, you’ll have their assistance to get the best photos ever.

Begin in Svalbard, Norway, a place of deep fjords, snowcapped mountains and massive ice sheets. Svalbard is one of the best places on the planet to see polar bears in their natural habitat—the sea ice. Venture to the foot of vast tidewater glaciers, kayak among sparkling icebergs, hike the tundra and explore fjords that split the coastline.

Svalbard’s wonders are a prelude to days ahead of discoveries on unknown shores, following the ice’s edge. Your quest is to discover the Arctic’s grand wilderness. Be on deck as your captain navigates between icebergs that drift from the calving glaciers. With a course set west, Jan Mayen is on your itinerary—an isolated volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean. Here, discover the island’s unique geology and black sand beaches and learn of the interesting history of Jan Mayen’s past inhabitants. If the ice yields, your captain will aim for Scoresbysund on the east coast of Greenland, the longest fjord system in the world. If the ice is unrelenting, you’ll head to Iceland.

The finale of our journey is the west coast of Iceland: Ísafjörður, a picture postcard of Icelandic life; Vigur Island, home to a centuries-old tradition of eider farming; and Grundarfjörður, known for Iceland’s most photographed mountain, Kirkjufell, and its neighboring waterfall.

Disembark in Reykjavík and transfer to the airport for flights home.