Iceland, Greenland & Northwest Passage Cruise

Day 1 - Reykjavik, Iceland

Arrive: Sat 26 July 2025 / Depart: Sat 26 July 2025

Warmed by the Gulf Stream as well as by highly active thermal hot springs and volcanoes, Iceland is somewhat misnamed. While it is a stark and barren country with three huge areas of glaciers, one theory is that early Norsemen sought to mislead other potential settlers by giving a pleasant name to fierce, inhospitable Greenland, and a forbidding name to the imminently habitable Iceland. Irish monks and hermits established themselves here in the 8th century, but left a century later when the pagan Norsemen arrived. Europe's first Parliament of General Assembly, the Althing, was established in the year 930 and still functions as the legislative body, although it was suspended by the Danes at the end of the 18th century and not reconvened until 1843. Reykjavik was the site picked by the island's first permanent resident, Ingolfur Arnarson in 874, and is home to more than half of the island's total population. The world's northernmost capital, Reykjavik is proud of its virtual lack of air pollution. Both electrical power and home heating are derived from the geothermal activity on the island. The city's large swimming pools are always warm, and in the countryside exotic fruits such as grapes and bananas are cultivated in greenhouses made cozy with the help of underground hot springs.

Day 2 - Heimaey

Arrive: Sun 27 July 2025 / Depart: Sun 27 July 2025

Day 3 - At Sea

Day 4 - Umivik

Arrive: Tue 29 July 2025 / Depart: Tue 29 July 2025

Umivik Bay, also known as Umiivik and Umerik, is a bay in King Frederick VI Coast, southeastern Greenland. It is part of the Sermersooq municipality. Unlike the jagged and forbidding appearance of most fjord systems in East Greenland, the Umivik area has a relatively gentle shape

Day 5 - Skjolden, Norway

Arrive: Wed 30 July 2025 / Depart: Wed 30 July 2025

Skjolden is a village in the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Lustrafjorden, a branch of the Sognefjorden.

Day 6 - Prince Christian Sund

Day 6 - Aapilattoq, Greenland

Arrive: Thu 31 July 2025 / Depart: Thu 31 July 2025

Tiny Aappilattoq is located in the Prince Christian Sound at Greenland’s southern tip, in the municipality of Kullaleq. Its name means ‘red’ in Greenlandic. The sound is enfolded by steep, unglaciated mountains, rising sheer from the water to sharp, shattered peaks. The town’s setting is particularly picturesque, its brightly painted houses scattered across a small peninsula of humped granite domes, under a backdrop of a looming pyramid of stone. The little red town church nestles next to a white-picketed graveyard. The sound itself is dotted with icebergs slowly melting into expressionist sculptures. It is a place where the infrequent visitors routinely fill their camera cards with unforgettable images of Greenland’s spectacular visual splendor.

Day 7 - Qaqortoq, Greenland

Arrive: Fri 01 August 2025 / Depart: Fri 01 August 2025

The largest town in South Greenland with over 3,500 citizens, Qaqortoq was founded in 1775 and still reveals some examples of colonial-period architecture. There is not infrastructure to support shore excursions here, but guests can explore the town and its museum, or possibly arrange a visit to a nearby hot springs. Like other towns in Greenland, there are also possibilities to buy examples of traditional Inuit arts and crafts, including items crafted of bone, soapstone and wild-harvested furs.

Day 7 - Hvalsey, Iceland

Arrive: Fri 01 August 2025 / Depart: Fri 01 August 2025

Twelve miles by Zodiac up the Hvalseyjarfjord from Qaqortoq, the largest community in South Greenland, lies the most prominent Norse archaeological site in Greenland. The so-called Eastern Settlement lasted from the 10th until the mid-15th century. Your expedition team archaeologist can interpret for you the ruins of the great halls and church at Hvalsey that hint of a prospering medieval farmstead. The site evokes an era when the Norse were trading with the indigenous Thule people of the area for furs and ivory, which were a prized commodities in Europe. A wedding held in the church in 1408 comprises the last written record of the Norse adventure in Greenland. Within a few years, Hvalsey and the rest of other Norse communities of Greenland withered as immigrants returned to the more established communities in Iceland and Norway. The site’s meadows of wildflowers sloping up from the fjord give a sense of the peaceful community that existed here in that long-ago summer.

Day 8 - At Sea

Day 9 - Nuuk Godthaab

Arrive: Sun 03 August 2025 / Depart: Sun 03 August 2025

Greenland’s capital boasts some 16,000 inhabitants. Although the town does not offer us any shore excursions, there are several attractions which guests may wish to visit. One is the roofed town market, where the products of the nearby sea and wilderness are for sale, including the meat of whales, seals, birds and fish. The Katuaq Cultural Center offers changing exhibitions. Especially worth a visit is the National Museum, which besides many historic objects, contains the quite famous 500-year old mummies recovered from Qilakitsoq. The nearby Museum of Art has works by both Inuit and Nordic artists. There is also an artisan’s center where guests may purchase locally produced works, and a collection of traditional houses.

Day 10 - Camp Kangiusaq

Day 11 - Evighedsfjorden

Arrive: Tue 05 August 2025 / Depart: Tue 05 August 2025

Day 12 - Sisimiut, Greenland

Arrive: Wed 06 August 2025 / Depart: Wed 06 August 2025

Sisimiut is Greenland’s second-largest town, and large by Greenland standards, housing some 6,000 people. It is located just north of the Arctic Circle, and is a popular base for visitors seeking adventurous pastimes in the surrounding country. Although there are no shore excursions planned for Sisimiut, guests may wish to investigate the local market, where the products of the country are sold, including meat from whales, reindeer, musk oxen and many kinds of fish. Watch for the stocky little Icelandic horses trotting along the highways, and keep an eye out for sea eagles often seen perched on the surrounding mountains. Whales are also often seen in the sea nearby. On the hill above the harbor, there is an artisan’s workshop where they create and sell Inuit crafts, and nearby is the town museum, which has examples of colonial period houses, peat houses and other early buildings.

Day 13 - Kangerlussuaq

Arrive: Thu 07 August 2025 / Depart: Thu 07 August 2025

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. Form 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.

Day 14 - At Sea

Day 15 - Ilulissat, Greenland

Arrive: Sat 09 August 2025 / Depart: Sat 09 August 2025

Located in Disco Bay, Ilulissat is home to Sermeq Kujalleq, the fastest-moving glacier in the world. This tremendous river of ice flows from the Greenland Ice Shield toward the sea, funneling through a narrow opening at nearly 40 meters a day. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is the “Mother of Icebergs” that fills its fjord and the bay with great quantities of floating icebergs that parade down the bay and into the Atlantic Ocean. No formal excursions are planned for the town, which is home to about 4,600 people and some 3,500 sled dogs.

Day 16 - Sisimiut, Greenland

Arrive: Sun 10 August 2025 / Depart: Sun 10 August 2025

Sisimiut is Greenland’s second-largest town, and large by Greenland standards, housing some 6,000 people. It is located just north of the Arctic Circle, and is a popular base for visitors seeking adventurous pastimes in the surrounding country. Although there are no shore excursions planned for Sisimiut, guests may wish to investigate the local market, where the products of the country are sold, including meat from whales, reindeer, musk oxen and many kinds of fish. Watch for the stocky little Icelandic horses trotting along the highways, and keep an eye out for sea eagles often seen perched on the surrounding mountains. Whales are also often seen in the sea nearby. On the hill above the harbor, there is an artisan’s workshop where they create and sell Inuit crafts, and nearby is the town museum, which has examples of colonial period houses, peat houses and other early buildings.

Day 17 - At Sea

Day 18 - Pond Inlet

Arrive: Tue 12 August 2025 / Depart: Tue 12 August 2025

Day 19 - Philpots Island

Day 20 - Dundas Harbour, Nunavut, Canada

Arrive: Thu 14 August 2025 / Depart: Thu 14 August 2025

Croker Bay is a 35 kilometer (20 miles) deep fjord on the southern shore of Devon Island and is flanked by colorful 450 metre (1,500’) high table-like mountains. The tidewater glacier at its head descends 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the icefield at the center of the island and terminates in spectacular cliffs of ice. Some 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) wide, the glacial front calves huge amounts of ice into the bay. Here polar bears, seals and even a pod of beluga whales can be seen travelling amongst the brash ice. To the east is the abandoned community of Dundas Harbour. The derelict buildings of the R.C.M.P. post are all that remain and serve as a silent reminder to the 52 Inuit that came here in 1934. Here, set amongst a landscape aglow in the colors of Arctic Autumn, lay the stark white crosses and picket fence enclosure of one of the most northerly cemeteries on Earth. Nearby, 1,000 year old stone remains of earlier Inuit settlers can be found.

Day 20 - Nunavut Canada

Arrive: Thu 14 August 2025 / Depart: Thu 14 August 2025

Croker Bay is an Arctic waterway in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It lies off the southern coast of Devon Island in the eastern high Arctic. Like Maxwell Bay to the west, it is an arm of Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait. The abandoned Dundas Harbour is 32.1 miles to the east.

Day 21 - The Svalbard Experience

Day 22 - The Svalbard Experience

Day 23 - Gjoa Haven, Nunavut

Arrive: Sun 17 August 2025 / Depart: Sun 17 August 2025

Day 24 - The Svalbard Experience

Day 25 - Cambridge Bay Village

Day 26 - The Svalbard Experience

Day 27 - At Sea

Day 28 - The Svalbard Experience

Day 29 - Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories

Arrive: Sat 23 August 2025 / Depart: Sat 23 August 2025

Day 30 - At Sea

Day 31 - At Sea

Day 32 - At Sea

Day 33 - Nome, Alaska

Arrive: Wed 27 August 2025

Day 34 - Nome, Alaska

Depart: Thu 28 August 2025

Day 35 - Anchorage

Arrive: Fri 29 August 2025 / Depart: Fri 29 August 2025