Norway, Svalbard

Svalbard – Around the Arctic Circle 🇳🇴

9 nights on board R/V Kinfish 🇳🇴

Travel details

Available spaces

Fully Booked

Trip duration

9 nights

Travel dates

15 August, 2027 - 24 August, 2027

Price per person

11.490 € per person

Trip Highlights

Pioneering 👣 Svalbard remains one of the few places on Earth where nature rules and the human footprint is minimal. This is a pioneer departure, where we seek out secluded fjords, glaciers, and wildlife hotspots based on guidance from experienced locals. Join us as we chart the foundations for future expeditions and pave the way for respectful wildlife travel.

Stunning Scenery ❄️ The landscape around Svalbard in the Arctic is a breathtaking blend of rugged mountains, expansive glaciers, and pristine fjords, all bathed in ethereal light during the midnight sun or polar night. This remote archipelago's wild beauty provides a dramatic backdrop to go spot Arctic wildlife, from polar bears to arctic foxes, puffins, seals and walrus.

Walrus Colonies 🧊 Characterized by their long tusks and blubbery bodies, the Arctic waters are home to large colonies of giant Walruses. The icy waters provide an abundant supply of clams, mollusks, and other bottom-dwelling creatures that walruses feed on. An extremely rare animal with astonishing body features, and a dream to photograph!

Trip description

Svalbard remains one of the few places on Earth where nature rules and the human footprint is minimal. This is a pioneer destination, where we seek out secluded fjords, glaciers, and wildlife hotspots based on guidance from experienced locals.

The landscape around Svalbard in the Arctic is a breathtaking blend of rugged mountains, expansive glaciers, and pristine fjords, all bathed in ethereal light during the midnight sun or polar night.

This remote archipelago’s wild beauty provides a dramatic backdrop to go spot Arctic wildlife, from polar bears to arctic foxes, puffins, seals and walrus.

9 nights on board R/V Kinfish

Nights

Price per person

11.490 €

DATE START

15 August 2027

DATE END

24 August 2027

The R/V Kinfish is a small expedition ship built for getting into the parts of Svalbard the big cruise vessels cannot reach. With only a limited number of guests on board, it runs more like a private charter than a cruise. The Scandinavian expedition leader, fluent in English, reads the weather and the ice each day and shape the itinerary around where the wildlife actually is, not a fixed schedule. Two Zodiacs launch off the back for landings and cruises into secluded fjords, under bird cliffs, and along the pack ice. The deck is your viewing platform for the midnight sun, calving glaciers, and the slow scan for polar bears, walrus and whales.

Life on board is simple and comfortable in the way an expedition should be. All meals and snacks are included, along with water, tea and coffee, and the bar is open too with wine, beer, spirits and soft drinks. A thermal oversuit is provided for every guest, so you stay warm whether you are scouting from the deck or ashore on a land tour. This is not a luxury liner and does not pretend to be. What it is: a capable little ship, an experienced crew, and the freedom to chase the best of the Arctic day by day, all the way to a possible full circumnavigation of Spitsbergen if the conditions allow.

Included

10 Days / 9 nights on the expedition ship
2 Scandinavian expedition leaders fluent in English
2 Zodiacs for small group excursions
“Ice Day”- snorkel among icebergs
Search for polar bears, seals, walrus colonies and other indigenous wildlife
Whaling stations visits
Full program of activities and excursions
All meals & snacks
Water/tea/coffee
Wine, beer, alcohol & soft drinks
Thermal oversuit for scouting on ship & landtours
All governmental taxes and port fees

Not Included

Flights
Transfers
Tips for crew
WiFi
Mandatory Emergency Evacuation Insurance to a minimum benefit of US$ 200,000 per person
Later implemented laws/regulations causing extra taxes/fees/costs over which BTM Travel has no control.

Day-by-day program

– This is a sample itinerary, organisation might vary due to weather and other circumstances – Arrive in Longyearbyen, the northernmost real town in the world. Transfer to the harbour in the afternoon and board the R/V Kinfish. Welcome aboard, cabin assignment, safety briefing, thermal oversuit fitted. Dinner with the expedition team. Sail out of Isfjorden as the midnight sun keeps the deck bright.

First morning on board. Zodiac landing along the Isfjorden coast, walks on tundra dotted with reindeer and the chance of an Arctic fox. Slow scan of the cliffs for sea birds and seals on the haul outs. Steam north through the afternoon, expedition leaders briefing on what to expect from the days ahead.

Into Kongsfjorden, deep blue water against vertical ice. Zodiac cruise along the face of the 14th of July Glacier, listening to it crack and calve. Kittiwakes wheeling overhead, bearded seals on small ice floes. Afternoon landing at Ny Ålesund, the small research outpost, with a walk past the old expedition history.

North along the coast to Magdalenefjorden, one of the prettiest fjords on the west side. Landing at the old whaler graves with the expedition leaders telling the story of seventeenth century whaling. Across to Smeerenburg in the afternoon, the abandoned whaling station with try works still visible in the rocks.

A push north into the pack ice, crossing 80 degrees latitude. The whole day is spent scanning for polar bears, walrus on the floes, bowhead and blue whales in the leads. Zodiacs ready to launch when conditions are right. Patience pays here. The light does not change, the engine hums, and someone is always on the bridge with binoculars. Note that new regulations from January 2025 require keeping at least 300 metres from any polar bear.

Sail south into Hinlopen Strait. Zodiac cruise under Alkefjellet, basalt cliffs covered in thousands of Brunnich’s guillemots, every ledge taken. The noise and smell hit you before the visuals do. Possible landing on the eastern side, and a continued search for walrus haul outs along the strait.

The signature day. Find a stable iceberg or growler, kit up in dry suits, and snorkel along the underwater face. Watch the blue light cut through the ice, fish darting in the cracks. Short sessions, warm tea between. Afternoon zodiac cruise to another glacier face for calving photos.

Steam along the front of Austfonna, the third largest ice cap in the world, a wall of ice that stretches as far as the eye can see. Waterfalls pouring off the top into the sea. Landings on Nordaustlandet where conditions allow, scanning for walrus colonies that haul out on the shingle.

Slow sail south back toward Isfjorden, last landings and zodiac excursions along the way. Edgeøya or Hornsund if the timing works. Final wildlife watch on deck, recap with the expedition team, farewell dinner.

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