Svalbard Express

Svalbard Express 7 Days

Prices From £6,157pp
May to July | 7 nights

Up To 50% Discount!

Single Cabins Available

Svalbard Express 7 Days

Aboard: Ocean Albatros

Experience Svalbard in high summer on an express yet wonderfully comprehensive one-week expedition. Built for polar waters, your ice-class ship is designed to push into the shifting pack ice as far north as conditions allow, offering the chance to cruise through a true high-Arctic wilderness of glaciers, icebergs, and wide, silent horizons.

In just seven days you’ll combine prime wildlife watching with striking scenery and fascinating history. Keep a lookout for whales, walruses, polar bears, reindeer and Arctic foxes, plus seabird cliffs alive with activity, while also exploring coastal sites made accessible by the warming influence of the Gulf Stream. From eerie relics of early whaling to glittering ice fronts and dramatic fjords, it’s a week-long deep dive into Svalbard at its most unforgettable.

Highlights

  • An express, yet comprehensive, exploration of Svalbard’s breathtaking wilderness
  • Attempt to reach the incredibly remote Sjuøyane (Seven Islands)
  • Good chances of seeing Polar bears
  • Sail through Svalbard's dense pack ice that stretches all the way to the North Pole
  • Incredible scenery throughout
  • Get up-close to Arctic wildlife including reindeer, walrus, Arctic fox, seals and whales
  • Witness an abundance of birdlife
  • Enjoy thrilling Zodiac cruises, and hikes and nature walks on land
  • Travel with a dedicated expedition photographer who will provide lectures and tips for capturing the perfect pictures (select departures)
  • Kayaking options available (select departures - costs apply)

What's Included

  • Return flights between Oslo & Longyearbyen, with group transfers to and from the ship
  • Full board accommodation on board ship with all meals, tea, coffee and snacks
  • Complimentary house wine, beer, and soft drinks at lunch & dinner
  • Welcome and farewell cocktails
  • Zodiac cruises, nature walks and hikes as per itinerary
  • Informative lecture and presentation programme
  • Post-voyage digital journal link with images and voyage log from your trip

Up To 50% Discount!

Secret Deal! Book select 2027 departures by 31st July and get a huge 50% off Superior Balcony cabins, or up to 15% discount off other select cabins!
Price shown reflects discount.

Offer applicable when booked before 1st August 2026

Applies to select cabins on select departures and is subject to availability. Offer may be withdrawn at any time. Full terms and conditions apply. / Available on selected dates/vessels.

Single Cabins Available

This vessel offers single occupancy cabins, which is a perfect option for solo travellers. Travelling alone is often the best way to see the world. No responsibilities, no difficult choices and no trying to please anyone else…just you, your itinerary and your adventurous spirit!

Our popularitinerary Suggestions

All our itinerary holidays are fully customisable

Oslo to Longyearbyen - Embark
1Day

Oslo to Longyearbyen - Embark

Fly from Oslo to Longyearbyen today, the administrative capital of the Svalbard archipelago, where you will board your vessel and begin your Arctic adventure. After a welcome drink and time to familiarise yourself with the ship, there will be voyage and safety briefings before your captain steers the ship out of Advent Fjord and into the wilderness.

Please note: Your flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen (and return) is included in the price of the expedition as part of a mandatory transfer package. Price shown includes mandatory transfer package cost.

Northwest Svalbard
2Day

Northwest Svalbard

As with all Arctic expeditions, our exact route in Svalbard will be dictated by weather and ice conditions, with your experienced captain and crew charting the perfect course each day for unforgettable sights and adventures. This itinerary describes the expected route but may be subject to change.

First up we’ll head to Northwest Svalbard, a protected national park since 1973 and one of the archipelago’s most atmospheric regions. These remote shores are steeped in Arctic history. Dutch and English whalers once operated here after the area was first recorded by explorer Willem Barentsz in 1596.

As you explore, you may spot striking traces of that era including old processing sites and the poignant resting places of sailors, particularly around Smeerenburg. Today, strict conservation has allowed the landscape to recover and thrive. In summer, tundra blooms with hardy Arctic flowers, cliffs and coastlines fill with seabirds, and the pack-ice edge can deliver unforgettable wildlife moments, from hauled-out walrus to the chance of seeing polar bears roaming this wild frontier.

Northeast Svalbard
3Day

Northeast Svalbard

This morning we push into the far northeast of Svalbard to discover a raw, high-Arctic landscape often described as a polar desert, shaped by its cold seas and the lack of warming ocean currents. Immense glaciers spill down from the interior and meet waters laced with drift ice, framing mountains and shorelines that look almost empty at first glance.

Look closer, though, and the region feels anything but lifeless. Arctic foxes may patrol the beach fringes, and towering cliffs can be alive with nesting seabirds by the hundred-thousand. In the frigid coastal shallows, shellfish thrive, drawing in walrus that regularly haul out along the shores.

Because conditions here can change quickly, our route and landing plans stay flexible. Wind, ice, and sea state will guide the day, making every hour feel truly unpredictable, immersive, and wonderfully wild.

North Svalbard
4Day

North Svalbard

Today we head even farther north, aiming for some of the most remote land you can reach by ship, hoping to discover bleak, beautiful islands that spend much of the year locked in ice. If conditions allow, we’ll try for Nordaustlandet or, even farther on, the scattered isles of Sjuøyane at the top of the archipelago. These wind-scoured outposts sit roughly 1,000 km north of Nordkapp on mainland Norway, and they feel like the edge of the map, mostly rock, frost, and sky. Vegetation is minimal, just resilient mosses, lichens, and a few tough tundra plants clinging to the stones.

For wildlife lovers, the birdlife can be the highlight here. Watch for busy shorebirds along the waterline and keep an eye overhead for nesting terns and skuas. This is prime binocular territory.

Later, we begin our push toward the Arctic pack ice, the shifting frozen frontier that stretches from these islands toward the North Pole and beyond.

Into The Ice
5Day

Into The Ice

North of Svalbard lies the pack ice, an immense, shifting world of frozen sea that reaches toward the North Pole and continues across the Arctic toward Alaska and Siberia. From a distance it can look stark and silent, but this is one of the planet’s most active marine ecosystems, constantly reshaped by wind, current, and temperature.

Beneath the ice edge, life thrives. Small fish and microscopic food chains support seabirds, seals, and larger marine mammals such as belugas and bowhead whales. And, if fortune is on our side, we may even glimpse the Arctic’s top predator, the polar bear, moving along leads and pressure ridges in search of its next opportunity.

With your ship able to thread through narrow channels and openings, today is about embracing the rhythm of the ice. The best encounters often come to those who watch carefully, stay patient, and let this remarkable, ever-changing environment reveal itself.

Kongsfjorden Area
6Day

Kongsfjorden Area

Overnight, we cruise into the spectacular Kongsfjorden system, an Arctic panorama of broad waters, tidewater glaciers, and jagged peaks. Looming above the fjord are the striking “Three Crowns” mountains (Tre Kroner), creating one of Svalbard’s most dramatic backdrops.

Our destination is Ny-Ålesund, often described as one of the world’s northernmost communities and a global hub for polar science. A cluster of international research stations operates here, monitoring everything from climate and atmosphere to Arctic ecosystems. It’s also a place with deep expedition heritage and once served as a departure point for renowned explorers including Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen.

Set against glaciers and mountains, Ny-Ålesund feels like a meeting point of past and present, coupling the romance of exploration with the modern mission of understanding a rapidly changing Arctic. This region will offer a fitting finale to our Svalbard adventures.

Longyearbyen to Oslo
7Day

Longyearbyen to Oslo

After breakfast this morning it will sadly be time to disembark in Longyearbyen. After disembarkation, you’ll have time to stretch your legs in town, pick up any last souvenirs, and say goodbye to the crew and your fellow travellers before transferring to the airport for your flight back to Oslo.

A view from Above

All Aboard

Ocean Albatros
Luxury  first class vessel

Ocean Albatros

The brand-new (November 2022) Ocean Albatros has been built to the highest Polar code 6 and Ice class 1A and is the ideal vessel for small-ship cruising due to its sturdy construction and X-Bow®-Infinity class, which provides high stability in rough weather and allows for the smoothest movements on high waves. Designed to surpass environmentally friendly standards, the Ocean Albatros is part of the Green Initiative Program and is a low-energy vessel with 4 diesel engines and 2 electro engines, all controlled electronically to optimize speed and fuel consumption. The ship will have more than a 50% lower carbon footprint than traditional expedition vessels. The vessel also features a Solas 2012 classification which facilitates a safe return to port.

There are 95 very comfortable and stylishly furnished staterooms and suites, which are split into 9 different categories with varying features, with many offering unobstructed sea views and many which also offer a private balcony. 12 dedicated solo travel cabins are also available without a single supplement. The communal areas on board this high-end vessel include 2 restaurants, an Albatros Nordic Bar, a fantastic panorama sauna, open-air swimming pool with lounging deck and jacuzzis, an open deck dining area, wellness area with gym and Polar spa, an observation lounge, boutique giftshop and a modern lecture theatre.

Too much to choose from? This is where we come in

Take advantage of our vast experience, passion and expertise to help you hand craft the perfect Arctic adventure for you.

Sheena Ogley Senior Travel Expert

Having amassed a host of extraordinary adventures in destinations all over the world, Sheena’s experience, skills and enthusiasm for helping clients plan their ideal itinerary will help make your holiday unforgettable, action packed and life-changing.

Simon Rowland Senior Travel Expert

Simon’s deep passion for and first-hand knowledge of a vast range of destinations all over the world gives him the ideal skills to help you create a truly unforgettable wildlife inspired adventure to the most exciting places on the planet.

Michael Gardiner Senior Travel Expert

Mike has more than 15 years of experience in the travel industry and continues to be inspired by the people, places and wildlife he discovers. His in-depth personal knowledge of a diverse range of destinations ensures your adventure itinerary will be a holiday like no other.

Ready to start planning youronce in a lifetime trip?

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Outside the uk
+ 44 1625 5811 43
Call us
+ 44 1625 5811 43
Call us
+ 44 1625 5811 43

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Ready to start planning youronce in a lifetime trip?

Call us - 0800 195 3385
Outside the uk? + 44 1625 5811 43
+ 44 1625 5811 43 Call us - 0800 195 3385

Chat Now

Fill in our
Enquiry form

Book Consultation

Book a
Consultation

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