Svalbard- Land of polar bears
Tour description
Boat expeditions around Svalbard are arranged mainly on request with a minimum of 6-7 persons. Gather your photo buddies and we will design an expedition based on the group's own wishes. The boat trips we do are photo-oriented and mainly focus on polar bears.
During early summer/spring, ice is often still plenty and therefore it is a good time for viewing polar bears traveling on the pack ice. Chances are very good to get great photo opportunities for polar bears. Occasionally whale carcasses get washed up on shore, a large number of polar bears, sometimes up to a dozen, then gather around the carcass. Unfortunately though, it is far from every year that you will find stranded whale carcasses, but if one is lucky enough to find one, it will offer fantastic photo opportunities. By boat around Svalbard, there is also an opportunity to experience and photograph a large part of Svalbard's other wildlife. For being in the Arctic, Svalbard has a rich fauna, this is due to the fact that the gulf stream makes the climate milder than in many other parts of the Arctic. During the spring, hundreds of thousands of birds arrive to breed. Here are also the Svalbards arctic fox are not late to take advantage of the birds as a food resource. Svalbard also has a unique subspecies of reindeer, it is short-legged and a little more compact than the reindeer on the mainland. Of the marine wildlife, you have good chances to see several species of whales, quite often humpback whales, if you are really lucky there is a chance to view the biggest of them all, the blue whale. A typical specie for the Arctic is the walrus which we also generally get to see during a visit to a colony. The walrus was almost extinct around Svalbard in the mid-1900s, but has now increased and today there are several colonies.
We sail either with sailboat or a smaller cruise ship depending on the number of participants. We normally travel with small groups of only 6-10 people. With Zodiac boats we sometime goes onshore and also travel along the edge of the ice to get closer to wildlife. We can arrange this photo adventure at a very attractive cost, which is often well below the price of other tour operators. We arrange this tour on demand for groups of friends or else, usually for at least 7 participants depending o budget. If you would like to join as a single traveler you can send a mail and we put you on a interest list and as soon as there is enough participants we set a date and notify everyone on the interest list. Send us an e-mail if you are interested in joining a unique polar bear photo expedition.
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This is an example of how an itinerary can look
Day 1. Arrival Longyearbyen. We will meet you at the airport for transportation to the boat. Once at the boat, we will go through, the approximate planned route for the tour, safety and equipment etc. You get your berths allocated and make ourselves at home in the boat. We will departure out from the harbor the same day.
Day 2. In the coming days we will visit spectacular places with glaciers that stretches out into the sea, mighty fjords and places that offer among the best opportunities to experience and photograph Svalbard's amazing wildlife. Few are left untouched by this stunning landscape. Our first goal will be to sail up to a walrus colony to photograph this typical Arctic species. The walrus is a fascinating animal, a male that can weigh up to 2 tons! The walruses have increased slowly since the ban was banned in 1952, today Svalbard has a population of about 4000.
Day 3-9 We continue our sailing north and up towards the drift ice. This is where we have the best chance of photographing polar bears, we keep our eyes open during our advance north. We know where the usual good spots are for polar bears at this time of the year and we would focus on these spots to get the very best polar bear photography opportunities. Some years it is possible to circle the whole archipelago of Svalbard there is then a lot of interesting spots to visit on the way. During our sailing, we also visit several bird colonies where thousands of birds nest on the rocks such as …, puffins, little oaks and others. The bird cliffs can offer really nice up close photo opportunities. Of the marine mammals you can also see a lot of seals, mainly ring seal and bearded seals, if you are lucky you can view and photograph whales such as humpback whale, beluga whales and killer whales to mention a few.
Day 10. We return to Longyearbyen.
Travel information
Boat expeditions are arranged mainly on request with a minimum of 6-7 persons. Gather your photo buddies and we will design an expedition based on the group's own wishes. The boat trips we do are usually photo-oriented and mainly on polar bears.
Dates: The trip can be arranged annually during the months May- September.
Approximate cost: starting from
$ 5500 per person with a group of 7 for 10 days. Air fare to Lonyearbyen, Svalbard is not included. Contact FaunaExplore for detailed pricing
What is included: Food- All meals are included. Accommodation- During the expedition we live aboard the boat for the entire period. If there are no flights arriving in Longyearbyen the appropriate time for direct connection to a boat, participants themselves are responsible for any hotel accommodation the night before.
Generall information: The weather at Svalbard can sometimes be demanding. The roadmap is dependent on the weather, so in severe weather conditions it may change.
Clothes and personal equipment: Warm clothing! It is cold and rough even in summer in the Arctic so several layers of clothing applies. Undercoat and fleece and shell jacket and trousers. If you have your own binoculars or tube binoculars then it is advantageously taken with.
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