Spitsbergen, Greenland and Iceland - M/V Sylvia Earle

Arrive into Oslo (OSL) where you will be met on arrival and transferred to your hotel. Upon arrival, please visit the Expeditions hospitality desk to collect your luggage cabin tags. Enjoy free time at your leisure.

This morning, please ensure your cabin luggage is fitted with cabin tags clearly labelled with your name and cabin number. Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before transferring to the airport for our charter flight to Longyearbyen for embarkation. Any valuables or personal items should be kept on you throughout the day.\u8239?In Longyearbyen, explore the town on a guided excursion tour. On the drive to Camp Barentz, located in the Advent Valley, your guide will give you an introduction to Longyearbyen's fascinating history. Once at Camp Barentz, enjoy a presentation in the large 'lavvo' - a traditional building common in northern Norway. You will also have the opportunity to meet the friendly huskies and perhaps pick up some souvenirs. A visit to the Svalbard Museum is included back in town before embarking the vessel in the late afternoon. After the tour, you will be transferred directly to the pier for embarkation in the late afternoon. Settle into your cabin before the important safety briefings. We will set sail in the early evening.

Phenomenal fjords, magnificent mountains ranges and a polar desert rich in fossils set the stage for heroic tales of early exploration. See walrus hauled-out on sea ice or on beaches. On land, stretch your legs on walks across tundra, dotted with brightly-coloured wildflowers. If you have chosen an optional activity such as kayaking, you will have an opportunity to enjoy that activity when conditions allow. For those who are enthusiastic to participate in a polar plunge, as soon as conditions are suitable, you will hear the announcement to prepare for an exhilarating dip - a memory you will savour for years to come. We visit towering cliffs, noisy with nesting guillemot and puffin, and scree slopes that hold Svalbard's largest little auk colonies. Most memorable are encounters with the majestic polar bear on pack ice. Your expedition team is just as keen as you are to find them and they will be on constant watch to spot these inspiring creatures.

In the coming days, a host of choices are available and depending on ice and weather conditions, the east coast of Greenland is yours to explore. The experienced Expedition Team, who have made countless journeys to this area, will use their expertise to tailor your itinerary on a day-to-day basis. This allows them to make best use of the prevailing weather, ice conditions and encounters with wildlife. We generally attempt up to two landings or Zodiac excursions per day, including cruising along spectacular ice cliffs, following whales feeding near the surface. Be prepared to experience ice - and lots of it! East Greenland contains some of the Arctic's most impressive scenery. Deep fjords and narrow channels, flanked by sharp ice-clad peaks soaring up to 2,000 metres and glaciers calving gigantic icebergs that drift throughout the fjord system, create the breath-taking scenery around you.

The tundra landscape is home to musk oxen, arctic hare and reindeer. Throughout the area there are ancient Thule archaeological sites, historical trappers' huts, and the cabins of present-day Inuit hunters. A highlight is a visit to the Inuit village of Ittoqqortoormiit, the most isolated and northernmost permanent settlement in the region, with approximately 450 inhabitants. The community has an excellent museum, gift shop, an abundance of Greenlandic sled dogs and provides the opportunity to meet the friendly locals.

Explore Scoresbysund, the world's largest fjord and a favourite hunting ground of the local Inuit. Massive glaciers flow into this fjord, the birthplace of hundreds of majestic Greenland icebergs. It is a spectacular place that simply needs to be seen to be believed. North of Scoresbysund lie Kong Oskar and Kaiser Franz Josef fjords, two of the most significant fjord systems in Greenland, each one encompassing several smaller fjords and sounds. Thanks to the fertile volcanic soil and the surrounding mountains offering protection from strong winds, the area is rich in wildlife. You may spot everything from musk ox and arctic foxes to mountain hares, and even reindeer, near the fjord. Look skyward and you could catch a glimpse of birds, including the glaucous gull, black-legged kittiwake, northern fulmar, common raven and common eider.

We will attempt to enter Kaiser Franz Josef Fjord, a remote and rarely visited fjord system with countless opportunities for exploration, located within the Northeast Greenland National Park. Cruising through Kong Oskar Fjord, we marvel at the geological beauty of the mountains. We will then head south along the coast of Liverpool Land, with our passage dependent on ice conditions.

We stretch our legs on hikes across tundra in search of ancient graveyards and summer villages occupied 3,000 years ago by Inuit. We may see musk ox, arctic hare and reindeer grazing. The maze of calm, interconnecting waterways in this area provides excellent opportunities for sea kayaking. We will see ring seals, perhaps catch a glimpse of the elusive narwhal, and maybe even a polar bear hunting on pack ice.