Norwegian expedition cruise specialist Hurtigruten is offering what may be the most unusual cruise route in history, with a route connecting the North Pole and its bears with the South Pole and its penguins.
While it won’t actually reach either pole, the route does explore both the Arctica and Antarctica on its 93-day voyage from Vancouver, BC, through the Bering Strait and the Northwest Passage, past Greenland and down the east coast of North America, through the Panama Canal and down South America’s Pacific Coast and on to the Antarctic Peninsula. The trip sails Aug. 8, 2022.
Hurtigruten is advertising it as a ‘Pole-to-Pole Adventure,” and calls it “the ultimate bucket list expedition cruise, in the wake of polar hero Roald Amundsen.” Roald Amundsen, not by coincidence, is the name of Hurtigruten’s two-year-old adventure cruiser which will host the trip. Amundsen, in 1903, was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage, an easier feat today due to climate change.
If the 93 days and the $65,000 minimum fare for the trip seem a bit out of your range, there will be a second sailing a month later for a 66-day trip aboard the ship Fram; it omits the Vancouver to Greenland portion of the trip, and sells for $50,000 or so.
