Hurtigruten, the Norwegian company that started as a coastal lifeline for rural Norway, is now extending its expedition-style cruise ships into a new territory: North America. Starting next April, it will offer a number of cruises in New England and Canada, and even a southern route to Charleston and Miami.
The itineraries, ranging from 8 to 16 days, will use the Fram, an expedition-style ship named for Fridtjof Nansen's early 20th-century polar exploration vessel and built in 2007 for cruising. Most of the line's previous ships served as combinations of cruising and coastal ferry service, a business that dried up when Norway expanded its air network in the 1980s.
While some bigger ports are on the itineraries, including Boston, New York, and Miami, the emphasis is on smaller sites, including Bar Harbor, Bucksport and Rockland, Maine; Newport, R.I.; Halifax and Yarmouth in Nova Scotia and a variety of towns along the St. Lawrence Gulf, even including the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.
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