Four polar destinations,
for an Arctic expedition

What if, this year, you swapped the beach for the pack ice? From June to October, the ideal season for a polar cruise, between glittering ice fields and a shimmering sea. Here are four destinations that take your breath away.

1 SvalbardNorwegian Arctic

The classic Arctic destination, the land of the midnight sun and its island of Spitsbergen. You explore Ny-Ålesund, a former mining town and starting point for expeditions to the Pole, or the Monaco Glacier. Across its vast national parks: glaciers, mountains, icebergs and fjords, and polar bears, walruses, whales, seals, Arctic foxes and Svalbard reindeer.

2 IcelandNorth Atlantic

Many stay on the island itself; a cruise offers an entirely different reading of it. The west coast suits those wary of open water. Silent glaciers, volcanic formations and fjords, including the Kirkjufell volcano, the bird-rich island of Grímsey, and the Westman Islands. Puffins, gannets, minke and humpback whales, Icelandic horses.

3 GreenlandThe world's largest island

A self-governing Danish territory, the world's largest island can be combined with Iceland or Canada, but stands on its own. The Kangerlussuaq Fjord (the longest fjord system on earth), the Northeast Greenland National Park (the largest in the world), and the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier. Polar bears, musk oxen, narwhals, whales and seals.

4 The North Pole90° North

For the truest lovers of the Arctic, reaching the geographic North Pole is surely one of the most singular experiences of a lifetime. Up there, above the ice, a point that shifts constantly, for the pack ice drifts, 800 kilometres from the nearest trace of civilisation.

The Far North is not so much visited as felt, in the silence, the vastness, and a light that exists nowhere else.