Arctic Travel Guide
For those north-bound adventurers seeking expert insight into how to plan and enrich their expedition, or increase their knowledge of what wonders and wildlife lie in wait for them in the Arctic, our polar specialists have shared some of their detailed polar knowledge for your benefit and enjoyment below.
We do hope this considerable—and hopefully comprehensive—collection of Arctic travel insights inspires and guides your expedition planning journey, but should you have any outstanding questions or concerns at all, our agents are always on hand and eager to help.
- Wildlife
A Guide To Arctic Plants: Surviving & Thriving In The Tundra
If your image of the Arctic is a land dominated by barren snow, ice, and rock, you might be surprised at the impressive extent of plantlife up here. Of the roughly 2.7 […]
- Wildlife
Arctic Food Web & Ecosystems Explained: From Tundra To Ocean
Visitors to the Arctic get to experience some of the most intact ecological land- and seascapes left on Earth: land- and seascapes woven together by complex and seasonally fluctuating ecosystems. In this […]
- Wildlife
The Polar Paradox: Why Are There No Penguins In The Arctic?
Are there penguins in the Arctic? Well, as the title of this here article has already given away, the answer is a firm “no.” More than a few folks have the misimpression, […]
- Wildlife
Reindeer Revelations: 9 Captivating Caribou Facts
What exactly do you call those big-antlered Arctic deer hauling Santa’s sleigh? Well, reindeer, right? Sure, but also caribou—an indigenous North American name for the very same creature, one of the heraldic […]
- Wildlife
A Guide To Arctic Whales & Whalewatching On An Arctic Cruise
Among the “signature” animals that make the Arctic such a spectacular wildlife-viewing destination are the cetaceans: the whales, which include (unsurprisingly) the heftiest of all beasts to call this cold and spectacular […]
- Wildlife
A Cruisegoer's Guide To The Seals Of The Arctic & Sub-Arctic
Marine mammals are a noteworthy part of the Arctic ecosystem, to say the least—and top attractions for cruise-going wildlife-watchers, photographers, and general-purpose ecotourists. And among those marine mammals, pinnipeds are definitely some […]
- Wildlife
No, I am the Walrus: 10 Whimsical Facts About Walruses
The portly, wrinkled, resplendently tusked walrus has had an outsized presence in global human culture, when one considers its extreme northerly and mostly very remote geographic purview. This huge pinniped, after all, […]
- Wildlife
Twitching At The Top Of The World: A Guide To Arctic Birds
It is no exaggeration to call the Arctic one of the most important zones on the planet for birdlife. A dizzying number of birds migrate to sub-Arctic and Arctic latitudes in the […]
- Wildlife
8 Facts About The Gyrfalcon: The Arctic's King of the Skies
Among the many marvelous exponents of Planet Earth’s bird-of-prey line, the gyrfalcon (pronounced “JER-falcon”, a name derived from the Old Norse word geirr, meaning “spear”) is one of the Arctic and sub-Arctic’s […]
- Wildlife
Beyond the Beak: 8 Fascinating Puffin Facts
Puffins are likely on the shortlist of the world’s most universally endearing critters (though we must be careful, of course, to acknowledge that less intrinsically endearing organisms are just as important and […]
- Wildlife
6 Astonishing Arctic Tern Facts: Meet The Matchless Migrator
The Arctic tern is certainly a handsome bird, suited up as it is with a black cap, a slim feathery suit of gray and white, and a sharp, shortish bill that changes […]
- Wildlife
Meet The "Snow Chicken": Top 10 Ptarmigan Facts
If you were to make some sweeping ranking of the relative toughness of all the world’s birds—a tricky and subjective endeavor, to be sure—ptarmigan ought to land somewhere very high up there. […]
- Wildlife
5 Harp Seal Facts You May Well Harp On About To Your Friends
Christened for the dark shape on their backs that resembles the namesake instrument, harp seals are among the most numerous of all the world’s pinnipeds, and certainly a critical link in the […]
- Wildlife
Sea Eagle Elucidation: 5 Essential White-Tailed Eagle Facts
There is no one eagle species that specializes in Arctic living in the manner of, for example, the snowy owl among owls, the polar bear among ursids, and the beluga and narwhal […]
- Wildlife
What Is A "White Whale"? 10 Interesting Beluga Whale Facts
Among the most recognizable and endearing marine mammals in the world, the beluga whale is a linchpin of the Arctic marine ecosystem—and always a special thrill to see in the wild. Many […]
- Wildlife
7 Fun Facts About Snowy Owls To Wow Your Friends With
No owl ranges farther north than the marvelous snowy owl, one of the most impressive birds in the world and as much an icon of the Arctic realm as the polar bear. […]
- Wildlife
8 Howling Facts About Arctic Wolves
The gray wolf ranges widely north of the Arctic Circle in both North American and Eurasia, finding one of its last great dominions in the Far North, where human persecution in general […]
- Wildlife
7 Hair-Raising Arctic Hare Facts
The windswept, often bone-chillingly cold tundra expanses of the North American Arctic might seem unfriendly indeed to a smallish mammal, but the Arctic hare—the most northerly of all lagomorphs (the mammalian order […]
- Wildlife
7 Fun Facts About Arctic Foxes
If you’re lucky enough to see an Arctic fox in the wild, its daintiness—and cuteness—belie just how hardy this little beast is. After all, it occupies one of the harshest biomes on […]
- Wildlife
Narwhal Facts: Secrets Of The Unicorn Of The Sea Revealed
If the beluga whale is the “sea canary,” the narwhal—another Arctic cetacean, and as it happens a very close cousin—is the “unicorn of the sea.” Indeed, the long tusk wielded (mainly) by […]
- Wildlife
9 Facts About The Greenland Shark: The Ancient Arctic Giant Of The Deep
Far less well-known than the polar bear or the orca, the Greenland shark is, nonetheless, an important top predator of Arctic waters just like them. It’s also a much more obscure member […]
- Wildlife
The 5 Best Places To See Polar Bears In The Wild
Polar bears are not only one of the mightiest of all carnivores, but one of (relatively speaking) the most rarely seen: inhabiting as they do a Far North environment dominated by sea […]
- Wildlife
10 Fascinating Polar Bear Facts
Likely no creature is so emblematic of the Arctic realm as the polar bear: the spectacular “ice bear” that reigns supreme atop the food web—and sits atop the size chart of all […]
- Wildlife
The Best Time To See Polar Bears In Svalbard (& The Arctic)
Is spotting a polar bear—the world’s heftiest terrestrial carnivore—on your bucket list? It probably ought to be, given the sheer magnificence of the Arctic’s flagship top predator, as well as the uncertain […]
- Geography
What & Where Is The Northwest Passage? Definition & Location
Among the most fabled portals in global navigation, the Northwest Passage of the Arctic also remains very much at the forefront of commercial maritime schemings—on account of our planet’s warming climate. Northwest […]
- History
10 Most Famous Arctic & Antarctic Expeditions of All Time
The Arctic and the Antarctic represented some of the final frontiers of human exploration, and indeed continue to draw both scientific interest and fresh ideas for novel adventures and feats of endurance. […]
- History
The Search For The Northwest Passage: An Exploration History
Since the time of the Ancient Greeks, those of geographic—and, all the moreso, commercial—persuasion dreamed about an efficient passageway from the Atlantic to the Pacific: a connection between Europe and East Asia. […]
- History
5 Doomed Polar Expeditions That Failed Fatally
The polar realms—the Arctic and the Antarctic, forming the icy caps of our planet—are among the harshest and most remote on Earth. While native peoples such as the Inuit and Yupik have […]
- Wildlife
10 Wild Wolverine Facts: A Marvel Of The Arctic Kingdom
Few members of the animal kingdom enjoy such an amped-up reputation as the wolverine—and not just on account of the Marvel superhero named after this Northern Hemisphere mustelid. Although it’s found extensively […]
- History
A History Of Arctic Exploration (Including Timeline)
The Arctic was one of the last regions on Earth to be comprehensively mapped and scientifically described. From financial enterprise to unquenchable curiosity and adventurism, this top-of-the-world domain of icy seas, glacierized […]
- History
North Pole History Of Exploration (Including Timeline)
Set amid trackless and ever-shifting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, the North Pole has long tantalized humankind. Early navigators dreamed of a (fantastical, as it turned out) Open Polar Sea that […]
- History
Who Was The First Person To Reach The North Pole Really?
Among the more extreme points on Earth in more ways than one, both the North and the South poles were coveted prizes for explorers and adventurers, who vied—and sometimes died—for the honors […]
- History
Franklin's Lost Expedition & The Search For Erebus & Terror
There is arguably no better-known tragedy in the chronicles of Arctic exploration than the doomed 1845-1848 British expedition of Sir John Franklin, which set out to penetrate the Northwest Passage and ended […]
- History
The 5 Most Famous Polar Explorers—Of Both Poles—Of All Time
From Admiral Fabian Gottlieg Thaddeus von Bellingshausen to Sir Robert Falcon Scott to Naomi Uemura, there are many legendary names associated with polar exploration and discovery. But only a minority of intrepid […]
- History
The 10 Most Famous Arctic Explorers & Their Incredible Feats
From the perilous labyrinth of the Northwest Passage to the heights of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the farflung sea-ice wilderness of the North Pole, the Arctic—long home, of course, to Native […]
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