Great trip to Western Arctic: Canada and Greenland First two days due to strong winds we were exploring unexpectedly fjord near Kangerlussuaq airport in Greenland. This affected the planned itinerary and expedition team worked hard to resolve various issues. It was a very memorable experience with 18 nights on board of Ultramarine. We have visited places where no other expedition ships have been or only visited on rare occasions. We were lucky with clear skies on the first 6 nights and the Aurora Borealis was better and better on each night. Glaciers, icebergs were nice backdrops on many photos and experiences were enhanced with helicopter flights over magnificent landscapes of Baffin island (Sam Ford fjord especially) and Greenland. Wonderful autumn colours of tundra and rock formations were explored on many hikes in addition to the visits to archeological sites. Introduction to Inuit culture and history was during visits to Itileq, Ilulissat, Uummannaaq, Nipisat island and Pond Inlet. It was enhanced by performances of local artists and visits to Inuit colourful homes. Although the wildlife of Arctic is not so plentiful as in Antarctica, we managed to have wonderful observations of numerous polar bears (12 in one day!), seals and birds. We also followed somewhat the footsteps of Franklin's expedition and reached the Beechey island where the expedition has spent the winter in 1845/46 and where are some graves of the sailors. Expedition team members presented many interesting lectures on history, geology, birds and bears. It was also a nice culinary experience of Greenlandic cuisine: Tundra to Table.
First of all, thank you so much for offering us the upgrade to include the Secret Lagoon. We had a marvellous time. The Lagoon was amazing and we were thrilled to swim there. It was a fabulous day but we would like to make a special mention of our guide. He was very kind, informative and amusing. He turned an excellent itinerary into a memorable day! His depth of knowledge made the whole day really meaningful, although we did not feel as if we had been on a study tour! It was fun. Please pass on our thanks to him.
Outstanding experience: a tour not to be missed! We loved the tour: it was very well organized, with a complete and exciting itinerary, that included not only the main attractions but also not touristic and really valuable activities. This wouldn’t have been possible without our tour guide Loftur: extremely knowledgeable and very fun, he was able to adapt the itinerary to any weather condition or preference and the result was simply great. He was also able to connect us with the Icelandic great culture. Highly recommended!