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View from a sea cliff over a wide Arctic bay with a Ponant ship anchored below and a seabird overhead, on a Ponant Arctic expedition cruise

Arctic Cruise

We have been where you are going

Polar specialists who have sailed it, planning the Arctic for Australians who expect the best of it.

Electric blue iceberg pinnacles rising from the sea under a grey sky, photographed on a PONANT polar expedition cruise

Our conviction

Why the far north

There are places that photograph well and places that change the person looking. The Arctic is the second kind: ice that moves under the ship, light that does not end, a bear on a floe at a distance it chooses, a village of three hundred people at the mouth of the largest fjord on earth. We plan it for people who want to be there properly, with the right ship in the right fortnight, and nothing left to chance that can be planned.

The seven destinations
View along the hull of PONANT's Le Commandant Charcot as it breaks through Arctic pack ice, wake churning below

Who we are

Sydney, and the two poles

Arctic Cruise is the northern house of Luxury Cruise Collection, the Sydney company behind Antarctica Cruise and Kimberley Cruise. We began in the far south, and the specialists who learnt the ice there now plan the north: Svalbard, Greenland, the Northwest Passage, the Pole.

We sail the ships we recommend. It is the only way to know which balcony faces the glacier on the way into Longyearbyen, which deck is quietest in the Denmark Strait, and which expedition teams our guests come home talking about. Australian-owned, AFTA accredited, and on the phone in Australian hours.

  • One Bligh Street, Sydney
  • AFTA · ATAS member 12406
  • Four lines, ten ships

What we hold to

The things that do not change

Every proposal we write, and every page on this site, is held to the same five standards.

PONANT expedition ship beside a glacier front beneath flat-topped cliffs in the Canadian Arctic, on a PONANT Northwest Passage cruise

True, in every line

Low iceberg beneath a vast blue sky streaked with cirrus cloud near Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland, on a PONANT Greenland expedition cruise

The month before the ship

Dressing room with timber shelving, drawers and hanging white bathrobes in a Prestige Suite aboard Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot

Taste, without noise

Greenlandic woman in beaded national costume standing on the rocks with the icebergs of Ilulissat behind, West Greenland, on a PONANT Greenland expedition cruise

One voice, from the first call until you are home

Polar bear cub nestled against its mother on the snow at the edge of the sea ice, photographed on a PONANT Arctic expedition cruise

Care for the places and the animals in them

How a journey begins

A conversation, then a proposal

No forms before we talk, no automated quotes, no handover. One person, from the first conversation until you are home.

Twenty minutes, by phone or video, with someone who has sailed the ship. What you hope to see, who you are travelling with, when you can go, how you like to travel. We listen more than we talk.

Polar bear lying on the snow beside blue pressure-ice blocks at the edge of open water, photographed from PONANT's Le Commandant Charcot

Pole to pole

Two ends of the earth, one house

Many of our Arctic guests sailed south with us first, and many of our Antarctic guests are now looking north. The two poles are different in almost everything, the wildlife, the light, the people, the sea, and planning them with the same team is the point: we know how they compare, and which Arctic coast suits what you loved in the south.

Pole to pole, explained
Layered red cliffs of Teufelsschloss above an iceberg in Kejser Franz Joseph Fjord, East Greenland, cruised by SH Vega on a Swan Hellenic Greenland cruise

The ships

The ship is the voyage

In the Arctic the ship decides how far into the ice you go, how fast the whole ship gets ashore and how the days feel between landings. We work with four lines and ten ships, Swan Hellenic, Ponant, Quark Expeditions and Aurora Expeditions, chosen ship by ship and sailed before we sold them. We never rank them. We tell you which one is right for the voyage you have in mind, and why.

Our partners and ships

In their words

5 out of 5 stars

Fabulous agency

Fabulous agency that offers a variety of cruises to match your ideal vacation. Very thorough and hard working team. Our specialist travel agent was Sam who constantly kept us up to date with the progress of our cruise. Fantastic 😍

Marie R

I could not recommend more highly

The most amazing trip ever. I could not recommend more highly

Chris R

a trip of a lifetime

We would like to say thank you for our wonderful tour of South America (2 weeks) followed by 10 days in Antarctica on the Silverwind in December and January. We were a family group of 6 and everything you recommended was suitable for all ages. The accommodation was wonderful and in the best locations. All the guides spoke English beautifully and the drivers were very professional. Loved Iguaza Falls and Patagonia. We felt safe at all times and very well looked after. We loved our trip to Antarctica with Silverseas on the Silver Wind. Great ship and staff. Wonderful scenery. We had no problems at all and would recommend your tour group to anyone. It was a trip of a lifetime Thank you

Mr D and Mrs H R

Accredited, Australian, and on the phone

Accredited

AFTA · ATAS member 12406

Your booking and your payments are protected by Australian accreditation, and every proposal is written in plain English.

One voice

Your specialist, before, during and after

The person who plans your Arctic is the person who answers when you call, from the first conversation until you are home.

Australian

Australian, owned and run

Australian hours, Australian dollars, flights from Australian cities and a team that knows what a long way north it is.

Where to begin

Seven coasts, one Arctic

Each has its own season, its own ships and its own page. Tell us which one draws you and we tell you how it fits with the rest.

All destinations

Svalbard

Nine islands halfway between Norway and the Pole, where the bears outnumber the people and the sun does not set for four months. We have sailed every coast of it.

East Greenland

The longest fjord system on earth, the largest national park on earth and a coast with one settlement in a thousand kilometres. September brings the aurora. Ten days here changes what you think a fjord is.

West Greenland and Disko Bay

The coast where the ice sheet reaches the sea. The fastest glacier in the northern hemisphere, the icebergs it sends into Disko Bay, towns of coloured houses on the rock and, in September, the aurora over the ice. The easiest Arctic to reach, and the one with the most icebergs.

Northwest Passage and the Canadian Arctic

The sea route that Franklin died looking for and Amundsen took three winters to sail. Today it opens for six weeks a year, and the ships that go in come back with stories no other coast gives. Ice decides the route, every year, every morning.

The Geographic North Pole

One passenger ship in the world can take you to the top of the planet, and she sails from Svalbard. Three days through the pack ice, two days on it, every direction south, and nothing else like it on any ship.

Iceland and Jan Mayen

Where most Arctic voyages begin or end, and where the best of them linger: the Westfjords, the whales of Húsavík and the volcano that rises alone out of the Greenland Sea. Two nights in Reykjavík either side, and the whole of the North Atlantic between.

Labrador and Newfoundland

The autumn coast, where the polar bears come down to a shore of red tundra, the Vikings built the first European houses in the Americas and a piece of France waits at the end. September, when the colour is on the tundra and the bears are on the shore.

The collection

Arctic Cruise is one of the houses of Luxury Cruise Collection, Sydney. The same specialists plan the far south and the far north-west of Australia.

AntarcticaCruise.au

The far south, planned by the same people: the Peninsula, South Georgia, the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea aboard the finest expedition ships, from Ushuaia and Hobart.

KimberleyCruise.au

The remote north-west coast of Australia aboard small expedition ships: waterfalls, tides, rock art older than the pyramids and a coast few Australians have seen.

See Antarctica Cruise