In short
Three questions that arrive in a different voice from the rest: I am travelling alone, is that strange. We want to bring the children, is it possible. My husband does not walk well, can he still come. Yes, yes, and mostly yes. Here is how each works, ship by ship.
Travelling alone
Expedition ships are the easiest ships in the world to travel on alone. The dining is open seating, the Zodiac fills with whoever is at the gangway, the lectures and the recap gather everyone twice a day, and by the second evening the solo travellers have found each other and everyone else. On a ship of 150 to 200 guests, a third of whom have come without a partner on some sailings, nobody is the odd one out.
The cabin, and the supplement
The cost is the question. A single supplement on a polar voyage can be anything from nothing to the full second fare, and the difference between ships is the largest saving a solo traveller can make. Aurora Expeditions’ Douglas Mawson has a run of dedicated single staterooms at a single fare. Quark Expeditions will match you with a cabin-mate of the same gender and charge no supplement if you are willing to share. Ponant and Swan Hellenic reduce or waive the supplement on selected departures, and those are the sailings we steer solo travellers towards. Tell us you are travelling alone and we build the shortlist around it.
Families
Children love the Arctic for the same reasons adults do, and a few more: the Zodiac is a speedboat, the polar plunge is a dare, the bear is real and the sun does not set. The ships we recommend accept children from the age of eight on expedition voyages, and some accept younger on request, with the Zodiac and the landings as the practical limit rather than any rule about the ship. Teenagers do best of all, and a July Svalbard voyage sits exactly in the Australian winter school holidays.
What to know
- Cabins connect on most of the ships, and the suites take a third bed. Ask us which categories, because the answer differs by deck.
- The expedition team includes the children in everything, and on some Ponant summer departures a Kids Explorers club runs on sea days. There is no separate programme on landings, because the landing is the programme.
- A parent goes with a child in every Zodiac and on every landing. Snowshoeing and the longer hikes have age and fitness limits set on the day.
- Kayaking programmes usually require a minimum age, often twelve to sixteen, and a parent in the same boat.
- Fares for children vary from full fare to a reduction when sharing with two adults. The savings are on specific sailings, and we know which.
Mobility and accessibility
The honest answer is in two parts. The ship is accessible. The Arctic is not. The ships we recommend have lifts to every deck, wide corridors, accessible staterooms on request and crew who will carry a chair up the gangway. Le Commandant Charcot and the Ponant sisters, SH Diana and SH Vega and Ultramarine were all built this century with these things in mind.
The Zodiac is the limit. Boarding one means stepping down from a platform into a boat that is moving, with a crew member’s arm on each side, and a landing means a wet step onto a beach and a walk on tundra or rock. Guests who walk with a stick manage this every day with help. A guest who cannot stand and step cannot board a Zodiac, and the expedition companies will say so on their medical form, which every guest completes before sailing.
That does not end the voyage. A guest who stays aboard on landing days has the ship to themselves, the bridge, the bow, the glacier front from the top deck and the bears from the window of the observation lounge, which is where many sightings happen anyway. On Le Commandant Charcot’s sea-ice voyages the gangway goes down onto the ice itself, flat and firm, which is the gentlest landing in the Arctic. Guests in their eighties and nineties sail these ships every season, and the right ship and the right coast make the difference.
Health, and the medical form
Every expedition company requires a medical questionnaire, and some require a doctor’s signature for guests over a certain age or with a stated condition. The ship carries a doctor and a small hospital, and the nearest real hospital may be two days away, which is why the form exists. Conditions that are stable and managed rarely prevent a voyage. Conditions that could need urgent care do, and the companies are firm about it. Tell us early and we will tell you plainly.
Which ship for which guest
- Solo on a budget: Douglas Mawson’s single staterooms, or Quark’s share programme on Ultramarine.
- Solo wanting quiet: the Ponant sisters on a departure where the supplement is waived.
- A family of four: a Ponant suite in July in Svalbard, or two connecting cabins on SH Diana.
- Limited mobility: Le Commandant Charcot or SH Diana, on a Greenland voyage with more Zodiac cruising than landings, in an accessible stateroom near the lift.
- Three generations: a West Greenland voyage in August, short and warm, with towns and icebergs for every age.
A shared moment under the aurora on deck, one of the memories that stays long after the voyage. Photographed on a Swan Hellenic SH Vega voyage. © Swan Hellenic
Questions we are asked
Is there a minimum age?
Usually eight on expedition voyages, with exceptions on request. The practical limit is the Zodiac and a child’s patience with cold.
Will I be seated alone at dinner?
Never. Dining is open seating on every ship we recommend and the expedition team hosts tables. Solo travellers are the best-connected people on board by the third night.
Can a wheelchair user come?
On the ship, yes, with an accessible stateroom and lifts to every deck. In the Zodiacs, only if the guest can stand and step with help. We say so before booking rather than after.
Do you arrange travel insurance for older travellers?
We arrange insurance for every guest and know which insurers cover polar voyages, pre-existing conditions and evacuation without drama. Tell us the age and the conditions and we come back with options.
