Ignite your Nordic senses with Hurtigruten

Let the raw natural beauty of Iceland, Greenland and Svalbard ignite your senses with Hurtigruten’s New Year Global Expedition Sale.

The sounds of Iceland

Travellers could be forgiven for mistaking the small and isolated island of Iceland for a sci-fi movie set. Here, the vast volcanic forces shape the earth, resulting in a symphony of the elements: geysers blast boiling water into the skies, waterfalls cut cascading shapes into the undulating mountains and fjords, hot springs and mudpots bubble around every corner, ice-covered volcanoes grumble underneath your feet, and glaciers calve suddenly into the lakes below. Even a seemingly dead-quiet night can become a once-in-a-lifetime experience in the blink of an eye, as the aurora borealis transforms a silent, peaceful evening into a kaleidoscopic light show.

Want to listen to the sounds of the Land of Fire and Ice? Join Hurtigruten on board with savings of up to AU$1,000 per cabin on select 2022 sailings.

Itineraries include:

• The nine-day ‘Circumnavigating Iceland’ taking in the entirety of Iceland’s coast, including the museums and old houses in the friendly town of Stykkishólmur, optional excursions to the basalt cliffs and black beaches of the Snæfellsnes Penninsula, stepping across the Arctic Circle on the green and grassy Grimsey Island, and witnessing colonies of puffings frolicking at Bakkagerdi.
• The 14-day ‘Arctic Islands Discovery’ exploring Spitsbergen’s North West National Park before voyaging to Iceland via isolated Jan Mayen, with stops at the tumbling 100-metre Dynjandi Waterfall, the chic art galleries and restaurants of Akureyri, and the steaming fumaroles and volcanic craters of the Lake Mývatn region.

The scents of Greenland

There is perhaps a no better place on the planet to take a deep breath and smell the crisp air than uninhabited Greenland. The world’s biggest non-continental island has the world’s sparsest population, instead home to boundless swaths of unfenced wilderness, broken up by a sprinkle of sheep farms and tiny fishing communities surrounded by bobbing icebergs. There are virtually no roads, and the local Inuit culture is alive and thriving. Of course, one cannot talk about the Land of Ice and not mention it’s intricate and colossal fjord system: Scoresby Sund extends hundreds of kilometres inland with an overall surface area close to 38,000 square kilometres. Sydney Harbour, for some perspective, has a surface area of 55 square kilometres. This is the place for the truly adventurous who like to make first tracks, and those who prefer nothing more than connecting with Mother Nature.

Want to breathe in the Greenlandic fresh air? Join Hurtigruten on board with savings of up to AU$1,000 per cabin on select 2022 sailings.

Itineraries include:

• The 16-day ‘Disko Bay – The Heart of Greenland’ discovering the western coast of Greenland around Disko Bay, known for its Arctic landscape of impressive glaciers and icebergs. Highlights include visiting the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Ilulissat Icefjord, the Viking settlement of Ivittuut and the ‘Venice of Greenland’, Maniitsoq.
• The 13-day ‘Greenland – The Ultimate Fjord and National Park Expedition’ touring from Iceland to eastern Greenland, encompassing the largest fjord on Earth, Scoresbysund; the largest national park in the world, North East Greenland National Park; and crossing the Denmark Strait.

Read more:
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The sights of Svalbard

There is nothing quite like witnessing the world’s most elusive wildlife with your own eyes, and Svalbard boasts difficult-to-spot big names in spades. The domain of more polar bears than people, the roll call doesn’t end there: Arctic foxes, walruses, narwhals, reindeer, kittiwake, puffins, five species of seal and 12 species of the whale all call this remote terrain home. So remote (sitting at 74 to 82 degrees north latitude), in fact, that no Indigenous people have ever settled here, and the islands have been long considered “no man’s land”. Beyond the animal inhabitants, this extraordinary archipelago is as dreamy and dramatic as you’d expect the Arctic North to be. Think lofty peaks, glaciers and ice fields drowning in sheets of snow, and only 2,500 permanent residents.

Want to witness the sights of Svalbard? Join Hurtigruten on board with savings of up to AU$1,000 per cabin on select 2022 sailings.

Itineraries include:

• The 12-day ‘Circumnavigating Svalbard’ attempting to successfully complete a circumnavigation of the entire Svalbard archipelago and venturing above the 80th parallel north, if the ice allows, calling at the former mining settlement of Ny-Ålesund, the photogenic Hornsund and the U-shaped valleys of Isfjorden, the most prominent fjord system of Svalbard.
• The 14-day ‘Faroe Islands, Iceland, Spitsbergen – Island Hopping In and Around the Arctic’ visiting five wild and beautiful islands in and around the Arctic across four countries. Destinations include Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Jan Mayen and Svalbard.