Oceanwide Expeditions


Polar voyages and Antarctica and Arctic Cruises

Oceanwide Expeditions specialises in ship-based expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. Besides these Arctic and Antarctic destinations we also offer expeditions to several remote North and mid-Atlantic islands. [Zodiac Cruising] We are convinced that while reading about our destinations you will become increasingly fascinated by these unique wildernesses, places with so much drama, wildlife, history, and true emotion.

The Arctic
The Arctic, the land of the midnight sun, of snow and ice, offers some of the finest scenery and wildlife experiences in the world. Visitors to the region can witness enormous colonies of seabirds thronging the cliffs and shores, and enjoy the thrilling antics of whales at sea, and seals and walruses hauled out on rocks and ice-floes. The proximity of the pack-ice offers spectacular cruising between ice-floes. The lucky may even encounter the very symbol of the Arctic - the Polar Bear.
 The Arctic has had a major attractive force on navigators and explorers. Promises of fabled lands and fortune lured many 17th century explorers into these unknown frozen lands and seas. Many perished but some returned home with stories of hardship and despair, but also of amazing sea creatures such as "Seahorses" (walruses) and "huge fishes" (whales). The exploitation of animals such as walruses, whales, Arctic Foxes and Polar Bears became a major force behind the exploration of the Arctic in the last three centuries. Though still remote and sparsely populated today, native people have been living in the Arctic for many thousands of years and numerous prehistoric and historic sites are a testimony to the thriving cultures of the past.
Our Arctic programme includes Spitsbergen and North-East Greenland.

North Atlantic Islands
Maybe less extreme but no less interesting are the North Atlantic islands that we visit on some of our expeditions. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and the north of Scotland and in the north of Norway rugged islands can be found where local communities have lived for thousands of years. Sailors, hunters, fortune seekers, Vikings and Christian monks, they all in one way or another ended up on these islands and forged unique cultures that are still very much alive today. Besides the remains of thousands of years of human history, these islands also teem with wildlife. As they are close to rich feeding grounds in the adjacent seas and as the coastal cliffs offer good breeding possibilities some of them have the largest bird colonies in the North Atlantic, home to hundreds of thousands of birds.
Our itineraries in the North Atlantic include the Scottish islands (Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands), the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Jan Mayen, Bear Island and Lofoten. Please note; some of these islands are visited on separate expeditions, e.g. the Scottish islands and Lofoten. Others are visited during expeditions from Scotland to Spitsbergen, and from Spitsbergen to Greenland/ Iceland. For more detailed information on these programmes, please click on a voyage below in the list.

Antarctica
Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Islands are some of the last truly unspoilt regions of the world. The mysterious White Continent, with its multi-coloured ice caps, glistening glaciers and towering snow-capped mountains, offers unparalleled scenery and photographic opportunities. Enormous numbers of penguins, whales, seals and seabirds congregate in the food-rich waters along the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic shores.
Our small, specially designed expedition ships journey south, taking full advantage of the long hours of daylight during the austral summer, their ice-strengthened hulls allowing us to navigate safely through the pack ice and narrow waterways. Our zodiac excursions, guided by foremost Antarctic experts, offer the freedom to explore remote locations and observe Antarctica's abundant wildlife.
All of our voyages to Antarctica depart from the city of Ushuaia, the southernmost town of Argentina and, in fact, of the world. This pioneer town was founded in 1868 by British missionaries as a refuge for the Yaghan, the threatened native inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego. From Ushuaia the ships first sail through the scenic Beagle Channel. Ships heading straight for Antarctica now have to negotiate an infamous stretch of water between Ushuaia and the South Shetland Islands, the Drake Passage. This passage can be seen as the threshold of Antarctica because of its notoriously bad weather and heavy seas. The 800 kilometres (500 miles) long passage was named after the British navigator and pirate, Sir Francis Drake. But the Drake Passage is not only infamous, as during the two days' crossing numerous bird species can be observed, includingBlack-browed, Light-mantled Sootyand tGrey-headed Albatrosses. Even the world's largest flying bird, the Wandering Albatross, is frequently met in the Drake Passage. Marine mammals such as the Hourglass Dolphin can also be often observed.
Some of our itineraries head from the Beagle Channel for the Falkland Islands following our "Grand Tour". This is a somewhat longer voyage visiting some of the magnificent south-Atlantic islands of the Falklands and the even more astonishing sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, together with the South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.