Sail the Northwest passage from Resolut to Anadyr on this 18-day epic Arctic adventure. Visit archaeological sites, watch for polar bears and beluga whales, interact with locals, and view polar desert landscapes. The Kapitan Khlebnikov is specially designed for cruising through remote arctic waters and breaking through ice-pack, so you can sit back and relax as you sail the Northwest Passage.
Highlights
Visit Mercy Fall in Aulavik National park, a polar desert
Interact and meet with the people of Sachs Harbour
Watch for beluga whales as you sail the Mackenzie Delta
Explore Herschel Island, home to unique plants, animals, & sea life
Involves minimal physical effort and is typically associated with leisurely activities. Activities are low-intensity or last less than a few hours each day.
Plan to arrive early enough to discover one of the world’s most beautiful capitals, Ottawa, Canada, home to over a dozen national museums and galleries.
Day 2: Embarkation Day in Resolute, Nunavut
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
While taking the charter flight from Ottawa to Resolute, look below and admire boreal forest changing to tundra and then to ice. By evening you’ll be above the Arctic Circle and aboard the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov.
Day 3: Radstock Bay and Beechey Island, Canada
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
Radstock Bay has an impressive archaeological site and is beside Caswell Towers, used as a polar bear observation point. Here we’ll also find one of the best Thule sites in the Arctic which gives us insight into how the pre-Inuit people survived and lived. Just offshore at the western end of Devon Island is Beechey Island. There, on a stony beach, stand three grave markers; solemn reminders of the lives lost during Sir John Franklin’s search for the Northwest Passage. As you approach Beechey Island, listen to presentations about Franklin and his expedition.
Day 4: Prince Leopold Island Bird Sanctuary and McClure Strait, Canada
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
Prince Leopold Island is located within Lancaster Sound and is home to an impressive migratory bird sanctuary classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Hop on a Zodiac and explore the cliffs of sandstone and limestone that rise up 800 feet above sea level surrounding the island to spot some of the 375,000 migratory birds here including, thick-billed Murre, northern fulmars, black-legged kittiwakes and snow buntings, to name but a few. This is also a good environment to see polar bears.
Day 5-7: At Sea
3 Breakfasts, 3 Lunches, 3 Dinners
During these sea days the crew will be icebreaking, allowing passengers to take helicopter rides to sightsee, looking for opportunistic landing possibilities on the top of Prince of Wales Island and Victoria Island. Witnessing this powerful icebreaker navigates the ice pack and feeling the vibration is a spectator sport in itself.
Day 8: Mercy Falls, Aulavik National Park, Canada
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
Mercy Falls is part of Aulavik National Park, a polar desert located on Banks Island in the Northwest Territories. Known for its access to the Thomsen River, one of the most northerly navigable rivers in North America, this park is one of the most remote and least visited in all of Canada and protects approximately 12,000 km of Arctic Lowlands at the northern end of the island.
Day 9: Sachs Harbour, Banks Island
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
At Sachs Harbour, the most northerly permanent settlement in the Northwest Territories, go ashore and visit with the people of this very small community. The community was named after the ship 'Mary Sachs' of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913. In 1929, a permanent settlement was established when three Inuit families settled here to trap.
In 1953, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police set up a detachment post and people lived a very traditional lifestyle hunting muskox, caribou and polar bear. Today the community's economy is based primarily on hunting and trapping and to a lesser degree on tourism.
Day 10: Smoking Hills, Canada
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
The hills have been smoking for centuries. In 1850, Robert McClure, searching for Franklin, sent a shore party to investigate smoke. Could it be fires built by Franklin or his men? The shore party discovered smoke rising from vents in the ground. They returned to the ship with a sample of the smoldering rock, which, when placed on McClure’s desk, burned a hole through it.
Day 11: MacKenzie Delta and Franklin Bay
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
Be on the lookout for Snow and Brant Geese, Tundra Swans and beluga whales while in the vicinity of the Mackenzie Delta. The estuary formed at the mouth of the Mackenzie River where it empties into the Beaufort Sea is classified as a delta. For 7,000 years sediment brought down river has built up to create a vast surface area where wildlife congregates.
Day 12: Herschel Island
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
Today, explore Herschel Island, a unique island situated between land and sea. Its dry polar climate is home to a unique collection of arctic plants, animals and sea life, including the largest colony of Black Guillemots in the Western Arctic. More than a thousand years ago, Herschel Island was occupied by the Thule people, ancestors of today’s Inuit.
Day 13-14: Cruise Beaufort Sea into Russia
2 Breakfasts, 2 Lunches, 2 Dinners
As Kapitan Khlebnikov steams westward across the Beaufort Sea, be on the watch for marine mammals in the water below and seabirds swirling about the ship. Should the ship encounter pack ice, the onboard helicopters will take you aloft to watch as the powerful ship crushes through to open water.
Cross over the International Date Line and continue past Point Barrow, an important geographical landmark, marking the limit beween the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.
Day 15-16: Chukotka Peninsula, Russia
2 Breakfasts, 2 Lunches, 2 Dinners
The ship clears into Russia in Provideniya, then sails to the tiny village of Uelen, known for its talented carvers who work with walrus ivory. At Cape Dezhnev, the most easterly point of the Asian continent, the architecture remains distinctively Russian. Take a Zodiac ride to Puffin Island, where two species of the comical bird cohabit. On the shores of Ittygran Island, the ribs of whales, planted in the tundra by people long ago, still stand on lowland known as “whalebone alley.” The final shore landing planned is a visit to Novoyo Chaplino, where the locals, dressed in traditional attire, will demonstrate their skills as wrestlers and ropers of reindeer, if the herd is nearby.
Day 17: Disembark Anadyr, Russia | Fly to Anchorage, Alaska, United States
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner
Today, disembark the Kapitan Khlebnikov in Anadyr, Russia, then transfer by helicopter one last time from the ship to the airport for the charter flight to Anchorage, Alaska, where you spend the night.
Day 18: Depart Anchorage, Alaska
1 Breakfast
After breakfast, head to the airport for your flight home, or to your next adventure.
Dates & Prices
Per person starting at
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Prices for are estimated based on inflation. Contact us to confirm pricing and availability for your desired departure date.
Initial deposit is 20% of cruise fare (minimum $1450), and most travelers will call our office and pay the deposit with a credit card.
Final payment is due 130 days prior to departure by bank transfer, check or Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or AmEx. Credit Card payments subject to 3% convenience fee and maximum $20,000 charge
The trip might have been the absolute best of our lifetime (thus far). We particularly want to commend our guide Peter in the Guilin area-he was so incredibly attentive, energetic, enthusiastic-and absolutely dedicated to ensuring that our meals were 100% vegetarian.
Jack Charney
TrustScore 4.8 | 174 reviews
TrustScore 4.8 of 5
Based on 174 reviews on
1 day ago
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
2 days ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.