Name: My Trip to Svalbard, Norway
Uploaded: 2025-12-08T02:53:02.000Z
Duration: 10 min 2 s
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It's the middle of the night right now and you wouldn't know it because the sun never sets here in the summertime.

Hello from Svalbard, Back on another adventure at sea, this time in Norway.

Thanks to Seabourn, who's hosting me for this voyage.

We're sailing around Svalbard, which is an archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole.

This is one of the world's northernmost inhabited areas and it's known for beautiful landscapes, glaciers, rugged terrain and wildlife.

I'm on board Seabourn Venture, which feels a little like coming home.

This is the same ship I explored Antarctica on, which was so incredible, an adventure of a lifetime.

And then I was back on board for several weeks last fall, sailing from Greenland to Alaska through the Northwest Passage.

So it's nice to be back exploring somewhere new.

This morning was one of those mornings where I woke up, pulled back the curtains in my suite and my jaw dropped.

This view I've woken up up to is spectacular.

And this is one of my favorite parts about traveling at sea is every night when I go to sleep, the ship moves.

So in the morning I never know what I'm going to wake up to this morning.

We're in an inlet that's flanked by snow capped mountains.

This is one of the most pristine places I've ever seen in my life.

And this morning I'm going to be going out in the kayaks, which is one of the best ways to explore and really immerse yourself in this kind of land landscape.

Another great way to explore this environment is in Zodiac boats.

We did an afternoon excursion to a glacier and it was like drifting through a dream.

The water was so blue, there was some fog rolling through that really added to the atmosphere.

And there were seals floating on pieces of ice.

These are bearded seals, which exclusively live in the Arctic and subarctic, and

they use their whiskers to feel around on the ocean floor for food.

And these cuties were just lounging in the sun.

I guess when your body's a potato, this is what a stretch looks like.

We also saw Arctic terns, which are famous for having the longest migration of any animal on the planet.

These birds migrate from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back every single year.

And the longest recorded annual migration for a single turn was 59,650 miles, which is twice the Earth's circumference.

And over their lifetime, these Birds will fly a distance equal to three round trips to the moon.

I love expedition voyages because there's no set itinerary.

And that's because the captain and expedition team are constantly assessing the best practice places for us to explore, based on weather, wildlife spottings.

They call it a flexpedition because every day is a surprise.

And flexibility is key to maximizing the experience and what we see.

On this voyage, we typically visited two locations each day.

One in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Sometimes we did shore landings to hike around the terrain or visit historical sites.

There's actually a lot of World War II history in Spalbard.

But no matter what we did, we were always on the lookout for wild wildlife because it's everywhere here.

There are actually more polar bears than people on this archipelago, and we saw lots of them.

And Venture has a GSS camera that can broadcast a live feed to screens all over the ship.

So even when the bears were far away, we could still watch them.

One afternoon on a hike, I also got a quick glimpse of some Arctic fox pups playing on a hillside.

Arctic foxes change color with the season, so in summer, their fur is a gray brown, and

in winter, it's white to blend in with with the snow.

But one of the coolest sightings we had on this voyage came one afternoon when we were just finishing up a shore landing.

Long white shapes began surfacing in the distance.

And it turned out to be an enormous pod of beluga whales passing through the area.

Shout out to onboard drone pilot Ben Berkeley for capturing this incredible aerial footage.

He has a YouTube channel, too, which I'll link down below.

You know, something exciting is happening when even the expedition team is buzzing.

This was the first beluga sighting for some of them, too.

And they're out here all the time, so felt really special.

Another afternoon, we traded the sunshine for some fog as we headed north to find sea ice.

Unlike freshwater ice, sea ice forms directly from the ocean water.

So this isn't ice that's come from a glacier.

The crew served mold wine on the bow of the ship, and

it was so nice to stand out on the deck and soak in how ethereum ethereal the moment was.

This is the most northern latitude I've ever been to and realistically, probably ever will be.

We're really close to the North Pole here, and

at this latitude during the summer, you get 24 hours of sunlight, which is a first for me.

I've been to places where the sky never gets really dark at night.

Like the sun sets and the sky Gets kind of blue.

But I've never been somewhere during a season where I literally need to wear sunscreen at 2am now.

While Seabourn Venture is an expedition ship, it's also very luxurious.

There are whirlpools on the decks, a swimming pool, and my favorite spot, the sauna with a view.

This is the perfect place to warm up after an excursion.

There's high tea in the Constellation Lounge in the afternoons.

I think what spoiled me the most was the food.

There are so many great dining options as well as 24 hour room service.

So I got very accustomed to breakfast with a view on my balcony.

All of the suites on the ship are really spacious, with balconies, luxury bedding, living areas with seating.

They also come with a pair of Swarovski binoculars for wildlife watching.

And the interior design of the ship in general is so beautiful.

It has an exploration theme and you can see those touches throughout.

In addition to this beautiful wilderness, Spalbard is very important for another reason as well.

It's the location of the Global Seed Vault.

The Global Seed Vault securely stores over 1.3 million seeds from almost every country on the planet to safeguard against an apocalyptic event that could wipe out food crops.

It's considered the insurance policy for the world's food supply.

And Svalbard was chosen for several reasons.

It's the furthest north you can fly on a single scheduled flight, making it remote but accessible.

This area is geologically stable with low humidity, and

they were able to build the vault over 100 meters into a mountain well above sea level.

And the permafrost acts as a natural freezer, making it cost effective and fail safe.

After a week of exploring the Svalbard archipelago, we sailed south to mainland Norway and the town of Skarsvog, which is the northernmost of fishing village in the world and home to reindeer everywhere.

Just walking around here, I signed up for a bird safari where we went out to see the famous cliffs that are home to thousands of puffins, gannets and cormorants.

We'd seen the odd puffin here and there up in Svalbard, but

this was a puffin circus, both figuratively and literally.

We spent our final evenings sailing through the inlets of northern Norway toward Tromso, and

we were finally far enough south that the sun barely set and we had blue and pink skies all night.

Well, this is the end of my Norwegian adventure.

What a great trip to make in the summertime, especially with the midnight sun.

I find that I really enjoy visiting cold places in the summertime.

Like, I used to think that summer was the time to visit warm destinations only like beach vacations.

But in recent years, I've done a handful of cold summer trips and I've enjoyed them so much.