Partner line · SH Diana and SH Vega in the Arctic
Swan Hellenic
Swan Hellenic ran the first expert-led voyage in 1954 and sails the Arctic today with two new ice-class ships. We have sailed both, we know the staterooms deck by deck, and we hold offers on many departures that are only available by talking to us.
Why we recommend Swan Hellenic
Small ships, serious hulls and a programme that follows the ice
Swan Hellenic is the line we recommend first for Svalbard, for three plain reasons. The ships are small: SH Vega carries 152 guests and SH Diana 192, so a landing goes ashore in a single wave and nobody waits on deck for a Zodiac. The hulls are built for the ice: Polar Class 5 and 6, which lets the captain take the ship into the drift ice north of Spitsbergen rather than look at it from a distance. And the expedition team sets the day, not a timetable: naturalists, a historian and, on selected voyages, scientists from the SETI Institute lead the landings and lecture each evening in the observation lounge.
We have sailed both ships and we know the staterooms deck by deck, which is why we can tell you where the Zodiac noise reaches at six in the morning and which balconies face the glacier on the way into Longyearbyen. Fares are all-inclusive, with the charter flight from Copenhagen on the Svalbard sailings, and on many departures we hold offers that are only available by talking to us. Tell us the month and the kind of Arctic you want, and one Australian specialist plans the whole journey, flights from home included, and stays with you until you are back.
- 2 ships in the Arctic
- Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, Canada
- 7 to 13 nights
On board
What you notice in the first day
The things that stay with our guests are rarely the ones in the brochure. The silence of the hybrid engines in the ice. The whole ship ashore in twenty minutes. A naturalist who has spent years in Svalbard pointing out a bear a kilometre away before anyone else has seen it. A sauna with a window on the fjord, and a dinner that waits because the captain has found a pod of belugas.
Hulls built for the ice
Two Zodiac outings a day
Lectures every evening
Wildlife, found by the team
September nights on deck
The fleet
The two ships we send north
Two sister ships built in Helsinki, three years apart, to the same idea: every stateroom facing the sea, a hull rated for the pack ice and enough Zodiacs to land everyone at once. We tell you honestly which one suits the voyage you have in mind.
The larger of the two, launched in 2023 with a Polar Class 6 hull, 96 staterooms and suites for 192 guests, a 141-strong crew, fifteen Zodiacs and eight kayaks. The ship we send to Svalbard on the ten-night Ultimate Svalbard route.
Her Arctic season
Arctic expeditions aboard Swan Hellenic
Svalbard in ten nights from Longyearbyen, the sail north from Tromsø or Reykjavík, Greenland under the northern lights in September and the Viking route between Canada, Greenland and Iceland. Tell us the month you have in mind and we tell you which sailing suits it, which stateroom, and what we can do on the fare.
All expeditions
Questions
Swan Hellenic in the Arctic, your questions answered
Seasons, ships, what is included and how to get there from Australia. If your question is not here, we are a call away.
Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, Arctic Norway and the Canadian Arctic. The routes we sell run from Longyearbyen around Spitsbergen, from Tromsø or Reykjavík north to Svalbard, around West Greenland from Kangerlussuaq, and between Halifax, Greenland and Reykjavík on the Viking route.
May to September. June and July bring the midnight sun and the most sea ice in Svalbard. August opens the fjords of Greenland. September brings the first dark nights and, with them, the chance of the northern lights over the ship.
SH Diana, with 192 guests and a Polar Class 6 hull, sails Svalbard. SH Vega, with 152 guests and a Polar Class 5 hull, sails Greenland, Iceland and Canada. Both have Zodiacs for every guest, a lecture lounge, a spa and a sauna with a view of the sea.
The Svalbard sailings are round trips from Longyearbyen, with Swan Hellenic’s charter flight from Copenhagen included. The Greenland sailings start in Kangerlussuaq with the charter from Reykjavík included. The Viking route starts in Halifax or Reykjavík. We arrange your flights from Australia to the gateway city and the hotel nights either side.
The stateroom, all meals and 24-hour room service, wines, beers, spirits and soft drinks throughout the voyage, Zodiac outings and guided hikes, lectures, an expedition parka to keep and boots on loan, Wi-Fi, gratuities and the charter flight where one is part of the route. Kayaking is booked on board. We confirm the exact inclusions of your sailing in the proposal we write for you.
Polar bears, walrus, Arctic fox and reindeer in Svalbard. Musk oxen, humpback and fin whales in Greenland. Puffins and seabird colonies in Iceland, polar bears and black bears on the Labrador coast. Sightings depend on the season, the ice and the route, and no one can promise them. What we can promise is a team that knows where to look.
We have sailed the ships and we know them. You get one Australian specialist who chooses the sailing and the stateroom with you, books the flights from home, the hotels and the insurance, brings in the offers we hold for Arctic Cruise guests, and stays with you until you are home.
Made to measure
Tell us your Arctic, we build the rest
Every guest sails differently. Tell us what you are hoping for, the ice, the wildlife, the light, who you are travelling with, and we match it to the right sailing, the right stateroom and the right year, with flights from Australia and our own offers included. One Arctic Cruise specialist stays with you from the first call until you are home.