Ask ten operators when to go to the Arctic and nine will say June to September. It is true and it is useless, because the Arctic is seven different coasts and each has a season of a few weeks that is better than the rest. This is the guide we use ourselves when a guest calls: month by month, coast by coast, what the ice, the light and the wildlife are doing, so you can choose the fortnight rather than the season.
In short
The Arctic season runs from late April to early October, inside the Australian winter. Unlike Antarctica, the ships move with the ice: Svalbard in June and July, the Pole in high summer, Greenland and the Northwest Passage in August, Iceland and Canada in September. The month you choose decides the coast as much as the coast decides the month.
The short answer, by what you want to see
- Polar bears on sea ice: Svalbard in June and early July, or the spring sailings in May. Later the ice retreats north and the bears go with it.
- The midnight sun: Anywhere north of the Arctic Circle from late May to late July. In Longyearbyen the sun does not set from around 20 April to 22 August.
- The northern lights: September, from East or West Greenland, when the nights are dark and the ships are still sailing. Not June, whatever the brochure photo suggests.
- Icebergs: West Greenland from June, at their largest in late August and September. Scoresby Sund in East Greenland in September.
- The Northwest Passage: Mid to late August, the only fortnight when the Bellot Strait is reliably open.
- Whales: Disko Bay from June to September for humpbacks, Húsavík in Iceland in July and August for humpbacks and blue whales.
- The lowest fares: May in Svalbard and September everywhere, when the ships reposition and the shoulder weeks are discounted.
April and May: the sea ice
Where the ships are
Only a handful of ships sail this early and they are built for it. Le Commandant Charcot spends April in the fast ice of Baffin Bay among the hunting villages of north-west Greenland, and May on the Blosseville Coast of East Greenland. In Svalbard the first expedition ships arrive in May, when the fjords are still frozen at their heads and the bears hunt on the ice close to shore.
What you see, and what you give up
Snow to the waterline, blue light, seals on the floes and almost no other ships. It is the coldest month of the season, around zero by day, and for photographers the most beautiful. What you give up is landings: many of the 43 permitted sites in the Svalbard reserves are still under snow, and the east of the archipelago is closed. Choose May if the ice itself is what you want. Fares are at their lowest of the Svalbard year.
June: the Arctic opens
Svalbard first
June is the month we recommend to most first-time guests. The west coast of Spitsbergen opens, the pack ice sits a day north of Longyearbyen, the bird cliffs are at their busiest and the sun is at its highest. A seven-night voyage such as Fjords and Glaciers of Spitsbergen aboard Le Lyrial gives you Hornsund, the ice edge, Liefdefjorden and Ny-Ålesund with a real chance of a bear on the floes. Temperatures sit between 2 and 6 degrees. Read the Svalbard destination page for the ten places the voyages are built around.
Elsewhere
West Greenland opens from Kangerlussuaq and Nuuk, with the icebergs of Disko Bay under 24-hour light and the first humpbacks in the bay. East Greenland and the Canadian Arctic are still locked in ice. The sail-north voyages from Reykjavík and Tromsø to Svalbard, by Jan Mayen and Bjørnøya, run in late May and June, and they are the best way to watch the Arctic arrive.
July: the whole archipelago, and the Pole
The circumnavigations
The ice loosens around the north and east of Svalbard, which opens Hinlopenstretet, the bird cliffs of Alkefjellet, the ice cap of Nordaustlandet and the walrus beaches of Edgeøya. This is the month of the longer voyages: Ultimate Svalbard aboard SH Diana, Unexplored Svalbard and the Quark Spitsbergen Circumnavigation. The tundra flowers, reindeer calves are on the slopes and the days are warm enough for long hikes, between 5 and 9 degrees.
90° North
July is also when Le Commandant Charcot begins her voyages to the Geographic North Pole, three days through the pack ice from Longyearbyen, and when West Greenland is at its brightest, the Ilulissat Icefjord under a sun that does not set until the last week of the month. It is the month with the most ships and the widest choice, and in Svalbard the most people at the landing sites, which is why we read the rules on ship size and landing numbers before we recommend anything.
August: the far north and the Passage
The most open ice of the year
The sea ice reaches its summer retreat and the ships push to the places that were closed a month earlier: Melville Bay and the Thule district of Greenland, the fjords of Northeast Greenland, and above all the Canadian Arctic. The Northwest Passage is sailed in August and nowhere else in the calendar: the Bellot Strait and Peel Sound are usually passable from the second week, and the polar bears are on the beaches of Somerset Island with their cubs. Scoresby Sund in East Greenland clears in the first days of the month.
The first dark
In Svalbard the bears have followed the ice north and the voyages turn to the far north-east, Kvitøya and Sjuøyane, where the ice edge now lies. Colour returns to the midnight sky in the last ten days of August, and with it, on a clear night in Greenland or Baffin Bay, the first aurora of the season. Temperatures fall back to between 2 and 8 degrees.
September: the colour, the aurora and the last ships
The northern lights, with the programme intact
September is the month we recommend to anyone who wants the northern lights from a ship, and the only month in which you can have them with the expedition programme still running. The nights are dark enough from the first week, the ships turn their deck lights down and the bridge calls the cabins. Our September voyages run in East Greenland from Reykjavík, in West Greenland from Kangerlussuaq and Nuuk, and down the autumn coast of Labrador and Newfoundland to Halifax, with the tundra red, the humpbacks still feeding and the polar bears on the Torngat shore.
The last voyages
Svalbard empties in September: the last voyages cross the Greenland Sea to Scoresby Sund and Iceland. The icebergs of Disko Bay and Scoresby Sund are at their largest after the summer melt, the swell is building on the open crossings and the fares are at their lowest of the year. By early October the ships have gone south, and the Arctic closes for seven months.
The Arctic month by month, at a glance
- Late April and May: Le Commandant Charcot in the sea ice of Baffin Bay and East Greenland. First Svalbard sailings, west coast only. Coldest, quietest, cheapest in Svalbard.
- June: Svalbard west coast and the ice edge. West Greenland opens. Sail-north voyages from Iceland and Norway. Midnight sun everywhere.
- July: Svalbard circumnavigations. The North Pole. Disko Bay under the midnight sun. Most ships, warmest days, busiest landings.
- August: The Northwest Passage. The Thule district. Northeast Greenland. Svalbard far north-east. First aurora at the end of the month.
- September: East Greenland and Scoresby Sund. West Greenland. Labrador and Newfoundland. Aurora, autumn colour, lowest fares.
- October to April: No expedition ships sail. Winter voyages along the Norwegian coast are a different holiday, and we are happy to say so.
What this means if you are travelling from Australia
The Arctic season sits inside the Australian winter, which has two consequences. The June and July school holidays coincide with the best Svalbard weeks and the busiest ships, so families should book a year out, and couples who can travel in late May or September will find more choice and lower fares. And every Arctic voyage starts with a long-haul flight to Europe, around 24 hours to Oslo, Paris or Reykjavík, and a charter north the next day. We build the flights around the charter, add the night in the gateway city, and put the whole journey on one proposal in Australian dollars.
Worth knowing
From Sydney, a June voyage means arriving where the sun has not set for weeks and will not set while you are there. It is exhilarating and it is disorienting, and the cabins with blackout blinds matter more than the cabins with the biggest windows. We know which ships have both.
The aurora lights the horizon behind SH Vega near Itilleq, close to the Arctic Circle. Photographed on a Swan Hellenic SH Vega voyage. © Swan Hellenic
How we choose the month with you
We ask three questions. What do you most want to see: bears, ice, the aurora, the villages, the history. Who are you travelling with, and when can you go. And how do you like to travel: a week or three, a French table or an Australian expedition team, a suite or a cabin with a porthole. The answers usually point to one fortnight on one coast, and we tell you which, and why, before we talk about ships.
Then we read the ice. Every ship on this site publishes its plan, and every plan bends to the conditions on the day. Before you book we tell you what that ship did in the same weeks of the last two seasons, and where the programme is a hope rather than a promise. That is the difference between choosing a month and choosing a fortnight, and it is the thing the brochures leave out.
Questions we are asked about timing
Is June or September better for a first Arctic voyage?
June if you want bears and ice under the midnight sun, September if you want the aurora, the icebergs at their largest and lower fares. Most first-time guests choose Svalbard in June. Most returning guests choose Greenland in September.
Can we see the northern lights and polar bears on the same voyage?
Rarely. The lights need dark nights, which come in September, when the Svalbard bears have gone north with the ice. The Labrador coast in September and the Northwest Passage in late August are the exceptions, and we tell you honestly how often each delivers both.
When should we book?
Twelve to eighteen months ahead for July, the North Pole and the suites on any ship. Six to nine months for the shoulder weeks. The lines release two seasons at once and the best staterooms go in the first weeks.
How cold will it be?
Between zero and 10 degrees by day across the season, colder in the wind off the ice. Every ship we sell provides the parka and boots. You bring layers, and we send the packing list with the proposal.
The next step is a conversation. Tell us the month you can travel and what you hope to see, and we tell you which coast, which fortnight and which ship, with the fare in Australian dollars and our offers for Arctic Cruise guests applied. See all our Arctic expeditions or the seven destinations to start.