Northwest Passage: Eastern Gateway

Experience High Arctic summer in motion

Travel during the height of the Arctic’s brief summer, when daylight stretches far into the night and the landscape responds with remarkable energy. Sea ice loosens and shifts through the channels, tundra plants flower, and seabirds remain active around breeding cliffs. Whales, walrus, seals, and polar bears follow seasonal patterns through waters transformed by currents, ice, and light. 

Travel through Inuit homelands alongside Inuit

Experience the profound privilege of travelling through Inuit homelands in Greenland and Nunavut. The journey unfolds through respectful exchange with Inuit cultural educators, artists, and knowledge holders who share perspectives shaped by kinship among people, water, ice, and nuna (the land).

As honoured guests, be welcomed into communities where laughter, drum dancing, and throat singing carry across the tundra. Learn words in local languages, sample country food, and walk the land alongside Inuit guides whose ancestral ties extend across generations. These encounters place Inuit voices, knowledge, and contemporary life at the centre of the journey. 

Explore one of the Arctic’s great marine ecosystems

Spend five days within Tallurutiup Imanga, the great marine passage between northern Baffin Island and Devon Island. Powerful currents and nutrient-rich waters sustain one of the Arctic’s greatest concentrations of wildlife, including narwhal, beluga and bowhead whales, walrus, seals, polar bears, and immense seabird colonies. Shipboard exploration, Zodiac cruising, and walks ashore offer different perspectives on this protected marine region and the polar desert landscapes rising above it.

Enter an age of Arctic ambition

For more than a century, demand for whale oil and the promise of a Northwest Passage drew ships into these waters. Whalers pursued commercial fortunes, while naval expeditions, scientists, and mapmakers sought knowledge, imperial advantage, and an elusive route west. Explore the ambitions and legacy of an era that expanded geographical and scientific knowledge while intensifying commercial extraction, colonial expansion, and sustained southern presence across Inuit Nunangat and Greenland. 

Ice takes centre stage

Experience the Arctic’s defining element at every scale. Stand beside the UNESCO-listed Ilulissat Icefjord, where one of the world’s most active glaciers sends immense icebergs towards Disko Bay. Sail among the great flotilla carried north along Greenland’s coast, then enter High Arctic waters where drifting pack ice opens, closes, and rearranges the horizon. From towering blue faces to floes moving alongside the ship, this is a rare opportunity to travel within one of the planet’s most dynamic environments of ice.