How far North can you really sail?

A lot further than you used to be able to.

You may have seen this company advertising on TV lately.

Hurtigruten.

 The reason I started investigating them is that a customer of mine wanted to book a cruise that would take him as far north as he could go, well above the Arctic Circle, to give him the best chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis as we could. The best cruise line I could find to take him was Fred Olsen, but they were only operating one cruise that far north.

And it was sold out.

For 2012!

Obviously my customer wanted to go much sooner than that. Asking around the office, the infinitely wise Andrew Gardner, (for those of you who don’t know him he’s the big boss man here and he’s cruised just about everywhere it’s possible to get a ship to), suggested I take a look at Hurtigruten.

I was fascinated. They operate a fleet of ten ships, all operating no further south than Oslo. In fairness to all you regular cruisers though they’re not what you may call a traditional cruise ship. Because , as you go further and further north, it becomes harder and harder to reach the towns up there by road during the winter months, and you better believe the winter months are long, (just four hours of daylight some times), you can only reach them by sea. For that reason Hurtigruten are a freight company carrying all the supplies and mail etc to these snowbound towns.

However, in what I can only call a stroke of marketing genius, someone in their marketing team converted some of the decks onboard into passenger decks and started selling Northern Lights cruises. Which by a roundabout way is where I came in.
But it’s not just the lure of the Aurora Borealis and the sight of all the natural northern beauty these cruises have to offer. They also offer a wide range of winter related activities and excursions for people to enjoy whilst onboard. I’m sitting here looking at the brochure now reading all they offer and there’s far too much to go into here, your going to have to call me for the full details, but I thought you might like a sneak preview of some of the highlights. And yes, before you ask they still have 2011 spaces available, from about Feb forward, so get booking now.

Snowmobile trips – An unforgettable trip amongst snow clad valleys, icy fjords and the serene landscapes of an Arctic winter under clear starry skies.

Kirkenes Snow Hotel. Yep, a hotel built out of snow, reachable only by snowmobile.

Husky Adventures – Northern safaris by Husky dog.

Reindeer Sledging at the Coastal Farm in Tromso.

Sounds exciting? Sounds interesting? Sounds a lot better than doing another sailing around the same old destinations you’ve already seen ten times? Get your thermals on then and get booking!

Happy Cruising – (just remember to pack your longjohns!)