A weekly pick of luxury travel links for your perusal…
Heed the call of the wild and experience America’s last frontier. The sheer grandeur of Alaskan vistas will ignite your imagination. Cruise through sparkling fjords or journey inland and catch a glimpse of wild brown bears fishing for giant salmon. Hike through glacial rainforests or take an exhilarating dogsled ride. If you’ve dreamed of wandering through a pristine wilderness, Alaska is the place for you - take a look at Royal Caribbean’s ‘Answer the Call of the Wild’ Alaskan cruisetours.
Experience a spectacular Norwegian coastal voyage aboard Hurtigruten. Known internationally as “The World’s Most Beautiful Voyage”, this enchanting vacation showcases Norway’s dazzling scenery of fjords, snow-capped mountains, bustling villages and picturesque towns. Winter may be the most special time to experience the Norwegian Coastal voyage - a hidden gem. A truly spectacular time to see Norway’s northern reaches with majestic scenery, the Polar Light and a surreal experience not found anywhere else. Uniques to these sailings are the exciting winter excursions including dog sledding in Tromso, the Lofotr Viking Feast, and snowmobiling over the frozen fjords of Lapland. And what winterland would be complete without an encounter with the awe-inspiring Northern Lights? Aurora borealis is a truly rare phenomenon occurring only in the winter. 2 for 1 special offer: book selected 12, 7 and 6-day Norwegian Coastal voyages departing in October, November and December 2008 and your companion travels free. This offer is unfortunately not valid on suites, however.
This week Forbes Traveler has run a feature entitled “10 Gorgeous Glaciers“. It caught my eye not only because of the beautiful pictures but also because I have a particular interest in this subject. Few of you will know this, but my PhD was in glaciology. Alas, Greenland - where I worked - doesn’t get a look-in; instead, the following make the shortlist:
Follow in the wake of Scott and Nansen by booking a cruise on the new Silversea expedition ship, Prince Albert II. This state-of-the-art vessel set off for the Arctic last month but will head to the opposite pole later in the year for the summer in the far south. Luxury on board combines with pure adrenalin once the ship docks, as it visits some of the world’s most remote landscapes and enters tiny ports where few cruise ships have been before. This is not soft adventure: it is full-scale exploring, from a base that is super-luxurious, with every high-tech facility.
Bring Antarctica’s beauty home from a special photographic cruise of Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands. From the 19th November professional photographer Richard Harker joins the experts on the ‘Minerva ‘ for a 21-day journey to help aspiring photographers capture intimate images of this ultimate travel frontier. One-on-one sessions, on-board workshops and informative lectures provide every photographer, from point-and-shoot to professional, with the opportunity to learn new skills and techniques. Antarctica’s stunning landscapes and teeming wildlife offer countless opportunities: majestic blue icebergs glimmering in calm clear waters, camera-friendly penguins and midnight Austral sunsets that hover endlessly on the horizon, painting rainbow hues on dramatic polar skies. Book with A&K by 31st May 2008 and save £350 per person on the special photographic cruise.
Last year Norwegian Coastal Voyage Inc. changed its name to Hurtigruten to reflect their new global identity. What started as the world’s most beautiful voyage along the Norwegian coast has expanded to incredible journeys to the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica, and even an incredible 67-day Arctic to Antarctic voyage. Visit their site to learn more.
iExplore, named the Best Adventure Travel Website by Forbes Magazine and Travel + Leisure, has announced a list of top 10 world travel destinations as determined by purchases made by adventure and experiential travellers. Egypt retains its number one spot, but South Africa jumps to the number 2 spot (from 19th position the year before). Argentina and Italy fell to 21st and 26th positions respectively, having previously been in the top 10. Here’s their current top 10, with the previous year’s ranking in brackets:
Hurtigruten - formerly known as Norwegian Coastal Voyage - is offering incentives on visits to Greenland, a place that I myself would love to return to one day. Book any Greenland voyage with them before 31st January 2008 and receive $500 off on suites and $350 on other state rooms. Choose from their fantastic selection of expedition voyages, all of which immerse you in an authentic Greenland experience. Become one with the extraordinary icecape and wildlife, and interact with and learn from descendants of Vikings and Inuits. More information on the offer is available here.
More details are starting to emerge on the cruise ship that is reportedly sinking somewhere near King George Island (near the South Shetland Islands between Antarctica and the southernmost tip of Argentina). The 2,400-tonner liner, MV Explorer, owned by Toronto-based Gap Adventures [site seemingly very slow at present, perhaps understandably], was built in 1969 and had 100 crew and 54 passengers on board. It has apparently hit some ice and was listing at 25°, with the captain and his first officer remaining on board, and all other passengers and crew safely evacuated on life vessels. MV Antarctic Dream, a Chilean ship in the area, has been diverted to help with the rescue. MV Explorer herself helped in the rescue of the crew of a sinking Argentinean supply vessel that had hit a rock ledge off Anvers Island in Antarctica, in 1989.
Update from the BBC:
Ms Hayes, vice-president of marketing for Toronto-based Gap Adventures, told the BBC News website: “The M/S Explorer hit a lump of ice off King George Island this morning and the impact left the vessel with a crack in the hull the size of a fist.
“All passengers and crew have been evacuated, they are all accounted for and are safe and well and have been transferred to another vessel.”
There’s breaking news just in that a cruise ship has crashed into an iceberg off Antarctica. It’s been reported that 154 passengers were on the vessel. A ship has been diverted to help collect passengers from lifeboats. Let’s hope that everyone is safely accounted for. More later.
Greenland is one of the few places that I can tell people I’ve been to and be quietly confident that they probably haven’t. It rarely gets covered in the travel press, so a recent mention on MSNBC naturally caught my eye. With doubles starting from $270 a night at Ilulissat’s four star Hotel Arctic, this is about as luxurious as you’ll get in Greenland. As well as staying in the hotel, you can be accommodated in one of their aluminium igloos overlooking Disko Bay. An array of folk has stayed there, including the likes of the Icelandic-born singer Björk and the Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson. Alternatively, there’s Hotel Kangerlussuaq (where I have spent one night) - close to the Arctic Circle - which starts at $240 a night for a double. It’s not all that luxurious by the standards of some parts of the world, perhaps, but ultra-luxurious when you compare it with camping outside at sub-zero temperatures! (Click here to see an interview of Matt Lauer and video footage that accompanies the article.)
Fancy a trip to Arctic Norway or the Galapagos Islands? National Geographic, famed for its own stunning travel photography, is running its 19th World in Focus photography competition. First prize is a trip to your choice of the above two destinations. If instead you just want to gawp at the amazing images from last year’s contest, then have a look here.
American Express is offering more than 25 amazing travel packages, including a luxury RV trip across America, an adventure in Antarctica and a South African safari. Travellers daydreaming about their next luxurious getaway need look no further. From 17th to 27th April 2007, US and UK American Express card holders will have the opportunity to stop dreaming and start bidding at American Express’ Going Once web site. American Express will auction off one unbelievable travel package a day and, once a trip goes on sale, the price will drop every 20 minutes. The deals will continue to drop in price until 7:00 pm ET or until they sell out, whichever comes first.
I’m not sure you’d class this as luxury travel but, as someone who has been to Greenland on a couple of occasions, I find it too interesting to pass up. The footage shows a 21-day kite-skiing adventure taking a small team from Narsaq in the north-east of the country to Qaanaaq (don’t you just love those Greenlandic names!) in the south. Enjoy…
The untouched beauty of Antarctica has begun to become one of the ‘must go’ places for the more intrepid luxury traveller. Orient Lines award-winning ship Marco Polo brings tourists closer than ever to the magical scenery, animals and unique contours of the forgotten continent. The ship has a specially designed hull that allows a unique floating position so that passengers can enjoy luxury and feel like a true explorer on the same holiday.
