Unusual Expedition

Greenland Arctic Sights and Northern Lights 8 Sep 2026

Eleven day expedition cruise aboard m/v sea spirit from reykjavik to scoresby sund, east greenland, with northern lights, icebergs and arctic wildlife.

Country
Greenland
Departure Dates
08 Sep 2026 To 17 Sep 2026
Tour Code
GRE20260908G1
Tour Leader
Joseph Mak

Room Type And Pricing

  • Triple Suite: US$6,300
  • Main Deck Suite: US$8,550
  • Classic Suite: US$9,150
  • Superior Suite: US$9,350

Tour Itinerary

Day 1 | Reykjavik | Iceland

This Greenland photography cruise begins in Reykjavik, where the expedition gathers a day before sailing. Transfers run from Keflavik International Airport into the city, and once everyone has checked in the afternoon is free. Reykjavik rewards a slow walk: the ribbed concrete spire of Hallgrimskirkja standing over coloured rooftops, the National Museum and Culture House for context on the Norse settlement, and the Whales of Iceland exhibition as a primer on what may surface alongside the ship. A spare day here also protects the voyage against a delayed flight or missing bag, which matters when the departure pier waits for nobody. Cameras get charged, layers get sorted, and the Arctic starts tomorrow.

Meals: Lunch, Dinner

Day 2 | Welcome Aboard | M/V Sea Spirit

The morning stays free in Reykjavik before the afternoon transfer to the pier, where M/V Sea Spirit waits, an ice-strengthened expedition ship carrying just over a hundred guests in all-suite comfort. Settling into the cabin comes first, then the mandatory safety drill and the expedition team's welcome briefings, which set out how landings, Zodiac operations and the daily rhythm actually work. The ship sails in the evening through Faxafloi, the broad bay outside the capital, and the open decks are worth standing on: minke and humpback whales feed here into the autumn, and the light over Snaefellsnes to the north can be extraordinary as Iceland slips astern.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 3 | Across The Denmark Strait | Arctic Circle

A full day at sea crossing the Denmark Strait toward East Greenland, and on any Arctic expedition cruise the sea days are where the voyage is won or lost. This one stays busy: the expedition team's lecture programme covers ice, Inuit history, seabird identification and photographic technique, while the open decks and balconies stay productive as the ship passes over Greenland's continental shelf, where fulmars and kittiwakes trail the wake and whales surface without warning. Somewhere during the day the ship crosses the Arctic Circle at sixty six degrees thirty three minutes north. After dark, with no light pollution for hundreds of miles, comes the voyage's first real chance of the Northern Lights.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 4 | Scoresby Sund | Into The Great Fjord

The ship reaches Scoresby Sund, known in Greenlandic as Kangertittivaq, the largest fjord system on earth. Nothing quite prepares photographers for the scale: icebergs the size of city blocks, calved from the Greenland Ice Sheet, stand grounded in water hundreds of metres deep, their walls sculpted into arches, flutes and blue caverns. The first day inside the fjord is usually spent among them, working from the open decks and from Zodiacs at water level where the ice towers overhead. Everything from here is decided daily by the Captain and Expedition Leader according to weather, sea ice and iceberg conditions, which is how expedition travel should work, and why no two Scoresby Sund voyages photograph alike.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 5 | Scoresby Sund | Landings And Tundra Walks

Deeper into the fjord system, days combine scenic shore landings with wilderness walks across Arctic tundra. Early September is the turning point of the Greenland autumn: dwarf birch and bilberry burn red and orange across the slopes, a colour few visitors associate with the Arctic, and the low sun keeps the light usable far longer than it would be further south. Walks range from gentle shoreline strolls to steeper climbs for the panorama over the fjord, with the expedition team watching throughout for muskox, Arctic fox and Arctic hare. Zodiac cruises fill other hours, nosing along basalt cliffs and among brash ice. The programme flexes daily with conditions.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 6 | Scoresby Sund | Ittoqqortoormiit

Conditions permitting, today brings one of the most remarkable settlements on the planet: Ittoqqortoormiit, home to roughly three hundred and fifty people and the only inhabited place along more than eight hundred kilometres of coast. Its brightly painted timber houses scatter across bare rock above the sea, and the community's sled dogs, tethered in teams around the edges of the village, are a photographic subject in their own right. Time ashore usually allows the small museum, the church and the post office, and buying local crafts puts money directly into an economy with very few outside visitors. This is the human heart of a Greenland expedition cruise, and a privilege rather than a certainty.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 7 | Scoresby Sund | Final Day And Aurora Nights

The last full day in Scoresby Sund makes use of whatever the week has not yet offered: another landing, a final Zodiac cruise, optional sea kayaking for those who booked it, gliding between growlers where an engine would intrude. Autumn is the reason this particular voyage exists. By early September the Arctic night has returned properly, and Greenland sits under one of the clearest, darkest skies anywhere, so the aurora forecast is checked as closely as the weather. When it fires, the ship's decks become the observation platform, with the fjord walls and the icebergs as foreground. Tripods, fast lenses and warm layers earn their passage tonight.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 8 | Return Crossing | Iceland

The ship turns for Iceland and recrosses the Denmark Strait, and a sea day at this point in an expedition cruise is welcome rather than wasted. The expedition team runs presentations and workshops, and the photography sessions are worth attending with a card full of ice: culling, editing and hearing how others framed the same fjord teaches more than another landing would. The open decks and balconies stay in use for seabirds and whales, and the wake is often the best place to stand. Somewhere along the way the mountains of Greenland drop below the horizon astern, and the Arctic Circle is crossed again heading south.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 9 | Denmark Strait | Westfjords

Iceland returns as the Westfjords, the country's oldest and least visited region, where a few thousand people live along fjords cut deep into a peninsula of flat topped mountains. Where the ship calls depends on its schedule and local conditions, but the character is constant: near vertical basalt terraces, tiny fishing villages under enormous slopes, sea cliffs loud with birds, and seals hauled out on the skerries. It is a gentle and very photogenic close to the voyage after Greenland's austerity, and a useful reminder that Iceland has far more coastline than the ring road ever shows. The final evening aboard brings the expedition recap and farewell dinner.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 10 | Westfjords | Reykjavik

Breakfast aboard, and then disembarkation in Reykjavik brings the Greenland photography cruise to an end. Poseidon Expeditions provides a group transfer either directly to Keflavik International Airport or to a central Reykjavik hotel where luggage can be stored for guests staying on. Eleven days have covered two crossings of the Denmark Strait, the Arctic Circle twice, the largest fjord system in the world, one of the remotest inhabited settlements anywhere, and whatever the aurora chose to give. Anyone with a spare day should keep it: Reykjavik and the south coast reward the time, and after a week of ship movement the ground takes a while to stop moving.

Meals: Breakfast

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