Eleven days through the Northwest Passage and West Greenland aboard the Clipper Adventurer — a genuine expedition, not a cruise.
This is not a balcony-and-buffet voyage. The Clipper Adventurer is a 100-passenger ice-strengthened expedition ship, crewed for one purpose: putting you ashore on islands and at fjord-heads that almost no other vessel reaches. Eleven days threading Davis Strait, Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound — the historic gateway of the Northwest Passage — with twice-daily Zodiac landings led by a team of polar naturalists, ornithologists and Inuit cultural interpreters.
You'll cross the Arctic Circle under the shadow of West Greenland's longest fjord, walk on the world's largest uninhabited island, share tea in a Greenlandic family home, and stand on the cliffs at Prince Leopold where a hundred thousand seabirds nest each summer. Wildlife is opportunistic and that is the point — polar bear, narwhal, beluga and bowhead are possibilities, not promises. Built for well-travelled adventurers who already know the standard tours and want something the brochures rarely sell.
The calving ground for an estimated 90 percent of the icebergs that drift into the North Atlantic. Zodiac cruise among iceberg cathedrals taller than apartment blocks.
Sailing the length of Sondre Stromfjord, the longest fjord in West Greenland, with the traditional certificate ceremony on the bridge.
A small village of 130 people on a treeless rock island. Coffee, kaffemik cake, and a window into modern Inuit life on the west coast.
A polar desert so Mars-like that NASA runs analogue research stations here. Tundra walk with the expedition geologists.
Three hundred metres of vertical limestone alive with thick-billed murres, northern fulmars and black-legged kittiwakes — one of the great seabird colonies of the Arctic.
An Inuit hamlet of 1,600 with the snow peaks of Bylot Island as its skyline. Community visit at the Nattinnak Centre, throat-singing demonstration if the elders are available.
The Northwest Passage's most haunted shore. The graves of three sailors from the lost 1845 Franklin Expedition stand on the gravel beach where the ships overwintered.
Polar bear on the ice, narwhal and beluga in the leads, bowhead whales in Isabella Bay, muskox on the tundra — sightings are the gift of the day, never the schedule.
Your Maple Fun host meets you at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) for the group charter flight north to Kangerlussuaq (formerly Sondre Stromfjord), a former US Air Force base at the head of West Greenland's longest fjord. Coaches transfer you to the pier where the Clipper Adventurer is waiting — an ice-strengthened 100-berth expedition ship that will be your home for the next ten nights. After a welcome briefing and lifeboat drill, the ship slips its lines and steams 170 kilometres down Sondre Stromfjord toward the open sea, the cabin walls of the fjord rising 600 metres on either side as you sit down to the first dinner on board.
Morning Zodiac landing at Itilleq, a community of roughly 130 people on a rocky, treeless island just south of the Arctic Circle. There are no streets, no cars — only painted timber houses scattered across the bedrock, a small wooden church, and a football pitch that the village is fiercely proud of. By prior arrangement with the community, you'll be welcomed into private homes for kaffemik — coffee, cake and conversation — a Greenlandic tradition that turns visitors into guests within minutes. Back on board for lunch, then a quiet afternoon at sea as the ship continues north, with naturalists' lectures on Arctic geology and sea ice in the lounge.
The first headline day of the voyage. Ilulissat — the name means simply 'icebergs' in Greenlandic — sits at the mouth of the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, one of the fastest-flowing on earth, calving more ice than any glacier outside Antarctica. The Icefjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the source of roughly 90 percent of the icebergs that eventually drift into the North Atlantic. You'll have a Zodiac cruise among the ice — bergs the size of office buildings, electric blue at the waterline — and time ashore in the colourful town of 4,500, including a short walk along the boardwalks to the Sermermiut Inuit settlement viewpoint above the fjord mouth.
A full day of crossing Davis Strait from Greenland to the east coast of Baffin Island, with the lecture programme in full swing — sessions on Arctic whales, sea ice dynamics, and the Thule and Dorset peoples. By late afternoon the ship enters Isabella Bay, a Canadian National Wildlife Area set aside specifically to protect what is believed to be the most important summer feeding ground for the endangered bowhead whale in the eastern Arctic. The expedition team takes the Zodiacs out for a quiet wildlife search — listening as much as looking. Bowhead, narwhal, and ringed seal are all possibilities; nothing is guaranteed, and that honesty is part of the experience.
Clyde River is a Nunavut hamlet of roughly 1,100 — almost entirely Inuit, with one of the strongest hunting and traditional-knowledge traditions left in the eastern Arctic. The community has been at the centre of recent international cases against seismic testing in Baffin Bay; you'll hear the story from the people themselves. Visit the community centre, watch a demonstration of traditional skin-preparation or carving if available, and walk the gravel road behind town for a view back over the harbour. Back on board for a late departure as the ship turns north toward the high-Arctic islands.
Buchan Gulf is a deep-water fjord on Baffin's northeast coast, walled by 900-metre granite cliffs that drop directly to the sea. There are no settlements and no landing piers — the only way in is Zodiac, and the only schedule is the one the weather writes that morning. Expect a long, slow cruise close under the cliff faces, watching for nesting fulmars and for the white smudge on a distant gravel bank that resolves, through binoculars, into a polar bear. Sightings are opportunistic — sometimes spectacular, sometimes absent — but the landscape itself is the day's reward.
Bylot Island, just north of Pond Inlet, is one of the great undisturbed corners of the Canadian Arctic — a 11,000 km² island that is entirely a National Wildlife Area, with no permanent human population. Snow geese nest here in the hundreds of thousands; polar bears denning on the sea-ice fringe move ashore in summer. Today's landing site is weather-dependent, but the expedition team aims for a tundra walk among the wildflowers — Arctic poppy, mountain avens, purple saxifrage — with the snow peaks of the interior as a backdrop. Lectures on Arctic botany continue back on board.
Pond Inlet — Mittimatalik in Inuktitut, 'the place where Mittima is buried' — is one of the most beautifully situated communities in the Arctic, with the snow peaks of Bylot Island filling the horizon directly across the inlet. Population about 1,600, almost entirely Inuit. Morning visit to the Nattinnak Centre, the local cultural museum, with possible throat-singing or drum-dance demonstrations if elders are available that day. Lunch back on board, then in the afternoon the ship moves a short distance north for a Zodiac cruise at Cape Hay — vertical cliffs at the northern tip of Bylot Island, alive with one of the largest thick-billed murre colonies in the Canadian Arctic.
Today the ship enters Lancaster Sound — the historic eastern gateway of the Northwest Passage and one of the most ecologically rich Arctic waters on earth. Landing in the morning at Maxwell Bay on the south coast of Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island on earth: 55,000 km² of polar desert and limestone plateau, so Mars-like that NASA has run analogue astronaut training here since 1997. Walk with the expedition geologists across the gravel terraces left by the retreating ice; watch for muskox on the high ground and Arctic hare on the slopes. The light in Lancaster Sound at this latitude is unlike anything south of the tree line.
The final full day, and one of the most layered of the voyage. Morning Zodiac cruise at the cliffs of Prince Leopold Island — a near-vertical 300-metre limestone wall hosting tens of thousands of thick-billed murres, black-legged kittiwakes and northern fulmars in roaring summer chaos. Lunch at sea as the ship crosses to Somerset Island. Afternoon at Beechey Island, the most historically charged anchorage in the Canadian Arctic: the gravel beach where Sir John Franklin's lost 1845 expedition spent its first winter, and where three of his crew are buried in graves still marked by the original headboards. Walk slowly. Listen to the historian. This is where the Northwest Passage stops being an adventure and becomes a memorial.
Disembark at Resolute Bay (Qausuittuq — 'the place with no dawn'), one of the most northerly civilian airports in Canada, at roughly 74° N. Charter flight south to Vancouver via a refuelling stop. Your Maple Fun host meets you at YVR for any onward arrangements — a connecting flight home, or a pre-booked Vancouver hotel for those staying on. Farewell with a strong handshake and a recommendation: do not, on the flight south, look out of the window. Close your eyes. Hold the Arctic in your head for one more hour.
Two nights at a downtown Vancouver hotel with a half-day city tour and Granville Island. Reduces charter-day fatigue significantly.
Connect this expedition with our Rockies tour for a full coast-to-Arctic experience. Best for first-time visitors to western Canada.
Small-group sessions on board with a dedicated wildlife photographer, including post-processing workshops on sea days.
Upgrade to superior outside, deluxe or suite category subject to availability at booking. Significant difference in cabin size and window line.
No — deliberately not. The Clipper Adventurer is a comfortable expedition ship, not a five-star liner. There is no casino, no balcony, no formal night. There is one bar, one dining room, one lecture lounge, and an expedition team that will put you ashore twice a day on uninhabited islands. Travellers expecting a Caribbean-style cruise are consistently disappointed; travellers expecting a genuine Arctic expedition are consistently thrilled.
Moderate. The Zodiac landings are 'wet' — you step off the inflatable boat into ankle-deep water (rubber boots provided). On shore, walking is on tundra, gravel beaches and uneven terrain. No required hikes are longer than 3 km on the flat. You should be confident climbing in and out of a Zodiac with assistance and comfortable on uneven ground.
No — and we will not pretend otherwise. Wildlife in the high Arctic is opportunistic. Polar bear sightings occur on roughly two-thirds of voyages in this region; narwhal and beluga on perhaps one in three; bowhead whales most reliably in Isabella Bay but never guaranteed. The expedition team's job is to maximise your chances, not to manufacture them.
Summer Arctic days run 0–10°C with bright long daylight (the sun barely sets in early August at these latitudes). Wind chill on Zodiac cruises can feel below freezing. Rain, fog and sea spray are routine. Layering — base, mid, waterproof shell, expedition parka — is the system.
Davis Strait crossings (Days 4 and 11) can be lively in poor weather. Most travellers do well on standard medication (Stugeron or scopolamine patches), which the ship's doctor can dispense if you have not brought your own. The fjord and Lancaster Sound days are usually calm.
No. This is the single most important thing to understand about expedition cruising. Ice conditions, weather and wildlife movement can require the captain and expedition leader to change the itinerary at any time — including substituting landing sites, reversing day order, or skipping landings entirely. The published itinerary above represents the intended route; flexibility is part of the contract you sign.
Yes — and it must include emergency medical evacuation cover to a minimum of USD $500,000. There are no hospitals between Pond Inlet and Resolute; medical evacuation from the high Arctic is by air ambulance over thousands of kilometres and can cost more than the cruise itself. We will ask for proof at booking confirmation.
All shipboard briefings, lectures and Zodiac safety messaging are delivered in English. Maple Fun provides a dedicated host fluent in Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese or Vietnamese on request, who translates briefings, accompanies landings, and acts as a cultural bridge with the Inuit and Greenlandic communities visited.
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