In the last month of spring, navigation along the Northern Sea Route begins. At this time, most of the seats on tourist ships going to Arctic ports have already been purchased, including luxury tickets for ships passing this route from west to east and back, as well as Scottish flights to Svalbard.
This is an exciting and prestigious event, for nothing that all you will see is the sky and water in various aggregate states, mainly in liquid and solid form (ice).
Since 2016, when the first passenger icebreaker passed this route, and until 2020, the number of passenger tickets grew from year to year, and the schedule formed for the season ahead was completely clogged. No wonder: according to tour operators, tickets disappear on the day of the start of sales, no later.
Icebreaker begins sailing
The average tour of the Arctic places is designed for 100-150 people - this number allows you to quickly and very often make landings on the shore. Cruises are held in the summer, because ice-class vessels capable of overcoming the ice of the Arctic in winter are valued at their weight in gold. Therefore, welcome aboard from May to early August. However, from the beginning of April to mid-October, short trips to Novaya Zemlya or Spitsbergen are possible. By the way, the June ice is very durable, which gives chances to observe canonical bears on the ice, and September is famous for the northern lights: magnetic activity in the upper atmosphere is superimposed on the convection exchange between warm air currents and cold ones, which results in an enchanting spectacle.
Tour operators sell several options, although it will not turn to call them typical language, there is no question of genuine mass character here. Trade tours go around the world, and paradoxically: the Arctic is Russian, and groups from our country are the least. The absolute record for attendance is set by the French and Americans, a little less here are the Danes and Finns with the Germans.
Ships sail weekly, and the routes are different:
- You can raft to Grumant - so in ancient times the archipelago of Spitsbergen belonging to Norway was called - or to Franz Josef Land. In fact, these are short-term excursion programs.
- There is a more serious option: an icebreaker around one of the above-mentioned geographical objects or Iceland, Greenland or Jan Mayen with the final North Pole.
- There is also a unique passage to the northernmost point of the globe aboard a nuclear-powered ship from Russia's icebreaker fleet called "Fifty Years of Victory." Such a trip will take a week, 5-6 flights are made per year.
The most popular Russian routes
The highest point in the business of Arctic cruises should be recognized as transitions from Murmansk to the Anadyr port - such a voyage takes up to a month, in addition, navigation is very irregular. It is possible to land on the shore - provided that it is not occupied by walruses or bears.
On the ship, guests are entertained in the evenings, and in the afternoon they read scientific lectures - after all, on board a scientific ship there are always a dozen specialists in hydrometeorology, biology, geological mysteries, historians and ordinary travelers with experience travel. Isn't it interesting to learn firsthand about native plants, species of fauna, features of the seabed and other fascinating mysteries?
If something interesting arises on the course, passengers are called to the boat deck on the loudspeaker - look personally. Many want to visit Svalbard to explore the rocky mountains with nests of gulls, adjacent to perennial ice and herds of peacefully grazing deer.
Other islets of the Arctic attract ichthyologists and bird lovers, fans of short mountaineering forays.
In the Greenlandic, Icelandic and Norwegian fjords, if you're lucky, you can see a bear family and the largest icebergs in this hemisphere, not to mention the colorful veils of the northern lights.
Million Question
The Arctic seas are not happy for novice tourists - only sophisticated, experienced. And rich.
The price of the question in the midst of autumn starts from more than three thousand bucks - for this amount you can take a sailing trip to Spitsbergen on a yacht for up to 8 days. And in the summer season, the same trip will cost already in the top ten,moreover - the euro. Luxury tours lasting one and a half to two weeks will cost already 30-50 thousand euros.
In addition to the price, a low degree of awareness of these routes is important. Even if a person can afford such a sortie, he is usually not aware of the possibility of visiting the northern waters as part of a cruise tour group.
Perhaps, in order to increase profitability and popularity, it would be necessary to allow passengers on such liners to stay without a visa for up to ten or fifteen days instead of three – and make the procedure of visiting easier and more accessible.
