Arctic tips

Hundreds of new flights will serve the European Arctic region this year, collectively offering tens of thousands of additional seats. In recent weeks, major airlines from across the continent have announced a flurry of routes to destinations deep within the Arctic Circle. 

“About 25 years ago, I was asked by Marie Claire to visit the Arctic Circle in Canada to build an igloo, as one does, and to write a story about the process. I said yes because my best friend had recently died by suicide and I just wanted to get away. My faith in the universe was shaken and I needed something to happen. We went to Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, and my now husband, Chris, came with me. The minute you get there, everything on you freezes. It was so cold that, if you went outside to pee, it'd freeze. We met our Inuit guides, who brought these sled dogs. The dogs are workers. You don't pet them—you feed them and make them mush. So when I got down on the ground with them to say hello, the dogs flipped over, exposed their bellies, howled, and got all up on me. They were thankful and sweet. I don't think they knew they wanted affection. When I left, they snapped right back into work mode. Later, I rode a sled being pulled by a trainee team of dogs. During the run, one of them couldn't keep up. He started yelping, then tripped and fell. The dogs were all tied to each other, so he was flipping around in the ice and snow like a fish out of water. I turned into Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits, screaming and crying, begging the musher to stop. One of the guides got the dog detached, and we flew past him—just left the dog. I was sobbing: ‘We have to go back! We have to go back!’ And they said, ‘The dog didn't make the cut.’ That night, before building the igloo, I saw this big blue glacier reflecting the moonlight. It was immense. This is what [my friend's] depression must have felt like, I thought, so overwhelming, like this glacier that's bigger than the Empire State Building. I started walking toward it, getting really close. I wanted to say a little prayer for my friend. As I moved to touch it, my guide came running and screaming. He stuck his spear into the ice ahead of me to show me it could've shifted, and I would have fallen right into the water and died. Being there made me really appreciate the fragility of life. Oh, and by the way: The dog found his way back.”

Sleeping on a bed made from ice, surrounded by walls made from ice, within a building made from ice, had been on my bucket list for years. I'm what you might call a snow tourist, a habit that started while I was living in the Middle East, where it never snows — back then, the ski slopes inside shopping malls just didn't cut it.

The 2023 worldwide release of the movie Narvik on streaming service Netflix brought this small industrial city in Northern Norway to the world’s attention.

In February, I finally checked off one of my top bucket list items — seeing the aurora borealis, better known as the northern lights.

The view from the ship’s bridge is what I expected: a ribbon of dark Arctic water leading through a maze of snowy mountain islands. But the view of the bridge is a shock. Where is the wheel, the chart and that big metal thing that goes “ting”? You know, the one marked “Dead Slow” and “Full Steam”, like you see in Titanic when they spot the iceberg? In its public areas, the Havila Capella looks like any modern cruise ship or upmarket ferry. There are lounges, a panoramic bar, a couple of gyms and a deck that can be strolled. It is what lies behind the bulkheads that is very different.

Traveling by train in Europe is as easy as pie. You can go across France in half a day, you can get from London to Amsterdam in just four hours, or even travel between Austria and Hungary for less than $10. Even in Scandinavia, the rail network is extensive, providing rail transport to and from large cities, small towns, neighboring countries, and even in the far reaches of the Arctic.

Have you ever experienced a day that never ends? In Longyearbyen, Svalbard, the Arctic summer offers exactly that.

The midwest and northeast of the US have been hit by Arctic storms bringing subfreezing temperatures.

Our slow travel series explores how you can take more mindful journeys by train, boat, bus, or bike – with tips on how to reach your destination without flying, and what to see and do along the way. Here, Daniel James Clarke explains how he traveled from Lapland to the Lofoten Islands, crossing the Arctic Circle aboard two of Scandinavia’s most scenic train journeys.

Germany is celebrating the 250th birthday of one of its best-loved painters, the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). His work features mountains, ruins and stormy seas, often with human figures, such as Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. There are exhibitions in Hamburg (until 1 April), Berlin (19 April to 4 August) and Dresden (24 August to 5 January 2025), where Friedrich lived for 40 years; he is buried in the city’s Trinitatis Cemetery. His birthplace, Greifswald, has a festival (31 August-1 September) and three exhibitions at the Pomeranian State Museum (from 28 April). Visitors can also follow in the artist’s footsteps – literally, as he preferred to travel on foot, sketchbook in hand – to locations in his paintings, such as Rügen Island or the Saxon Switzerland national park.germany.travel

An armada of towering icebergs has arrived along the coastline of Qaanaaq, Greenland.

When Ada Blackjack arrived on Wrangel Island as part of a 1921 polar expedition, she knew nearly nothing about Arctic survival.

I knew I'd made a mistake when my bus driver — a burly Norwegian man who's toughed out many an Arctic winter — stopped at the port in Andenes, Norway, and laughed at the wind.

ITV’s This Morning's resident vet, Dr Scott Miller, explores the Arctic onboard Scenic Eclipse in a new three-part Animals of the Arctic feature investigating the rare, unique animals of the region.

My dad and I always try to take one unique trip a year. Last fall, we decided to go on the Seabourn Venture, a luxury expedition cruise ship operated by Seabourn Cruise Line.

In this series, Lonely Planet’s team of writers and editors answers your travel problems and provides tips and hacks to help you plan a hassle-free trip. We thought this question would be perfect for LP author Kerry Walker, who’s long been obsessed with cold, remote places, snow and northern lights.

The leading global innovator in providing polar explorations, Quark Expeditions is challenging adventuresome travelers to boldly remake their bucket lists, looking beyond the larger public’s most common and overly-popular travel destinations.

Rescuers failed to free a luxury cruise that got stuck in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, with a smaller boat on Wednesday.

A luxury cruise carrying 206 passengers is now stuck in a remote part of Greenland after it ran aground.

Imagine blocks of ice floating past as you come face-to-face with an imposing blue-tinted glacial wall. A puffin’s zany flight path draws your eye, before you spot the distinctive white bulge of a beluga whale breaking the water.