Luxury travel to the Arctic

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Exciting and engaging the most seasoned of travellers can be near impossible, especially among those for whom money is no obstacle. With astonishing new travel methods to surprising locations, however, bespoke travel companies are curating enlightening opportunities for even the most jaded adventurer, and immersive experiences appear to be the way of the future. In this series, Canadian Family Offices explores exclusive, uniquely crafted travel experiences.

Today we look at travel experiences in the Arctic.

With its vast, white, haunting tundra, the Arctic might frighten the well-travelled upon first glance, but its bright aesthetic and sacred animal inhabitants have much to offer those looking for unique experiences.

But before designing an Arctic experience, luxury travel designers need to know what their clients are looking for.

Andrew Newman is the founder and CEO of Black Tie Travel, a private membership-based travel and lifestyle club that offers bespoke, curated, immersive travel experiences. He says that the personal tastes and passions of each client need to be heard before any adventure can begin.

“We need to know who the client is, their ‘why’ of travel and what they love, their interests, passions, hobbies and what type of food they enjoy,” said Newman. “Experiences are all tailor made, with private guides who gain you access and privilege. Our clients do not line up – we access the Vatican and Louvre when it is closed to the general public. … Then, of course we find the curious, the rare, the weird and the downright bizarre. We have blimps, flying low, slow and silently and landing at the North Pole.”

Enter OceanSky, a firm that provides luxury cruises on aircraft, including their North Pole Expedition. This bespoke experience takes place on the Airlander, a modern reinterpretation of the airship. It is a development in travel that Swedish commercial pilot Carl-Oscar Lawaczeck has brought to the highly seasoned traveller as a throwback to the adventurous era of airship exploration, with the evolution in modern travel-safety firmly in place.

Airships are suited to this kind of expedition, as they can remain airborne for lengthy periods of time and are spacious enough to create luxurious interiors, Lawaczeck explained to CNN last year. Additionally, they are fuel-efficient, so the most environmentally conscientious of travellers can feel assured.

The slow and steady pace of Airlander allows passengers to observe the natural wonder of the Arctic from the aircraft while flying low to the ground.

“We can go down to 300 feet, even 100 feet if needed, as slow as a bike, in order to offer our passengers a glimpse of those polar habitats to our passengers,” said Lawaczeck.

For the North Pole Expedition, the Airlander has a yacht-like interior with eight spacious cabins, ensuring that the guests are treated to an exclusive and intimate journey. Cocktails and nature-watching go hand in hand in a hovering dining space surrounded in wall-to-floor windows, which make for a feeling of floating above the glaciers.

The expedition begins on the Island of Svalbard in Longyearbyen, the northernmost city on the planet, and there is time for polar bear and whale watching before drinks are served as passengers glide towards the North Pole. At the historic destination, a seemingly endless plane of hardly touched white snow will be the place setting for lunch on day two. Luxury touches abound throughout the 38-hour immersive experience, before levitating back to Svalbard.

If a limited-person travel experience is still too crowded for some, total privacy is an option through companies like Red Savannah, which offers travel to Antarctica by private jet. Specialists are available to speak one-to-one before your journey, should you want to brush up on your Antarctica history. With this exclusive, completely personal experience, travellers will arrive in sleek style to White Desert, a camp founded by former arctic explorers Patrick and Robyn Woodhead. Here, however, immersion in the surroundings will involve some community of other explorers, although sleeping huts are private, and top of the line in terms of décor and warmth.

Highlights of the nine-day trip include a night in South Africa before flying to Antarctica, exploring ice caves, winding through a crystal ice labyrinth, and visiting an Emperor Penguin colony.

White Desert can also be reached directly if clients want to find their own way to Wolf’s Fang, the company’s newest camp in Queen Maud Land.

Described by the Woodheads as “where luxury and adventure meet”, this element of White Desert adventuring offers sophisticated interiors (and en-suite, complete washrooms) in their six heated bedroom tents, which are decorated to align with a vision for vintage travel in what the couple describe as “the bygone age of explorers.”

Lounging and dining areas are shared with fellow adventurers, but the capacity is still limited enough to create intimacy. Outdoor, Arctic activities include abseiling, ice-climbing and rope-walks. For those seeking a more peaceful immersion in the majestic beauty of the tundra, hikes, skidoo rides or simple walks are all at the discretion of each guest.

Whatever the clientele fancies, there is an exclusive, bespoke immersive experience awaiting them in this stunning, snowy wonder, and they needn’t be concerned about missing out on all the luxury they can afford, according to Newman.

“As long as it’s legal and ethical we will find the solution for you using local knowledge on a global scale. Our motto is ‘life is for living.’”