High Arctic Expedition

The Journey Begins

Your High Arctic Expedition begins! You’ll arrive by charter flight from Ottawa into Qausuittuq—Inuktitut for “the place with no dawn”—where the glow of continuous Arctic summer light welcomes you to the gateway of the High North. Set on stark gravel plains shaped by ancient glaciers, this community holds a powerful history of Inuit relocation and resilience, now standing as a vital hub for Arctic science, culture, and exploration. As you prepare to embark aboard the Ocean Nova, you’ll have the chance to connect with the land and its stories, setting the tone for a transformative voyage ahead.

This is more than a beginning—it’s your first step into a landscape that has inspired generations of artists, explorers, and visionaries.

Included Meals

Dinner on-board

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Echoes of Arctic Exploration

Today you step ashore on Beechey Island, one of the most historically significant sites in the Arctic and a place where the past feels startlingly present. This windswept National Historic Site is home to the graves of Franklin expedition members and holds stories of endurance, loss, and discovery. Inuit knowledge played a vital role in uncovering what happened to the expedition—reshaping history and offering a deeper, more truthful understanding of the Arctic’s past.

As you walk along its stark shoreline, surrounded by silence and ice-carved beauty, you’ll be invited into a moment of profound reflection on exploration, resilience, and the enduring power of cultural memory. Here, history isn’t distant—it’s alive beneath your feet.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Inspiration, and Infinite Horizons

Today on the High Arctic Expedition, you’ll sail through Tallurutiup Imanga, one of Canada’s largest marine protected areas, alive with whales, seals, and seabirds. Don’t forget polar bears! Beneath towering cliffs and drifting ice, the sea glimmers with shifting light. Step ashore on Devon Island, the world’s largest uninhabited island, where glaciers meet the sea and tundra unfolds in broad, glacial valleys.

Here, light and silence create their own compositions, inviting stillness, reflection, and a deep sense of the Arctic’s living beauty.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Life at the Top of the World

Today you arrive in Aujuittuq—Inuktitut for “the place that never thaws”—Canada’s northernmost community, set amid vast tundra and sweeping Arctic landscapes. Here, local residents share deeply personal stories of their families’ forced relocation in 1953 from northern Québec and Mittimatalik—stories of profound resilience, cultural continuity, and adaptation in one of the harshest environments on Earth. Walking the tundra alongside community hosts, you’ll gain insight into how Inuit knowledge of land, seasons, and wildlife sustains daily life.

In Aujuittuq, you don’t just learn about the Arctic—you experience its living strength, ingenuity, and spirit.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Mountains at the Edge of the World

Today you explore the dramatic coastline of Ellesmere Island, Canada’s northernmost landmass and one of the most remote places on the planet. Towering mountains rise sharply from the sea, vast ice caps stretch across the horizon, and deep glacial fjords carve pathways through ancient stone. This stark, sculpted wilderness mirrors the Arctic visions of painter Lawren Harris, who saw in these landscapes pure form, spiritual clarity, and luminous stillness.

Here, at the edge of the world, the land itself becomes a masterpiece—raw, powerful, and profoundly moving.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Where Continents Nearly Touch

Today on the High Arctic Expedition, your vessel enters Kane Basin, a breathtaking Arctic waterway where the towering coastlines of Ellesmere Island and Greenland draw so close they feel within reach. Glaciers rise in shimmering walls of ice, while drifting floes shift across the sea like moving sculptures, reflecting the ever-changing light of the High Arctic. Long before polar explorers charted these passages, Inuit navigators traveled these waters with extraordinary skill, guided by ancestral knowledge of ice, wind, and current.

In this powerful convergence of land, sea, and story, you witness the Arctic as a living bridge between continents and cultures.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

An Arctic Oasis

Today you enter the serene embrace of Alexandria Fjord, a hidden Arctic oasis framed by towering glacial cliffs and calm, reflective waters. In late summer, the tundra awakens with soft hues—mosses, sedges, and delicate wildflowers bringing a quiet vibrancy to the valley floor beneath protective peaks. The air is still, the silence palpable, as if the entire landscape is pausing in a moment of breath and light.

This is the Arctic at its gentlest and most introspective—subtle, sacred, and profoundly alive.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Heart of Inughuit Culture

Surrounded by mountains and drifting sea ice, Qaanaaq stands as one of the northernmost inhabited places on Earth and a vibrant centre of Inughuit culture. Here, traditional knowledge of land, ice, and animal migration continues to guide daily life, existing in harmony with modern innovations. Dog-sledding, hunting, and deep community connection are not relics of the past—they are living expressions of identity, resilience, and relationship with the Arctic environment.

Meeting the people of Qaanaaq offers a rare glimpse into a way of life shaped not by isolation, but by continuity, cultural strength, and profound connection to place.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Land of Meteorite Iron

Today you step ashore at Kap York, a place where the Earth itself once gifted iron from meteorites—material used for generations by Inuit to craft tools essential for life in the Arctic. Walking along its stark shoreline, you stand at the crossroads of geology, ingenuity, and ancestral knowledge. Towering rock formations and elemental contrasts echo the Arctic landscapes that inspired the Group of Seven, where every shadow and ridge conveyed spirit, strength, and story.

Here, the land doesn’t just hold history—it shapes human resilience and artistic vision.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Crossing the Greenland Waters

Today you sail south along the dramatic coastline of Greenland, where jagged mountains rise from the sea and drifting icebergs create a moving gallery of natural sculpture. On board, you’ll join expert-led lectures, creative workshops, and cultural presentations that deepen your understanding of Arctic history, Indigenous knowledge, art, and ecology. From the deck, keep watch for whales breaking the surface and seabirds gliding across the sky—each moment a living composition of movement, light, and wilderness.

This is not just a day at sea—it’s a day of awakening to the rhythm and story of the Arctic.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Archipelago of Islands and Ice

Today you arrive in Upernavik, a captivating Arctic town nestled within a maze of islands, where vibrant Inuit culture and layered history meet amidst ice-filled waters. Here, you’ll visit Greenland’s oldest museum, founded in 1959, with exhibits housed in historic buildings that tell powerful stories of Inuit life, colonial contact, and northern resilience. This is also the childhood home of Knud Rasmussen, whose experiences here shaped his future as a renowned polar explorer and bridge-builder between cultures.

As you wander past brightly painted houses overlooking drifting icebergs, you’ll feel how deeply landscape, history, and identity are interwoven into daily life.

In Upernavik, every view is a window into the Arctic’s past—and its living present.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Sculpted by Time and Light

Today you sail through a realm of towering glaciers and drifting icebergs—each one a living sculpture carved by wind, sea, and centuries of frozen time. Fjords echo with the thunder of calving ice, while mountains rise in sheer, monumental walls that seem to touch the sky. The scale here is staggering, the geometry pure and elemental—an Arctic masterpiece in motion. It’s easy to see why artists like Lawren Harris and the Group of Seven were drawn north, inspired by these luminous forms that blur the line between nature and art.

In these cathedrals of ice, you don’t just witness beauty—you stand inside it.

Included Meals

All on-board meals

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Volcanic Isle in Disko Bay

Today you step onto Qeqertarsuaq, a volcanic island in Disko Bay where the forces of fire and ice meet in dramatic contrast. Black sand beaches and towering basalt cliffs tell the story of the Earth’s fiery origins, while luminous icebergs drift silently past the shore—a living reminder of the Arctic’s frozen realm. You’ll hike toward a cascading waterfall, its bright waters cutting a silver path through dark rock and vibrant tundra. In this landscape of bold juxtapositions, you’ll see the same elemental contrasts that captivated the Group of Seven—where geology becomes art, and every horizon holds a story in motion.

Here, the Earth reveals its power in every rock, wave, and whisper of ice.

Included Meals

All on-board meals

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Greenland’s Rugged Western Shore

Today you’ll cruise along Greenland’s breathtaking western coastline, where jagged mountains surge straight from the sea and colourful settlements rest at the edge of land and water. This is a region shaped by seafaring traditions and deep cultural connection to the Arctic environment, where hunting, fishing, and community life remain closely tied to the rhythms of the ocean.

As the ship moves south, shifting Arctic light dances across the peaks—turning rock into gold, water into glass, and sky into an ever-changing canvas of colour and form.

Every moment on this coastline feels alive with movement, story, and the timeless pulse of the North.

Included Meals

All on-board meals

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Greenland’s Capital and Cultural Heart

Your High Arctic Expedition voyage comes to a close in Nuuk, Greenland’s dynamic capital, where Inuit tradition and contemporary life coexist in bold, creative expression. Walking its vibrant streets and exploring world-class museums, you’ll encounter art, history, and storytelling that reveal Greenland not as a remote frontier, but as a thriving cultural powerhouse.

Like the artists who once looked north and found their imaginations forever changed, you’ll leave with new perspectives shaped by Arctic light, deep cultural insight, and the enduring power of curiosity.

This is not the end of your journey—it’s the beginning of a transformed way of seeing the world.

Included Meals

Breakfast on-board