Svalbard is about as close as most mortal are going to get to the North Pole. It’s a frozen archipelago way off the north coast of Norway. It’s only got one main settlement, Longyearbyen, and a handful of icy roads.  The sort of place where your polar bear rifle is just as important as your mittens. So why visit? Because it’s one of the world’s last great wildernesses – a lost land of glaciers, ice fields and snowcapped mountains – and the wildlife viewing is some of the best anywhere in the world.

So if you’re planning an Arctic adventure and you want to know what you’re in for. This is it. Welcome to Svalbard…

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Want to explore Svalbard for yourself? View our range of Arctic tours around the island of Spitsbergen.

Feature image c/o kadege59, Flickr