The name Reykjavik translates to 'smoky bay', referencing the geothermal activity of the area. an amphitheatre of mountains encircles greater Reykjavik, shaped by glaciers, earthquakes and volcanic activity over eons, in Iceland's capital you will embark Seabourn Venture to begin an in-depth exploration of Greenland's majesty.

The largest of the Westman Islands, Heimaey, is off Iceland's southwest coast. Towering sea cliffs host millions of Atlantic puffins, more than anywhere else. Young pufflings flying at night often land in town, where children rescue them. The town was nearly inundated with lava flow in 1973. The Eldhemiar Museum focues on the eruption. The Sagnheimar Folk Museum covers local history from the 17th century, when Barbary pirates took hundreds of people into slavery in Algeria.

As your ship cruises the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland, get more familiar with the beautiful, hospitable Seabourn Venture and your fellow adventurers and meet the fascinating, experienced and accomplished members of your Expedition Team, both in formal briefings and in more casual conversations around the ship.

Sermilik Fjord culminates in seven large tidewater flaciers feeding stately, photogenic icebergs of all shapes and sizes into the fjord. Surrounded by mountains supporting five more hanging glaciers, it is a breathtaking place to cruise. The towering Schweizerland Alps of King Christian IX Land, crowned by awe-inspiring Mont Forel above Midgard Glacier, are Greenlandic landscape on a truly monumental scale.

Nearly 30 miles of tidewater glaciers ring Umnivik Bay, sloping down from the Greenland Ice Sheet to the sea. A six-man team skied and hauled sledges from here to Nuuk. Two Paleo-Eskimo Saqqaq archaeological sites here date to 2500 BC. Several large islands in the bay, including Uppernattivik, make inviting landing sites.

The operatic grandeur of Skjoldungen Fjord inspired its name, from mythic Norse royalty. Shining, serpentine rivers of ice flow from nearly vertical peaks, riven by gaping creavasses. Tall serac ice towers are silhouetted against the sky. Treeless slopes are carpeted in colourful dwarf birch, willow and ground-hugging Arctic wildlfowers. Thunderous booms signal icebergs calving into the sea. Scattered remains of Paleo-Eskimo and Inuit dwellings make it an inviting place to explore by Zodiac.

Cruising Prince Christian Sound, your ship will thread narrow channels enfolded by mountains rishing sheer to sharp, shattered peaks. The tiny community of Aappilattoq is picturesque, with brightly painted houses scattered across a small peninsula of humped granite under a looming, reddish-coloured pyramid of stone. The little red town church nestles next to a white-picketed graveyard. From here, your journey continues south, eventually to emergy from the sound only six miles from Greenland's southernmost point.

The largest city in Southern Greenland, Qaqortoq rises steeply above a natural small-boat harbour. Stone & Man is an outdoor art project celebrating Greenlandic culture with sculptures carved from natural rock features. Shops in the town sell traditional arts and crafts and wild-caught furs. At Hvalsey, your Expedition Team archaeologist can explain Greenland's most prominent Norse archaeological site, where a wedding in 1408 is the last written record of the Norse in Greenland.

Narsaq's rare deep-water harbour was vital to the medieval Norse Eastern Settlement. Your archaeologist can explain the nearby ruins of Landnam homestead from AD 1000 and the church of Dyrnaes. Narsaq's red-and-white church and cemetery are favourite photo subjects and its museum exhibits include traditional kayak building. Tugtutoq Island's wildlife includes a small herd of reindeer, arctic foxes and hares. Its other attractions are geologic and archaeological: intriguing eroded dykes in mixed igenous and sedimentary rock, and ancient Thule and Inuit archaeological sites.

Erik the Red founded Brattahalid in AD 985; and eventually his 'Eastern Settlement' was home to 5,000 Viking settlers. Recently unearthed graves here hold the remains of 144 Viking colonists. Less than 100 people live here today, farming sheep just as the Norse did. The oldest church in the region is a sod-roofed living history museum. People in Itilleq, on a small Davis Strait island with no freshwater source, depend on desalination. They produly show women's traditonal beadwork and their purebred Greenland sled dogs, protected from crossbreeding by regulations banning other breeds north of the Arctic Circle.

Tiny Paamiut is remote Greenland at its best. People have lived here since 1500 BC. Once the Danes arrived, the community traded furs and whale products and earned worldwide fame for traditonal soapstone carvings. Fredens Kirke has a multi-gabled facade capped by green roofs, red walls and neat white trim. Scan the skies for white-tailed eagles, known as Nattoralik in Greenlandic. They are plentiful here and local youths name their sports teams for them for good luck.

Traditions and modern influences combine to create Greenland's capital Nuuk. Its University of Greenland has 650 students. The National Museum's cultural displays include the astonishing 500-year-old mummies of Thule women and children discovered in a rock cave at Qilakitsoq. The Art Museum's collection primarily features works by travelling European artists. Nuuk Kayak Museum is an impressive collection of traditional sealskin kayaks and indigenous hunting artifacts.

Maniitsoq means 'uneven place', describing the rocky knolls and peaks that shape the town's island. Townspeople predictably refer to the town, cut through by small natural canals as the 'Venice of Greenland'. Their colourful houses, reflected in the calm water, are far from baroque palaces, but the mountain scenes, breaching humpback whales, smiling, friendly people and the occasional Greenlandic sled-dog provide plenty of photographic opportunities for visitors.

Picturesque Sisimut, on a tranquil fjord north of the Arctic Circle, is 'rough, real and remote'. The area around Greenland's second-largest city has been inhabited for 4,500 yearts, first by Inuit Saqqaq peoples, then Dorset, and finally Thule people whose descendants form the majority of the current population. Two peaks, Nasaasaaq and Palasip Qaqaa, offer stunning views above brightly coloured houses that stand out in contrast to a grey and white landscape. See the traditional Greenlandic peat house and the remains of an 18th-century kayak in the Sisimut Museum.

Kangerlussuaq lies on a large alluvial plain, deposited by the nearby glacial-outflow river. This perfectly flat environment is a rare commodity in Greenland. An airbase constructed here in 1941 served to refuel single-engine military aircraft being ferried to Britain. Disembark Seabourn Venture, cherising fond memories of Greenland's unspoiled natural majesty, and transfer to the airport for your flight back to Reykjavik and onward.

This cruise is selling fast! Secure your space today by calling one of our Travel Specialists on 0203 196 1000

Arrive in Kangerlussuaq and embark your ship, Hanseatic Inspiration. You will depart in the late evening, setting sail towards the west coast of Greenland. 

Enjoy the many amenities of your ship as you spend a day relaxing at sea.

Look forward to intensive expedition days in the home of the Inuit, as you experience Greenland's spectacular contrasts between the ice-covered Disko Bay and the few settlements beyond Old Thule. In the summer, the island paints a colourful picture: icy white, lush green, deep brown and dazzling yellow. A vast silent landscape home to relics of a 4,500 year-old culture - seemingly almost forgottten by the world.

Your personal Arctic adventure gets off to an impressive start with the Eqip Sermia Glacier and its white wall of ice. Get up-close in the Zodiacs and marvel at the glacier cliff about 7km in length. In the small town of Uummannaq, a museum recalls the expeditions of explorers from days gone by. A hike with your experts will take you to "Santa's summer house", the setting of a Danish TV series. The surrounding terrain is ideal for a hike in the tundra. Life in Greenland is shaped by fishing and hunting - and the same goes for Kangersuatsiaq, situated on a small island in the Upernavik archipelago, its colourful houses and natural harbour reflect the enchanting untouched north.

The further north the Hanseatic Inspiration goes, the greater the excitement on board. Ice conditions permit which remote coasts and settlements you visit. Time and again, Zodiac landings offer the opportunity for hikes through fascinating landscapes. Early Inuit groups settled in the Qaanaaq region over 4,000 years ago. The town itself was built in 1953 for the people that were moved to make way for a US airbase. Life in the village of Siorapaluk is amost unbelievably isolated. The country's most northerly settlement lies on a narrow beach at the foot of some gently rolling mountains. With luck, your travel diary will include encounters with seals, musk oxen and reindeer. Your team of experts will provide fascinating insight into various chapters in history, including the tales of many famous explorers.

Cruising off Cape York brings breathtaking views of bizarre ice formations. A rocky crest bears a memorial to the American explorer Robert Edwin Peary, who set out for the North Pole at the end of the 19th century.

Relax on board as the Hanseatic Inspiration cruises back towards the western coast of Greenland.

Qeqertarsuaq, founded on Disko Island in 1773, is particularly full of character - enter the small town through the whalebone gateway. The chances of seeing whales are very good in these waters. Explore Godhavn - the "good harbour", Qeqertarsuaq's translation - with your experts or wander through the Arctic tundra to the Windy Valley. Be amazed by Ilulissat in the company of experienced experts. Hike to the ice fjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the highest concentration of icebergs in the whole country.

The end of the cruise brings a very special highlight: Disko Bay. Cruising and Zodiac rides will place you right at the centre of this spectacle with drifting ice sculptures that originate from the Jakobshavn Glacier. The world's fastest glacier, it produces 46km of ice each year!

Disembark the Hanseatic Inspiration in the early morning for your return charter flight.

This cruise is selling fast! Secure your space today by calling one of our Travel Specialists on 0203 196 1000

Arrive in Kangerlussuaq and embark your ship, Hanseatic Inspiration. You will depart in the late evening, setting sail along the west coast of Greenland. 

Renowned experts from various disciplines will lend extra depth to your expedition as you explore Greenland. Fascinating talks on board, thrilling Zodiac rides and hikes will bring you closer to the polar region. Greenland will take your breath away with its spectacular and diverse Arctic landscape. Immerse yourself in an astonishing world, just like the legendary explorers/

Enjoy the many amenities of your ship as you spend a day relaxing at sea.

Labrador, Canada's most easterly province, is a place of breathtaking scenery. Rock formations rise up to 1,500m out of the sea. Remote locations invite you to go hiking. Rivers rush through a landscape like lifelines. The home of moose, wolves and caribou. The coast is also home to seals and whales. Head into these regions that just a few years ago could only be reached by seaplane or sled. Visit Hopedale on the north coast - also know by the Inuits as " the place of the whales". Battle Harbour is a reminder of simple bygone times. The restored 19th-century fishing village is made up of historic houses nestled in the wild natural surroundings like splashes of light. Once the vibrant capital of the cod-fishing industry, today it is homage to a slower pace of life.

Travelling through the fjord-like Hamilton Inlet and cruising on Lake Melville, the Hanseatic Inspiration will draw closer to Goose Bay. A breathtaking mountain backdrop set against deep-green forests in the heart of Labrador concludes your cruise with a premiere: this is the first time in Hapag Lloyd's history that a cruise has ended here. The next day, board a charter flight to Montreal.

This cruise is selling fast! Secure your space today by calling one of our Travel Specialists on 0203 196 1000