Prestige Stateroom Deck 6
25% Ponant Bonus
20 m2
2
Set sail with PONANT on a brand-new itinerary, specifically designed for Le Commandant Charcot, the first hybrid electric polar exploration ship. This 13-day exploration cruise will offer you the unique opportunity to discover the north-east coast of Greenland, one of the most difficult regions to access in the Far North, in a particularly precocious and hostile season, spring, when the ice and snow are still ubiquitous.
Setting sail from Reykjavik, you will first reach the region of Ittoqqortoormiit, home to a small community of Greenlanders: this will be the occasion to find out about the life of the last hunters in the polar regions.
Then, you will head for the Northeast Greenland National Park, the largest national park in the world and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve: here, there is no trace of human life, just alpine magically coloured landscapes as far as the eye can see and powerful glaciers.
In the spring, the solid and powerful sea ice remains in charge of the visitors who venture out to it. It is the perfect time to observe the exceptional Arctic wildlife that it shelters. The polar bear is king here. You will perhaps admire, roaming this white desert, a solitary male in search of the ideal hunting or fishing spot, or a mother teaching her cub the secrets of survival.
You will attempt to reach the north of the national park, and Ile-de-France, discovered by the Duke of Orleans in 1905. This particularly remote region is protected by thick pack ice, brought directly from the North Pole by the transpolar current. You will then reach Reykjavik, where you will leave the ship.
We are privileged guests in these extreme lands where we are at the mercy of weather and ice conditions. Our navigation, mainly in the fjords, will be determined by the type of ice we come across; as the fast ice must be preserved, we will take this factor into account from day to day in our itineraries. The sailing programme, outings, activities and observation of fauna cannot be guaranteed and are subject to weather and ice conditions. The experiences are unique and vary from day to day and for each departure. The Captain and the Expedition Leader will make every effort to ensure that your experience is as rich as possible, while respecting safety instructions and regulations imposed by the AECO.
Ref : O220522
Discover the largest national park in the world, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the magical moment when nature wakes up. Outings and shore visits in a zodiac dinghy or hovercraft with an reinforced team of...
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Additional services
For more peace of mind, PONANT selects flights and takes care of your transfers for your trip as well as shore visits before and after the cruise.
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*Price is per person, based on double occupancy, based on availability, and subject to change at any time. The category of stateroom to which this price applies may no longer be available.
Services provided
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Expedition programmes include activities such as Zodiac® outings and landings (sometimes with "wet landing"), moderate walks to more active hikes, all accompanied by your expedition team of naturalist guides.
Ports of call, visited sites, outings and landings will depend on weather conditions, position of ice, winds and the state of the sea. These can force a change of plans at any time. The Captain and the Expedition Leader may at any time cancel or stop any activity, or even modify the itinerary. The final itinerary will be confirmed by the Captain, who will take into account the touristic quality of the sites and above all, the safety of the passengers. His decision will be based on advice from experts and authorities.
Travelling to polar/isolated regions is an exhilarating experience in remote areas: please remember that you are far from modern hospitals with full medical facilities, thus evacuation is extremely expensive. Without adequate medical coverage, all expenses will have to be immediately paid with your personal funds. We urge you to subscribe to full coverage insurance, choose your insurance company very carefully, be extremely vigilant and ensure your insurance is fully comprehensive, especially if you are insured by your credit card. PONANT offers an insurance contract with extensive guarantees, please contact us for more information.
Clothing tips:
Accessories:
Ideal clothes for life on board:
During the days spent on board, you are advised to wear comfortable clothes or casual outfits. The entire ship is air-conditioned, so a light sweater, a light jacket or a shawl may be necessary. When moving about in the public areas of the ship and the decks, light but comfortable shoes are recommended.
Informal evening:
In the evening, you are advised to wear smart-casual attire, especially when dining in our restaurants where wearing shorts and tee-shirts is not allowed.
For women:
For men:
Officer’s evening:
Depending on the itinerary and the program of your cruise, an Officer’s Evening with a white dress code may be organized. Therefore, we encourage you to bring a stylish white outfit for the occasion (otherwise black and white).
Gala evening:
During the cruise, two gala evenings will be organised on board. Thus, we recommend that you bring one or two formal outfits.
For women:
For men:
SHOP:
A small shop is available on board offering a wide range of outfits, jewellery, leather goods and many accessories.
A laundry service (washing/ironing) is available on board, but unfortunately there are no dry cleaning services. For safety reasons, your cabin is not equipped with an iron.
INSULATED BASE LAYER:
WATERPROOF OUTER LAYER:
HEALTH CARE:
OUTFITS ON BOARD:
ACCESSORIES:
PONANT activities
Hiking or snowshoeing
During each shore landing, depending on the ecological resilience of the biome encountered, we will propose hikes at different levels, in the company of your experienced naturalist guides: from a simple stroll along the coast to walks lasting several hours to reach particular viewpoints or historical sites. When the itineraries allow it, you’ll put on snowshoes* to set off, like the explorers of old, to discover areas that have barely known Man.
*with limited places available
Kayaking - Le Commandant Charcot
Glide on the clear waters or between the ice floes and get as close as possible to the immaculate nature of the poles. Supervised by licenced expert guides, you will try your hand in a kayak, a boat that has been favoured by the Inuits for at least 4,000 years. The kayak was initially used for hunting and fishing; for you, it will be a means of making the very most of your adventure on the White Continent or in the Far North.*
*with limited places available
Participative science
Le Commandant Charcot is fitted with the most modern oceanographic equipment and all the facilities necessary to accompany a scientific team in its research. Guided by naturalists trained in participatory science, you will thus have the opportunity to make a direct contribution to the global scientific effort. Assist research by taking part in a turbidity study using a Secchi disk, counting wildlife, studying the state of the pack ice or taking water samples: thanks to simple protocols, you’ll be able to discover part of the scientific adventure in the polar regions and contribute to improving the knowledge of biodiversity, marine mammals or glaciology and better understand Climate/Ecosystem/Man interactions.
Outings and shore visits in zodiac inflatables
Aboard Le Commandant Charcot, a fleet of 14 zodiacs expedition dinghies will be used for outings and shore visits throughout the cruise. Getting closer to a glacier calving huge icebergs, setting foot on a sheet of ice floe, observing the fauna up close: so many unforgettable moments that very few people will ever have the chance of experiencing in these regions that are hostile to man and home to unique wildlife.
Polar plunge
Let yourself be seduced by the unrivalled sensations of being surrounded by cold water: enjoy a unique experience in an exceptional setting during a polar plunge in your swimming costume in the middle of the ice. You'll be filled with intense emotions and will fully appreciate the energy boost from your body warming up after the swim!
*with limited places available
Ice fishing
What better place than the icy Arctic regions to practice ice fishing? Assisted by the naturalist guides, you will look for the perfect spot to cut your hole on the ice floe or on frozen lakes and try to catch fish using an ancestral method. This activity off the beaten path will equally delight fans of sports fishing and those who are curious for new discoveries.*
*with limited places available
Dog sledding
Try out a practice that dates back to 6,000 years before our era. Faithful companions to the Inuit who made their use widespread in around 1000 AD, sled dogs have also accompanied trappers in the American Far North and explorers on their most extraordinary expeditions. Led with a deft hand by their master and your local guide, they will take you across enchanting decors during a magical ride. This is the ideal way to discover the ice sheet; you will hear only the noise of the sled’s runners sliding across the ice, the paws of the dogs in the snow and the orders given by the Inuit. Let yourself be lulled by the magic of the moment.*
*with limited places available
Embarkation 22/5/2022 from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Departure 22/5/2022 at 6:00 pm
Iceland’s capital stretches along the edge of a vast bay in the west of the country. Perlan, the “Pearl of Reykjavík”, a museum located on ’Oskjuhlið hill, offers a panoramic view of the lush, green landscapes. A little further, one can easily spot the signpost showing the way to the evangelical Hallgrímskirkja church, and to the historical centre where one can stroll along the Skólavördustígur and the Laugavegur, two lively streets with charming small shops. For some relaxation just outside of the city, visitors have the opportunity to visit the Reykjanes peninsula and its famous thermal lagoons of the Blue Lagoon.
Arrival 23/5/2022
Departure 24/5/2022
Spend exceptional moments sailing aboard Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s first luxury polar exploration vessel and the first PC2-class polar cruise ship capable of sailing into the very heart of the ice, on seas and oceans which the frozen conditions render inaccessible to ordinary ships. Le Commandant Charcot is fitted with oceanographic and scientific equipment selected by a committee of experts. Take advantage of the on-board lectures and opportunities for discussion with these specialists to learn more about the poles. Participate in furthering scientific research with PONANT and let us discover together what these fascinating destinations have yet to reveal to us.
Arrival 25/5/2022
Departure 26/5/2022
Located between the largest national park and the longest system of fjords in the world, the town of Ittoqqortoormiit, whose name means “great house” in Greenlandic, is one of the remotest inhabited places in the world. Covered with ice and snow for nine months of the year, you will be able to discover the ancestral way of life of the last hunters of the polar region. As soon as the thickness of the ice floe allows, they set out on the trail of walruses, seals, narwhals, musk ox and polar bears, travelling by traditional dog sleds.
Arrival 27/5/2022
Departure 27/5/2022
In Gael Hamke Bay, you will sail towards Dodmansbugten, or “dead man’s bay”, in the south of Clavering Island. This is where the last Inuit settlement of Northeast Greenland was discovered around 1823. Here, you can still find typical trapper cabins like those described by the Danish explorer and writer Jørn Riel in his stories of the Arctic, humoristic accounts drawn from the dozens of years he spent exploring the fascinating lands of what is now the Northeast Greenland National Park. Further west, you will be able to discover the vestiges of the former Eskimonaes radio and weather station, captured by German troops during World War II to achieve control of the meteorological intelligence for the region.
Arrival 28/5/2022
Departure 28/5/2022
Sailing through the fascinating landscapes of the Northeast Greenland National Park, you will make your way to Danmarkshavn on the southern coast of Germania Land. Built in 1948, to this day Danmarkshavn remains a station of prime importance for determining meteorological conditions in Europe and North America. Despite the difficulty in accessing this coast often covered by ice, the spot was chosen during the wintering of the Danmark in 1906 as the base for an important scientific expedition through the region by dog sled. The north of this bay that is only free of ice for a very short time each year in August can only be reached by ships built to sail through ice.
Arrival 29/5/2022
Departure 29/5/2022
With a craggy coastline formed by gigantic fjords, magnificent alpine mountains looming over them, the shores of north-east Greenland offer breathtaking landscapes and are home to the largest national park in the world. Covering an area of around one million square kilometres, almost half the island, the North-East Greenland National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, is a particularly isolated region. Cut off for many months of the year by the ice floe, it is renowned for its pristine nature and rich wildlife.
Arrival 30/5/2022
Departure 30/5/2022
In the Northeast Greenland National Park, we are humbled by the changing and extreme ice conditions in this site where we are privileged guests. We will try to go as far north as possible to land on the coast of the famous Île-de-France, a mythical site of French polar expeditions discovered on 28 July 1905 during a polar exploration campaign led by Philippe of Orléans, Duke of Orléans (1869-1926). A little-known polar explorer, in 1905, 1907 and 1909 Duke Philippe of Orléans organised three Arctic expeditions aboard La Belgica, led by Captain Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery and his crew, thus entering the closed circle of the heroes of the Far North. During the 1905 expedition that led him to Spitsbergen in Greenland, he was accompanied by his friend the doctor Joseph Récamier and by the nature artist Edouard Mérite.
Arrival 31/5/2022
Departure 31/5/2022
To the south of the Northeast Greenland National Park, near the Hold with Hope Peninsula, in the King Christian X Land region, you will visit Myggbukta, a former Norwegian whaling, meteorological and radio station established in 1922 by Johan A. Olsen. It was he who gave this site its name meaning “mosquito bay” in Norwegian. This large bay situated at more than 73° latitude north is covered in superb arctic tundra extending as far as the eye can see. This rich vegetation cover allows a large population of musk oxen to thrive. If you are lucky, you may get to spot a few.
Arrival 1/6/2022
Departure 2/6/2022
Spend exceptional moments sailing aboard Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s first luxury polar exploration vessel and the first PC2-class polar cruise ship capable of sailing into the very heart of the ice, on seas and oceans which the frozen conditions render inaccessible to ordinary ships. Le Commandant Charcot is fitted with oceanographic and scientific equipment selected by a committee of experts. Take advantage of the on-board lectures and opportunities for discussion with these specialists to learn more about the poles. Participate in furthering scientific research with PONANT and let us discover together what these fascinating destinations have yet to reveal to us.
Arrival 3/6/2022 early morning
Disembarkation 3/6/2022 at 7:00 am
Iceland’s capital stretches along the edge of a vast bay in the west of the country. Perlan, the “Pearl of Reykjavík”, a museum located on ’Oskjuhlið hill, offers a panoramic view of the lush, green landscapes. A little further, one can easily spot the signpost showing the way to the evangelical Hallgrímskirkja church, and to the historical centre where one can stroll along the Skólavördustígur and the Laugavegur, two lively streets with charming small shops. For some relaxation just outside of the city, visitors have the opportunity to visit the Reykjanes peninsula and its famous thermal lagoons of the Blue Lagoon.
Polar Expedition
Realise your dream of adventure in the polar regions ! From your ship’s deck, aboard a Zodiac® inflatable or from land, discover the icy vastness and the fauna of Antarctica (humpback whales, seals, penguins and more) or the Arctic's fjords, glaciers and icebergs in shifting colours, not to mention the polar bears, the variety of wildlife and the special moments shared with the locals. Our team of naturalist guides share their knowledge with you during varied lectures about the fauna, the flora, the history of great explorations, geology and climatology. Thanks to its conscientiousness and to the responsible approach that is its hallmark, PONANT has been a leader and expert in cruises to these destinations for more than 20 years.
Shore excursions, Pre/Post & Overlands
Enhance your cruise and extend your trip with a carefully designed programme.
Day 1 - Reykjavik
Meet at Keflavík International Airport in the Arrival Hall. Look for PONANT sign. You will be greeted by our local representative off your flight (provided that you have previously communicated your flight schedule to your travel agent).
You will be transferred to the Retreat Blue Lagoon hotel.
Check-in.
Afternoon and diner are at leisure.
Day 2 - Reykjavik
The morning is at leisure to enjoy the ambiance and amenities of your hotel before your check-out.
You will be transferred to the port to embark on board your ship.
Optionnal acitvity : Helicopter tour, between fire and ice
From your hotel, depart for a unique helicopter adventure to discover Iceland by the air.
Overfly Glymur, the highest waterfall of Iceland, and head to the Þórisjökull glacier for the first landing. You will have the chance to walk on the glacier to enjoy the view and take a deep breath of the fresh air before continuing to Þingvellir National Park.
Right there, you will witness the continental drift of the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates that's only fully visible from above.
The second landing of this tour is in the Hengill geothermal area, which got its name from the Hengill volcano, situated in a remote valley accessible only by a few hours hike or by a helicopter. This valley has hot springs and boiling mud pots that you can walk right up to. It is a magical place that is beautiful throughout the whole year.
End your adventure in Reykjavik domestic airport from where you will be transfer to the pier to embark your ship.
Your hotel:
To enhance the beauty of the surrounding landscape, the Retreat Blue Lagoon hotel has opted for a gray-blue and moss-green interior, lava slabs and decades-old Icelandic ceramics. The rooms have a very contemporary decor, open entirely on the outside, for an exclusive view of the black lava fields. The property has a spa, dug into the volcanic rock. A moment of relaxation out of time.
Your programme includes:
Your programme does not include:
Contacts of your hotel:
Retreat Blue Lagoon hotel
Nordurljosavegur 11,
240 Grindavík,
Iceland
Telephone number : +354 420 8700
Please note:
Duration and order of the visits may vary. To know your PONANT flight schedule, please contact your travel agent; it is also indicated on your electronic ticket included in your travel documents.
Total : €1,050
Travel with peace of mind as PONANT organises your transfer between the airport and your port of embarkation.
Reykjavik
Meet at Keflavík international airport in the Arrival hall. Look for PONANT sign. You will be greeted by our local representative off the flight selected by PONANT.
You will depart the airport and be directly transferred to the pier to embark on your ship.
Your programme includes:
Your programme does not include:
To know your PONANT flight schedule, please contact your travel agent; it is also indicated on your electronic ticket included in your travel documents.
Total : €120
Travel with peace of mind as PONANT organises your transfer between your port of disembarkation and the airport.
Reykjavik
After disembarkation procedures are completed, you will be greeted at the port by our local English-speaking representative.
You will then be transferred to the international airport of Keflavík in time for check-in for the PONANT selected flight.
Your programme includes:
Your programme does not include:
To know your PONANT flight schedule, please contact your travel agent ; it is also indicated on your electronic ticket included in your travel documents.
Total : €120
Enhance your cruise and extend your trip with a carefully designed programme.
Day 1 - Reykjavik
After disembarkation procedures are completed, you will be greeted at the port by our local representative.
You will be transferred to the Silica Hotel.
Optionnal acitvity : Helicopter tour, between fire and ice
You will be transferred to Reykjavik domestic airport to depart for a unique 2 hours helicopter adventure to discover Iceland by the air.
Overfly Glymur, the highest waterfall of Iceland, and head to the Þórisjökull glacier for the first landing. You will have the chance to walk on the glacier to enjoy the view and take a deep breath of the fresh air before continuing to Þingvellir National Park.
Right there, you will witness the continental drift of the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates that's only fully visible from above.
The second landing of this tour is in the Hengill geothermal area, which got its name from the Hengill volcano, situated in a remote valley accessible only by a few hours hike or by a helicopter. This valley has hot springs and boiling mud pots that you can walk right up to. It is a magical place that is beautiful throughout the whole year.
End your adventure by a transfer from the heliport to your hotel.
Check-in.
Afternoon and diner are at leisure.
Day 2 - Reykjavik
The morning is at leisure to enjoy the ambiance and amenities of your hotel before your check-out.
You will then be transferred to the airport in time for check-in for the PONANT selected flight or any other flight (provided that you have previously communicated your flight schedule to your travel agent).
Your hotel:
To enhance the beauty of the surrounding landscape, the Silica hotel is conceived for wellness and designed for wellbeing. The rooms have a very contemporary decor, open entirely on the outside, for an exclusive view of the black lava fields. You will enjoy the private Silica lagoon, the premium entrance to the Blue Lagoon, and you will have access to the Retreat spa, dug into the volcanic rock. A moment of relaxation out of time.
Your programme includes:
Your programme does not include:
Contacts of your hotel:
Silica hotel
Nordurljosavegur 7,
240 Grindavík,
Iceland
Telephone number : +354 420 8900
Please note:
Duration and order of the visits may vary. To know your PONANT flight schedule, please contact your travel agent; it is also indicated on your electronic ticket included in your travel documents.
Total : €680