7 day adventure at 78° north

Getting to Svalbard is relatively easy thanks to the ever increasing connections available. We came via Oslo which is only a 2 hour flight from London. After an easy, but annoying  connection (More on that later) we were on the flight to Longyearbyen.

To anyone who is interested this year we decided to spice things up a little bit on the travel front and Clarky (my equally frivolous husband) was to book all of our travels this year. We have had a big year due to locating to a different part of the UK, new jobs and promotions so we knew we were going to have a slower year travel wise so we thought this would be a perfect time to make things a little more interesting. FYI I would highly recommend this, We are continuing next year where I am chief travel planner. Stay tuned for that!

Anyway, back to Svalbard!!

We travelled in the August which is "summer time". Stepping off the plane you could definitely feel the magic about this place, although there was a nip in the air! I dont know if it was the anticipation of it being a surprise for the last year or the fact I was finally steeping into a country i have dreamed about visiting since I was a child but this moment felt surreal.

This is the northernmost international airport in the world, and it felt like it. The airport is small as you would expect which adds to its charm. As its apart of Norway we had done all of our security checks in Oslo so we could walk straight out. We like to travel light so after a brief look around we went to the front of the airport to suss out our transfer to the hotel.

We were advised by the hotel the bus was 100kr each and the taxis would be 300kr. There was a bus waiting outside the airport, however we decided to get a taxi so we could get on the move and make the most of what afternoon we had left. To our surprise she only charged us 170kr, she also advised us that CARD is king here as they dont have a bank. We had bought cash that we did struggle to use.

Upon arrival at the hotel which was about half four in the afternoon we got ourselves settled and decided to venture out to get a lay of the land before dinner in the evening.

We stayed at the Radisson Blu Polar hotel. The hotel is located perfectly, very close to the shoreline and the town. Longyearbyen isn't a large town but its quaint but rugged and industrial nature is captivating. The hotel Restaurant 'Nansen' was fantastic. Coming from a kitchen that would have its obvious difficulties due to the islands location the food they served was outstanding. I would recommend the beef tartar and the ribs for main.

***Check out the gallery below for the food porn!***

We woke up to a wild reindeer on the grass outside our bedroom window which set the day up perfectly. We went down for breakfast bright and early,  This hasn't proved a problem as the breakfast is to die for! (if you know me well, you will know one of my favourite things about travelling is breakfasts around the world!)

Today Clarky had planned a day on a catamaran with Hurtigruten Svalbard. I couldn't fault the day we had with them. The tour we picked was the Wildlife and Glacier tour on an electric-powered catamaran and it despite the rainy weather I wasnt disappointed. I have always wanted to get up close to a glacier and thanks to the gentle nature of this boat we were able to get a really great view. It was a small group of about 20 people and boat was more than capable of accommodating 100 so we had plenty of space to spread out and everyone had space on the edge of the boat to get some great pictures.

We were treated to views of the glacier Nordenskioldbreen, views of the ghost town of Pyramiden and some amazing wildlife. Although as with all of these trips sometimes nature performs and sometimes it doesn't. We were lucky to see Arctic foxes, an abundance of puffins and other birds, and beluga whales.

The crew were amazing on this boat trip, their knowledge and stories of the past were fascinating and informative.

After returning to the hotel the nights plan was to stay up to see the midnight sun!

In the summer, between mid April and late August the sun doesn't set below the horizon. This creates no obvious definition between the day and night and is a phenomenon that only happens in the north of the north polar circle and the south of the south polar circle. It really is quite disorientating. We found ourselves having a light dinner and then took a walk up the Funken hotel (where i am sat now!) to walk off dinner and sample some of their cocktails waiting for midnight. This was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, walking around in the middle of the night with the sun in the sky was something I will never forget.

If you do find yourself in here dont forget to head up to the church to see the sundial and sign in the guest book. 

 When planning our holiday we always add in days where we can plan as we go. Today was that day. Clarky had booked every other day with an activity and 2 days with evening excursions. This left day three for us to fill.

We had seen on our boat tour a hut that was perched on the edge of the harbour side called Svalbad. There are tours where you can go out with a guide and do a polar dip and have a bbq and these were considerabley more money so we decided to do this ourselves!

So, Svalbad is a sauna on a platoon which you are able to reserve online. It had the main sauna itself, ladders down into the fjord and a plunge pool. It worked out £20 each for an hour and you were emailed a code to enter.

You are able to hire it for private use and this was 3000kr per hour or shared use which is what we decided to do. It can accommodate 10 people at a time and it shows you how many available spaces during the booking process which makes it easier to see how busy it might be. We paid 300kr per person which worked out about £21.
If you wanted to book it for private hire they said you can fit 14 in, however this would have been a bit too intimate for my liking!

As it turns out it was only us and another couple for this time slot. Although It would have been nice to have it to ourselves having some encouragement during the dip into the fjord was well received.

Our evening activity was a tour of Svalbard Brewery, but not just any brewery the northern most brewery in the world. I'm going to start by saying I am not a beer drinker, at all. Clarky however is a big fan of the process due to his career in Pub hospitality!

I was impressed by the set up and the amazingly varied career of the owner pre brewing (Planes, mining and submarine!) Charlie who held the evening was a character, and being a fellow Brit we had some common interests. He was very informative and although this was set up primarily for Clarky, I did enjoy the evening and also managed to sample all of the beers. 

Today was a bucket list moment for the whole group, including the tour guide.

We booked a day kayaking with Svalbard Wildlife Expeditions to an abandoned coal mine on the other side of the fjord and to have a bbq. However due to the wind we were advised that it would be near impossible to get back! Plan b would be to make our way down the coast exploring the coastline and get a lift back after a bbq. Some of the group didnt appear to be sold on this but I was more than happy about this outcome as it meant we would be kayaking past the airport, which I thought was quite a novel concept!

Turns out 2 pods of Beluga whales decided to make the same journey and join us along for the ride. I have never seen anything like this, it was almost like they were playing with us, going backwards and forwards up the coast. They were swimming up past the kayak, under the kayak and spouting right next to us.

I guess you never know what is going to happen in this place. I couldnt recommend Kaiser (our guide) from Svalbard Wildlife Expeditions enough. there was no rush and nothing was too much trouble. When the whales were about she was happy for us to spend as much time in the kayaks as possible, we even got out of the water for the bbq and then quickly decided to get back in when the 2nd pod decided to come back for more! She saw an opportunity for us to make memories for a lifetime and she was determined to make it happen.

On Friday we had an evening activity planned so decided it would be a good day to stay around Longyearbyen, have a look in the shops, check out Svalbard Museum and to book something for Saturday.

The museum is well worth a visit, lots of very interesting history on the island including the devastating whaling that happened there, how mining took off and how it became the centre for scientific discovery it is today. It also got us asking the question on how will Svalbard look in 3/5/10 years time?

We decided to head back up to Funken Lodge at the top of town and sit in there for light snacks and a drink and get some bits done on our laptops. This hotel is great, it has a modern but very cozy vibe and the staff were extremely accommodating. You will pay a little more than some of the other hotels but the food, the atmosphere and the drinks are well worth it, and make an otherwise potentially boring "work lunch" feel a lot more special.

The evening crept round quickly and before we knew it we had to head back to be picked up for our wilderness evening at Camp Barentz, booked with Hurtigruten Svalbard. This is definitely built for tourists but the surrounding tundra was outstanding and the food and the guides were very good. The evening lasted from 7pm till 10pm and was held inside a very cosy log cabin with an open fire in the middle which was used to cook our dinner. We got to try Aquavit, a herbal spirit drank here, reindeer stew washed down with a glass of red wine and an chocolate brownie to finish.

We learnt all about the Polar bears and some more history of the island. It was very light-hearted and it was great to socialise with other tourists and find out why they decided to visit Svalbard. In fact, the lady who sat opposite us was an amateur photographer and after hearing about our adventure with the beluga whales, pulled out her camera and said she took a picture of us from the top of one of the mountains on a hike she was on that day! All in all it was a good evening. 

Booking our final excursion was difficult, despite seeing loads of wildlife during our stay and having a once in a lifetime experience with some beluga whales we still hadn't seen a polar bear or been on a glacier. We could do another boat trip? There were several hikes? Try our luck kayaking again? After a lot of back and forth a decision was made and we decided on a hike to a glacier.

This hike was with Green dog (linked to the right) and seemed like one of the smaller hikes we saw. We had to be up at 4:30am to catch our flight home so didn't want to push too hard. It was a beautiful clear day and the sun was shining. To be honest the weather couldn't have been better.

We got a ride up the Gruve 7 (CHECK) and hiked to Foxanna glacier. It was more strenuous than we expected! The rocky ground was very slow to get over and could have been quite troublesome if you struggled with your mobility. The small rocks would fall away under your feet and at some points the trail was quite steep. The large rocks weren't much easier to climb and the final stretch was over the tundra which was half boggy and very lumpy! Me and Clarky however didn't mind this at all, it was part of the adventure and getting wet feet in Svalbard was just another fond memory!
We were accompanied by the guide Rebecca and her retired Huskey Apple. There was a couple who struggled with some of the terrain and she was very encouraging and paced the hike accordingly.

She provided crampons to walk on the glacier and time to stop and take pictures. Although I am aching today, and it was tougher than expected it again surpassed our expectations!