Tauck Announces Details of New Spitsbergen "Arctic Allure" Cruise

Company to Host BBC Earth Filmmakers on Four Expedition Cruises

WILTON, CT (May 23, 2018)  Tauck has announced details of its new-for-2019 "Arctic Allure: Spitsbergen and the Midnight Sun" small ship cruise itinerary, as well as plans to host BBC Earth filmmakers next year on select sailings of four different expeditionary cruises.

The new 10-day journey will explore the island of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago. Located inside the Arctic Circle (roughly halfway between Norway and the North Pole), Spitsbergen and the archipelago's other islands are notable for their population of some 3,000 polar bears, which exceeds the area's human population. The archipelago is also home to Arctic fox, Arctic moose, Svalbard reindeer, and approximately 30 species of birds, while the surrounding waters are inhabited by whales, dolphins, seals and walruses. Containing six national parks, Spitsbergen is also renowned for its rugged and largely pristine landscapes including glaciers, mountains, and fjords.

Tauck will offer a single departure of the "Arctic Allure" journey next year (beginning on June 24, 2019), and the itinerary kicks off with a pre-cruise overnight hotel stay in Oslo.  The following morning, Tauck guests board a charter flight to Longyearbyen, the largest settlement on Spitsbergen. There, guests will board the Ponant sailing yacht Le Boreal and embark on a seven-day cruise exploration of Spitsbergen. The cruise itinerary itself is highly flexible, based on sea and weather conditions and the location of local wildlife. Sites visited may include abandoned, centuries-old whaling outposts, tiny Ny-Alesund (the most northerly civilian settlement in the world), Monaco Glacier and Kongsbreen (King's Glacier), and the ghost town of Pyramiden, an eerie, abandoned Russian coal mining village.

Spitsbergen's austere landscapes will be juxtaposed against the casual luxury of cruising aboard Le Boreal.  At just 142 meters in length and with a maximum capacity of 234 guests, Le Boreal offers an intimate onboard ambiance, tasteful décor and stylish public spaces, including a main dining room, casual restaurant and three lounges with bars.  Included in the price (10 days from $10,990 per person, double occupancy, plus international airfare) is the initial overnight in Oslo, roundtrip flights from Oslo to Longyearbyen, the seven-day cruise aboard Le Boral, and a final hotel overnight in Oslo.  Also included are all gratuities, all shore excursions, unlimited onboard beer, house wine and spirits, meals, port charges, taxes, luggage handling and more.

Throughout the cruise, guests will benefit from Tauck's Earth Journeys partnership with the renowned filmmakers at BBC Earth, the creators of such award-winning nature documentaries as Frozen Planet, Life, Blue Planet, and Planet Earth.  Through the partnership, guests will view a number of brief, Tauck-exclusive filmed vignettes produced by BBC Earth filmmakers that will add insight and perspective to the animal life and places they are encountering during their adventure.  Guests will also experience Spitsbergen and its wildlife in unique ways, through the hands-on use of cutting-edge technologies employed in the field by BBC Earth filmmakers.  Specific technologies are scheduled to include long-range directional microphones and thermal imaging cameras.

SPECIAL GUESTS: BBC EARTH FILMMAKERS TO JOIN FOUR CRUISE ITINERARIES 
Tauck's "Arctic Allure" cruise will feature a special appearance by BBC Earth filmmaker Peter Bassett, one of three BBC Earth filmmakers who will be joining a total of four Tauck expedition cruise itineraries next year.  Bassett will accompany guests on shore explorations, provide onboard lectures, and be available for more informal discussions with guests throughout the cruise.  During a career spanning more than 20 years and over 40 countries, Basset has lived for a month surrounded by some 250,000 king penguins and 10,000 elephant seals on an island in the South Atlantic, been closely eyeballed by a blue whale (the largest animal on the planet) off the coast of Baja California, and been bitten in the back by a cheetah in Namibia.

Bassett will also be joining Tauck guests in 2019 for the sold-out, January 7 departure of its Antarctica cruise aboard L'Austral.  In addition, filmmaker, bear expert, ecologist, author and TV host Chris Morgan will offer an onboard presentation on all three sailings of Tauck's "Alaska's Inside Passage" cruise aboard Le Soleal next year (July 20 & 27; August 3, 2019, from $6,990 per person plus airfare).  Morgan's career has taken him from the Canadian Rockies, Scotland and the Pakistani Himalayas to northern Spain, Turkey, Borneo, Siberia and Alaska (among other locations). He has also hosted television productions for BBC, PBS, National Geographic Television and the Discovery Channel, and appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Finally, BBC Earth filmmaker Tim Martin will be sailing with guests on the January 11, 2019 departure of Tauck's "The Panama Canal & Costa Rica" itinerary.  Martin has traveled to some 40 countries during his career, stalking Nile crocodiles in South Africa (for a film that helped expose a falsified, fatal crocodile attack/life insurance scam), camped in virgin rainforest in Guyana 100 miles from the nearest road, and been snowed-in in a remote lodge while filming wolves in Belarus (where a non-English-speaking host passed the blizzard by dispensing vodka and champagne each day, beginning at breakfast).

Those interested in more information can contact their local travel professional, call Tauck at 800 468 2825, or visit the company's website at www.tauck.com.

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