Quark Expeditions - arctic info needed

How was the trip? We are looking at Quark for 2015. Any thoughts would be helpful.

How can I see your blog re Sea Spirit?

How can I see your blog re Sea Spirit?

Not sure whose blog you're looking for ... but if you scroll back up to post #24 you will see the links I posted -- one for lmf914's blog; and one for mine. In the case of my blog, the Sea Spirit/Greenland posts are in the 2013 archive ... starts in August 2013, and continues into September 2013.

I am looking for info on Sea Spirit Arctic trips. TIA

YEAH I found the blog. Thanks. We are thinking of doing the Norway/ Arctic trip with Quark. Do you know anything about that trip? We are interested in polar bears and Quark told us they could not be seen in Greenland trip. Any thoughts???

YEAH I found the blog. Thanks. We are thinking of doing the Norway/ Arctic trip with Quark. Do you know anything about that trip? We are interested in polar bears and Quark told us they could not be seen in Greenland trip. Any thoughts???

If you mean the Svalbard trip when you say Norway/Arctic ... we did that with Silver Explorer, but were in the same waters with a Quark ship most of the time. We've done three voyages with Quark ... all fantastic experiences, and would expect that Svalbard would be just as great. We did see polar bears in Svalbard. We also saw a polar bear in Greenland (the Northern Lights itinerary on the easy side of Greenland) -- but the chances of seeing them are small, so I am not surprised that Quark would say they can't be seen on that voyage.

Seeing polar bears on a sea voyage is luck of he draw ... the bears move around, so seeing them is hit and miss and no one can guarantee seeing them in advance. In Svalbard, we saw bears three times -- the first two were at a considerable distance ... they were clearly bears, but they were far away. The last one was a closer encounter.

Consider your reasons for going to the Arctic. If it is solely for bears -- and not seeing them would detract from the trip -- might I suggest an alternative instead ... Churchill in Manitoba, Canada. This is the self-proclaimed polar bear capital of the world. We went in 2008 and saw 50 bears up close -- standing with their paws on our tundra buggy close; lost track of how many were in the distance. We stayed at the Tundra Buggy Lodge for several nights and went to sleep and woke up to bears. This is the experience if your sole purpose for going to the Arctic is to see polar bears. My write up of that experience is in the November 2008 archive ... starting with this post.

On the other hand, if you are going to the Arctic for the full experience -- the ice, the birds, the whales, the walrus, the bigger-than-life-landscape -- and the bears would be a great addition, but not the end-all-be-all of the voyage, then I would not hesitate to recommend a Quark Arctic voyage.

It really does depend on what you're looking for out of your Arctic experience.