20 incredible expedition cruises to book now

The Asmat region of West Papua was once notorious, due to its Indigenous people still practising headhunting deep into the 20th century. Those days are mercifully gone, but the Asmat and their villages are still wedded to traditions and practices dating back generations. This is a region that is still visited by few, and was all but off-limits until thee arly 2000s. Aqua Expeditions’ Asmat & New Guinea Cruise offers a glimpse into a way of life and history that is little known to most visitors, as you take a yacht (30 passengers max) around the West Papua coast, with jungle hikes revealing endemic forest kangaroos and waterfalls in between snorkelling trips in Momon and Triton Bay. But the real lure here is the chance to meet and learn from the Asmat themselves.

More information: Aqua Expeditions. Flexible dates; 7 nights from £9,455pp, excluding international flights

Between the hip café culture of Iceland capital Reykjavik and the small-town wonders of tiny Churchill, Canada – known for its ‘polar bear jail’ and the hundreds of beluga whales that return every year to breed in Hudson Bay – there’s an awful lot of adventure to be found. Silversea’s Reykjavik to Churchill, Manitoba cruise exploits every inch, as you bounce up the west coast of Greenland on side trips to the Kangerlussuaq fjord and the brightly coloured historical houses of Paamiut, then cross over to Canada. Island pit stops break up the days at sea, as you pause to track down walruses on Lady Franklin (named after the widow of the explorer lost to these waters), the million-strong colony of Brünnich’s guillemots on Akpatok, and drop by the Inuit arts community of Cape Dorset.

More information: Silversea. 9 Jul 2025; 16 nights from £25,200pp, including international flights

We’re used to enthusing about hiking through the ice-carved fjords and valleys of New Zealand’s South Island, but the chance to both cruise and soar over them too – on a pair of on-ship helicopters – puts a new slant on this wild land. Scenic’s Pure New Zealand: North & South Islands doesn’t just confine itself to the south, though; passengers embark in Auckland and drift down through the North’s less-er-seen gems, including Gisborne, known for its steam train and excellent food and wine, and the incredible Art Deco architecture of Napier, a great jumping-off point for drives to the gannet colonies and wineries of Hawke’s Bay. From laid-back capital Wellington, you’ll skip south to the winelands of Marlborough, famed for its sauvignon blanc, and the wild beauty of Dusky, Doubtful and Milford sounds beyond.

More information: Scenic. 8 Nov & 5 Dec 2024; 12 nights from £8,409, including international flights.

The Sub-Antarctic islands are often sped past in order to reach the White Continent all the faster. But the history, wildlife and starkly beautiful landscapes of these outposts are sights in their own right. Poseidon Expeditions’ Antarctic Wildlife Adventure makes sure to pay them their dues en route to and from the peninsula, with two days in the Falklands capital of Stanley offering the perfect base to soak up its history and wildlife. Certainly, the huddled masses of elephant seals and king penguins on South Georgia need little introduction, while the opportunity to pay your respects at the great explorer Ernest Shackleton’s grave is not to be passed up. By the time you reach the research stations and penguin colonies of the peninsula itself, you may be gasped out.

More information: Poseidon Expeditions. 5 Jan 2025; 20 nights from £14,361pp, excluding international flights

Comprised of some 18,000 islands, the Indonesian archipelago is not one for completists, but its sheer size leaves some tantalising opportunities for travellers wanting to see unique wildlife – not to mention nearly 1,600 bird species. Join Professor Tim Flannery on Heritage Expeditions’ Indonesian Explorer as you pick a wild route through the islands, swimming with whale sharks in Kwatisore Bay, watching hissing Komodo dragons, exploring Wakatobi National Park (dubbed an ‘underwater nirvana’ by Jacques Cousteau) and snorkelling the rainbow corals of Raja Ampat. The cruise has its cultural side too, finishing on Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, where Zodiacs ferry passengers to Indigenous villages along the waterfront so that you can explore their centuries-old craft traditions.

More information: Heritage Expeditions. 29 Sep 2025; 17 nights from £11,365, including a charter flight to Cairns

The Northwest Passage was once a test of the mettle of any polar explorer worth their sea salt. These days, the legendary High Arctic sea route is far more accessible, as Quark Expeditions’ Northwest Passage to Newfoundland proves by following in the wake of history’s great polar explorers, picking its way down Canada’s eastern section of the passage, from Qausuittuq in Nanavut to Newfoundland. Yes, you’ll see incredible wonders such as the towering Torngat Mountains – you can even taking flight seeing trips on the ship’s helicopter – but what is remarkable is just how much history and life there is to discover in this frozen land, with stops including the archaeological sites of Beechey Island, the millennia-old Norse settlement of L’Anse aux Meadows and the tiny Inuit community on beautiful Baffin Island.

More Information: Quark Expeditions. 18 Sep 2025; 16 days from £6,380pp, excluding international flights.

At nearly 500km from Tahiti, it doesn’t get much more remote than the Austral Islands, the southernmost tip of French Polynesia. What you’ll find here is far-removed from most experiences in this vast region, with Aranui Cruises’ Austral Islands trip departing Tahiti for an archipelago that sees few visitors. Bask in the twinkling crystal-clear lagoon of Tubuai, boat the fjord-like coast of Rapa and explore the rugged Rurutu, whose waters witness the return of migrating humpbacks in August and September – in time for the September cruise. The jewel of the island is still arguably Raivavae, whose emerald lagoon is wrapped by 28 reef islets known as ‘motus’, but the real joy is in meeting the islanders, who welcome you with smoke ceremonies, feasts and traditions dating back millennia.

More information: Aranui Cruises. 5 Apr, 6 Sep & 1 Nov 2025; 12 nights from £4,438pp, excluding international flights

Combine literature and the wildlife of Mexico’s coast on UnCruise Adventures’ In Steinbeck’s Wake: An Epic Voyage Through the Sea of Cortez. Inspired by the American author’s Log from the Sea of Cortez, this voyage goes in search of marine wildlife on a course similar to the one followed by John Steinbeck himself on his 1940 expedition. A visit to Isla Catalina offers the chance to see the largest barrel cactus on the planet, as well as the island’s rattle-less rattlesnakes, but it’s the waters that occupy your attention as you scour for blue and fin whales off Isla Roselie or look for leatherback turtles in Bahia de los Angeles. But perhaps the grandest sight is found in the trenches off Isla San Esteban, where sperm whales return yearly to feed on its Humboldt squid.

More information: Uncruise Adventures. 8 Dec 2024; 5, 15 & 25 Apr 2025; 7 nights from £4,955, excluding international flights

What makes Coral Expeditions’ Through the Heart of Japan cruise between Tokyo and Fukuoka exciting are not the big-city stops (Kyoto, Osaka) but the small islands and coastal towns in between. It’s a chance to try noodle-making classes on rural Shodoshima, visit the limestone caves of Karatsu and explore mountainous Tsushima, which was once a single island until a canal dug in the 17th-century split it in two. The route even loops to South Korea’s volcanic Jeju island before circling back to the Goto islands, off Kyushu, which were a hideaway for Japanese Christians when religion was banned here. Today they offer incredible volcano walks, pristine bays and a glimpse of a quieter side to this neon-drenched nation.

More information: Coral Expeditions. 21 Sep, 4 & 18 Oct & 2 Nov 2025; 14 nights from £8,055pp, excluding international flights.

The number of cruises geared around a hobby has been on the rise inrecent years, and photography lends itself particularly well to this trend. After all, if you’re going to improve your snapping skills, head some-where eye-catching. Metropolitan Touring’s Galápagos Photography Masterclass takes one of the world’s greatest wildlife destinations as its inspiration. Passengers board their yacht at Quito, joining photography experts Lucas Bustamante and Frank Pichardo for the voyage to the Galápagos, as you loop from main island Santa Cruz via San Cristo-bal, Espinola, Floreana and Isola, taking images of marine iguanas flitting in the surf and the world’s most northerly penguins on the rocks. There are countless wonders here if you have the skills to capture them.

More information: Metropolitan Touring. 3 Sep 2025; 8 nights from £6,478pp, excluding international flights

Spring 2025 is your best chance of seeing the aurora australis (southern lights) for some time, as the sun’s 11-year cycle of activity peaks. What better moment to join Oceanwide’s Beyond the Antarctic Circle cruise, which departs Ushuaia, Argentina, with a packed programme of on-board lectures to prep you for the evening’s cosmic show? Join astronomy experts in the small hours, taking in not just the aurora but other celestial objects, such as the Southern Cross and Magellanic clouds. By day, there’s no less drama, as excursions to the Wilkins IceShelf reveals humpbacks and Ross’ seals, while Zodiacs ferry you to islands such as Leonie, where you can hike its tallest peak, or to a 1950s research hut on Horseshoe still filled with rations left by its departing scientists.

More information: Oceanwide. 21 Mar 2025; 15 nights from £8,170pp, excluding international flights.

The Northwest Passage – bridging the Atlantic and Pacific – through the Canadian High Arctic was for decades the stuff of legend. Countless explorers met their fate trying to plot what was thought to be a lucrative trade route until Roald Amundsen finally made the journey in 1905. These days, it’s easier for modern ice-class ships, as HX’s NorthwestPassage: Across the Top of the World proves by skimming the route between Alaska (Nome) and Greenland (Nuuk). Along the way, you’ll see parts of the High Arctic that few ever see, from squeezing the narrow Bellow Strait to glimpsing the Smoking Hills (smouldering sea cliffs) of Cape Bathurst. You even have the chance to turn scientist by helping to track whales or observe the clouds in Baffin Bay to help monitor climate change.

More information: HX (Hurti-gruten Expeditions). 8 Aug 2025; 25 nights from £15,976pp, excluding international flights.

Such is the need for most cruises to dock in major city ports that it’s rare they ever truly offer community tourism – where the local people directly benefit from your interaction. Ponant’s Encounter with the Last Guardians of the North Pole in Greenland is a unique exception, as passengers are whisked from capital Nuuk, past the giant ’bergs of Disko Bay, to the island village of Kullorsuaq (at 74-degrees north). It’s the beginning of four days of interaction with the Inuit community, who will share their legends, traditions and knowledge as you help them make items that are vital for their day-to-day life, from tools to kayaks. Dog-sled rides, snowshoe hikes, kayaking, polar plunges and snorkelling the icy waters in wetsuits offer more active pursuits, but it’s the chance to spend time with a community that sees few other visitors that makes this special.

More information: Ponant. 5 Apr 2025; 12 nights from £17,200pp, including international flights

Swan Hellenic’s Exploring South America: From Barbados to Brazil cruise takes the continent’s Atlantic coast as its inspiration, as you skip between colonial towns and pure wilderness. Pit-stops in the elegant Dutch-built capital of Suriname, French Guiana’s infamous former penal colony of Devil’s Island and Trinidad’s soca-music capital, Port of Spain, make for a colourful introduction. But it’s the cities of the Brazilian Amazon that truly shine, with boat trips into jungle-clad tributaries in search of jaguars, harpy eagles and river dolphins, or visits to the shifting dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses NP. And it isn’t just nature that catches the eye, as stops in the UNESCO-listed town of Olinda and the monasteries and theatres of Brazilian foodie capital Belém attest.

More information: Swan Hellenic. 12 Oct 2025; 19 nights from £7,780pp, excluding international flights

The Greenland Sea is filled with islands and remote corners that few except for those on a cruise can ever reach. AE Expeditions’ Jewels of the Arctic cruise takes full advantage of its remote setting, beginning in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, where trips scouring the pack ice for walruses and ringed seals offer a rare glimpse of a frozen land. From there you head to the lesser-seen East Greenland, home to one of the Arctic’s most isolated settlements, Ittoqqortoormiit, where you can visit ancient Thule archaeological sites and meet the tiny community of Inuit for whom this is called home. Hikes across the tundra in search of musk oxen and cruises into Kaiser Franz Josef Fjord remind you just how small your world is compared to the icy expanses you’ll find here.

More information: AE Expeditions. 12 Jul 2025; 14 nights from £13,510pp, excluding international flights

The greatest joy of an expedition cruise is going where few others venture. Swan Hellenic’s Unspoilt Wilds of Southwest Africa puts the incredible parks, history and rainforests of Africa’s little-visited south-west on full view as you cross the hemispheres. Beginning in Angola’s capital, Luanda, soak up Gustav Eiffel’s remarkable Iron Palace before embarking north for the Republic of Congo’s Pointe Noire, where expeditions inland can take you to the kaleidoscopic rocks of Diosso Gorge. From there, continue on to the floating markets and voodou traditions of Benin via laid-back Sao Tome and Principe, eventually finishing in the heart of Ghana’s energetic capital, Accra, where the ‘chop bars’ and historic forts of Jamestown make for a grand finale.

More information: Swan Hellenic. 7 Apr 2025;13 nights from £6,880pp, excluding international flights

The Sundarbans are not only the world’s largest delta mangrove forest – spread 10,000 sq km across India and Bangladesh – but are home to some incredible wildlife, including the planet’s highest concentration of Bengal tigers. Having boarded the MV Ganges Voyager at Kolkata, Antara Cruises’ Europe on the Ganges with Sundarbans cruise mixes the colonial heritage of Bengal with a cruise into its wild fringes. Pit stop amid towns with Danish (Serampore), Portuguese (Bandel) and French (Chandernagore) heritage, before following the Hooghly river into the Sundarbans. Thereafter, stops include the watchtowers of Nethidopani and Sudhanyakhali, from which you’ll keep an eye out for irrawady dolphins and tigers, as well as visits to a crocodile hatchery and the artisans of Bali Island.

More information: Antara Cruises. Various dates in Jan, Mar & Dec 2025; 7 nights from £3,000pp, excluding international flights.

Patagonia’s Argentinian (Ushuaia) or Chilean (Punta Arena) outposts are typically the jumping-off points for cruises to Antarctica, but there is plenty to explore here before you ever reach Drake Passage. Australis has a pair of routes that squeeze this wild coast into a four-night adventure, either beginning or ending at the Antarctic cruise departure points. Fjords of Tierra del Fuego/Patagonia Explorer charts a course through the fringes of the continent, as you pick your way through the icy wonders and wildlife of Cape Horn, Pía Alley and Glacier Bay. Spy a vast colony of Magellanic penguins on Magdalena Island and visit the museum squeezed into its vintage lighthouse, then explore the Indigenous history of Wulaia Bay, strolling through lengas and ferns for magnificent viewpoints to soak in a region known as the edge of the world.

More information: Australis. Various dates (Sep-Apr 2025); 4 nights from £1,270pp, excluding international flights

Tasmania, Australia’s gigantic island state, is where the Southern and wealth of national parks, historic penal colonies, vine-yards, pink cliffs and incredible wildlife, with many of its wonders lining the coast. Coral Expeditions’ Coastal Wilds of Tasmania takes all this history and natural beauty as its muse in what is an all-too-rare opportunity to explore the island on a cruise. This 72-passenger yacht trip departs Hobart for the 300m-high cliffs of the peninsula and the austere walls of the once-infamous PortArthur penal colony, all via the wombats of Maria Island, the trails of Bruny Island and the wind-battered cliffs of Port Davey, taking in plenty of cellar doors and local producers along the way.

More information: Coral Expeditions. 28 Jan; 07 & 17 Feb 2025; 10 nights from £4,545pp, excluding international flights

Another utterly unique island is Madagascar, where as much as 90% of its 200,000 plant and animal species are endemic. Noble Caledonia’s Madagascar Coastal Odyssey cruise puts many of these on show, alongside short stops in Mauritius and Reunion. Zodiac trips ferry passengers ashore to visit a successful reforestation project (Zazamalala) now home to verreaux sifaka and ring-tailed lemurs, or to explore the remarkable Kirindy Forest, which claims the world’s highest density of primates. That’s just a taster, though. From snorkelling in Nosy Tanikely to tours of Antsokay Arboretum (home to 900 species of plant), to a trip to Masaola National Park, home to a rare red-ruffed lemur that is endemic to the area, there are so many wild encounters.

More information: Noble Caledonia. 2 & 16 Dec 2025; 17 nights from £11,295pp, including international flights