15 August

Greenland: Nuuk

Greenland’s capital and largest town, Nuuk is positively cosmopolitan compared to the rest of this remote and isolated country. The setting amongst mountains and fjords is striking, and attractions include the Greenland National Museum and the picturesque Old Harbour.

16 August

Greenland: Evighedsfjorden Fjord

17 August

Greenland: Sisimiut

The name Sisimiut means ‘the people living in a place where there are fox dens’, though these days the town is better known for being Greenland’s northernmost year-round ice-free port. Around 25 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it’s a common stop for ships making the journey north to Disko Bay.

18 August

Greenland: Ilulissat

The spectacular Ilulissat ice fjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it's the source of the many icebergs that float out across Disko Bay. The town of Ilulissat itself is Greenland’s third largest settlement, and activities on offer here include dog sledding and whale watching.

19 August - At sea

20 August

Canada: Baffin Bay

21 August

Canada: Pond Inlet

The small Inuit settlement of Pond Inlet sits at the entrance to the fabled Northwest Passage, on the north coast of Baffin Island. A dramatic landscape of fjords, glaciers and icebergs provides a habitat for wildlife including whales, seabirds, seals and narwhals, the otherworldly ‘unicorns of the sea’.

22 August

Canada: Dundas Harbour (Devon Island)

Devon Island is the world’s largest uninhabited island, a barren and frozen place that is used by NASA scientists to carry out research on the practicalities of missions to Mars. The chilly waters off the coast support species including bearded seals, harbour seals and humpback whales, and if you’re lucky you may even spot polar bears.

22 August

Canada: Croker Bay (Nunavut)

23 August

Canada: Beechey Island

24 August

Canada: Fort Ross

25 August

Canada: Bellot Strait

25 August

Canada: Conningham Bay

26 August - At sea

27 August

Canada: Gjoa Haven

Gjoa Haven was known by the Inuit as Uqsuqtuuq, the ‘place of plenty blubber’, but was renamed when Roald Amundsen became the first explorer to traverse the Northwest Passage on his ship the Gjøa. It was also here that the wreck of the HMS Erebus, from Franklin’s famous lost expedition of 1845, was finally discovered in 2014, followed by the HMS Terror in 2016.

28 August - At sea

29 August

Canada: Cambridge Bay

The remote community of Cambridge Bay is located on the southeast coast of Victoria Island, part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It’s the largest stop for ships transiting the Northwest Passage, despite a population of less than 2,000, and it's a great place to learn about the wildlife of the Arctic and the culture of the Inuit people who live here.

30 August - At sea

31 August

Canada: Holman

1 September - At sea

2 September

Canada: Herschel Island

3 September to 6 September - At sea

7 September

United States: Nome

Only accessible by air or sea, the remote Alaskan town of Nome sits overlooking the Bering Strait, surrounded by miles of largely featureless tundra. This was once a boomtown; the discovery of easily extractable gold in 1898 led to a gold rush, and you can still see the remnants of the mining industry which thrived here.

8 September

Arriving in Seattle

Situated in the northwest corner of the USA, eclectic Seattle is a jumble of different neighbourhoods, each with its own distinctive character, and the city enjoys a stunning natural setting, surrounded by forests, mountains and the broad sweep of Puget Sound.