Adventure Cruise Guide

Want to experience remote coastline, polar regions or get up close to nature? Then adventure cruising is for you. Here's a quick guide to what's available.

Adventure cruising has its roots deep in the human psyche. It stems from our innate desire to inquire, explore and expand the boundaries of our environment. One could name great navigators such as Magellan, Cook, La Perouse and Pytheas as some of the best known "adventure cruisers".

The 21st-century adventure cruiser, however, is transported in vastly different vessels to those great adventurers. Gone are the days of deprivation, scurvy and mythical sea monsters. These days you sail with state-of-the-art satellite navigation, first-rate medical facilities, gourmet cuisine and comfortable bunks.

Just as cruise travel is enjoying a healthy resurgence, adventure cruising, or expedition cruising as it is also called, is booming. This tallies with recent studies that indicate travellers are more in search of "experience-driven travel". But how do you tell an adventure or expedition cruise from the regular fun-afloat type? The following is a list of qualities to watch for:

Products driven by the destination and experience rather than the allure or cachet of a particular vessel.
Fewer passengers, typically less than 500, but often as few as a dozen. This enables operators to better deliver a more personal and fulfilling experience.
Smaller vessels capable of navigating narrow and shallow waterways inaccessible to regular cruise ships.
Flexible and adjustable itineraries to take into account changing conditions and opportunities.
An extensive shore excursion program, often with a choice of several disembarkations per day.
Destinations often have little or no tourism infrastructure and focus instead on natural, cultural and ecological attractions.
Cruise crew includes lecturers drawn from academia and science who are able to impart an enriching interpretation during the voyage.
Premium pricing.

Products close to home

Here is a selection of vessels and itineraries that are within easy reach of Australia or New Zealand. They're often accessed by simple domestic airline link.

Company: Captain Cook Cruises

Vessel: Reef Endeavour

Capacity: 75 cabins for 150 passengers

Facilities: Lounges with panoramic views, dining room, cocktail bar, baby grand, video, elevator, library and gift shop Beginning in 1970 as a day-tripper, dinner and "coffee cruise" company offering trips around Sydney Harbour, Captain Cook Cruises now has 16 vessels, five of which have sleeping cabins. CCC has vessels in Sydney, Cairns, Mannum in South Australia, and Fiji. Its primary 'adventure' product is Reef Endeavour. It operates out of Cairns where naturalist guides and dive instructors enrich the Great Barrier Reef and Cape York itineraries.

Company: Orion Expedition Cruises

Vessel: Orion

Capacity: 53 suites and staterooms for 106 passengers

Facilities: Fine dining, boutique, sauna, Jacuzzi, elevator, library and 10 Zodiacs

Orion burst onto the scene amid great fanfare in early 2005. Founder and managing director Sarina Bratton brought with her many years of top-level cruise industry experience and Orion is an amalgamation of Bratton's vision for "people who seek the mental stimulation of new experiences, places and discovery, whilst enjoying the comfort of luxurious surroundings". On board you'll eat fine cuisine and drink great wines. Many see Orion as a "crossover" product, retaining the glamour and facilities of a big ship whilst pursuing itineraries and destinations usually reserved for smaller, more spartan vessels.

Company: Coral Princess Cruises

Vessels: Oceanic Princess, Coral Princess I and Coral Princess II

Capacity: Oceanic Princess carries 72 passengers in 36 cabins and suites while Coral Princess I carries 50 passengers in 27 cabins and Coral Princess II carries 46 passengers in 24 cabins

Facilities: Dining room, library/bar/lecture room, Jacuzzi, Zodiacs, aluminium tenders and water-sports equipment Coral Princess Cruises bills itself as a pioneer of Australian expedition cruising, beginning in 1984 with an ex-World War Two submarine chaser. Currently the company operates three vessels, with the one-year-old Oceanic Princess taking pride of place as its flagship.

While the two smaller vessels, Coral Princess I and II, stay close to home, operating primarily from the company's base in Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef, Cape York and to the Kimberley, Oceanic Princess ventures much further afield. Since her launch in early 2005, she has circumnavigated New Zealand and Tasmania, visited Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and the Solomons and spearheaded itineraries in the Kimberley.

Company: North Star Cruises

Vessel: True North

Capacity: 18 cabins and suites for 36 passengers

Facilities: Dining room, two lounges, alfresco bar, internet cafe, sun deck, six tenders and a helicopter Western Australia's own North Star Cruises operates the much acclaimed True North, which was launched in 2004. Replacing the company's older, smaller vessel of the same name, the new True North regularly wins awards for its Kimberley cruises. It cruises the area from March to September and visits Papua New Guinea from November to December.

Company: World Heritage Cruises

Vessel: Discovery

Capacity: 12 suites for 24 passengers

Facilities: Fine dining, lounge, sun deck, two fast tenders and kayaks

Based in the idyllic former logging port of Strahan on Tasmania's rugged west coast, this small ship company is best known for its relaxed day cruises along Macquarie Harbour into the pristine Gordon River.

International cruises

Here is a list of companies offering cruises to various remote parts of the world.

Company: Lindblad Expeditions

Flagship: National Geographic Endeavour

Capacity: 61 cabins for 110 passengers

Facilities: Dining room, gym, pool, bar/lounge/theatre and Zodiacs

No coverage of expedition cruising would be complete without mention of this truly pioneering company. Spawned from his father's (Lars-Eric Lindblad) ground-breaking company Lindblad Travel, young Sven-Olaf Lindblad launched Lindblad Expeditions in 1979.

The New York-based company operates a fleet of vessels of which the 3100-ton National Geographic Endeavour is perhaps the best known. She travels, quite literally, to all corners of the globe including the South Pacific, Antarctica and the British Isles.

Company: Quark Expeditions

Flagship: Kapitan Khlebnikov

Capacity: 54 cabins and suites for 112 passengers

Facilities: Two dining rooms, bar, theatre, sauna, pool, library, elevator, Zodiacs and two helicopters Arguably the most pre-eminent expedition cruising company in the world, Quark transports passengers to truly iconic destinations such as the deepest Antarctic, the Canadian High Arctic, Siberia and even the North Pole. Quark was founded in 1991 and immediately began setting new benchmarks in adventure travel. It uses a fleet of seven, predominantly Russian, vessels including world-record-holding icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov and the world's most powerful icebreaker, Yamal.

Company: Ecoventura

Vessels: Eric, Letty and Flamingo

Capacity: Each has 10 cabins for 20 passengers

Facilities: Dining room, lounge/bar/library, kayaks, snorkelling and scuba equipment, and tenders

This Galapagos specialist operates vessels it recently self-accredited as "carbon neutral". The Florida-based Ecoventura (previously known as Galapagos Network) claims to offset its vessels' carbon output with a variety of projects including reforestation and methane recapture.

Company: Heritage Expeditions

Vessel: Spirit of Enderby

Capacity: 24 cabins for 48 passengers

Facilities: Dining room, lounge/bar/library, Zodiacs and hovercraft

Formed in 1985 by experienced New Zealand biologist and naturalist, Rodney Russ, this family company offers expeditions to the Russian Far East, the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic, and southwest Pacific.

Company: Oceanwide Expeditions

Vessels: Grigoriy Mikheev and Aleksey Maryshev

Capacity: 23 cabins for 45 passengers

Facilities: Dining/lecture room, lounge/bar/library, infirmary, sauna and Zodiacs

This Dutch company operates high-quality expeditions to the Antarctic, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean destinations. It also utilises ships Professor Molchanov and Professor Multanovskiy.

Company: Polar Quest

Vessels: Origo and Stockholm

Capacity: 12 cabins for 24 passengers

Facilities: Dining room, lounge/bar/library, Zodiacs, observation decks, and open bridge

This is a Swedish company offering small group adventures primarily to remote Antarctic and Arctic destinations. It has a particularly good Spitsbergen cruise. The company also works in conjunction with other operators mentioned here.

Get Going

Booking directly with any of these international companies is possible, but often it is easier if you book via one of the experienced adventure travel tour operators based in Australia. It allows you to maintain personal contact with a specialist consultant and compare similar products, vessels and destinations without pressure or obligations.

Written by Roderick Eime, Issue 25 Spring 2006