Ottawa, Canada

Canada’s capital greets you with museums, monuments and the coziest hotels. Spend your overnight stay in the Fairmont Chateau (or similar hotel) before your Arctic adventure begins.

Resolute

With its position high above the Arctic Circle, the old saying, “Resolute is not the end of the world, but you can see it from here,” seems apt. Enjoy the view with tea at the Narwhal Hotel before you embark.

Lancaster Sound

Following the route of 19th-century explorers, you’ll sail along the south coast of Devon Island to Lancaster Sound. Your reward could be plenty: beluga whales, polar bears, Arctic seals and 26 species of seabirds.

Coburg Island

About 60,000 black-legged kittiwakes and 320,000 thick-billed murres dot the landscape off this island. And on a Zodiac cruise along the sea cliffs, you’ll get the chance to examine your feathered friends up close.

Smith Sound

Sailing farther north, the coastline becomes more rugged and the population more sparse. You’ll follow the American Polar Route, and weather permitting, land at Pim Island, where explorer Adolphus Greeley and his men met their fate.

Kane Basin

Sailing through the area’s notorious pack ice, you have an excellent chance to spy polar bears and walruses.

Ellesmere Island, Canada

Today, the sights include fjords and glaciers as far as the eye can see, and a glimpse into the past. On neighboring Skraeling Island, Viking chain mail was found, suggesting that the Norsemen journeyed farther north than historians ever imagined.

Qaanaaq (Thule), Greenland

This town boasts towering icebergs, fjords, red cliffs and about 300 Greenlanders who can trace their lineage back to explorer Robert Peary. Cape York, Greenland When Captain John Ross landed on Cape York in 1819, he found a group of Eskimos so isolated that they thought themselves the only people in the world. Explorers after him would discover more: a mountain made up of meteoritic iron.

Bylot Island

The entire 4,273-square-mile expanse of this island is a conservation area. It’s home to more than 50 species of birds including greater snow geese, snowy owls, common ringed plovers and northern wheatears.

Beechey Island

Pause a moment to pay tribute to Sir John Franklin and his men who spent the winter of 1845–46 on this island before mysteriously disappearing.

Ushuaia, Argentina

This southernmost city is well situated between the breathtaking Andes Mountains and the protected Beagle Channel. It’s also where you’ll enjoy an overnight stay in the Hotel Los Nires (or similar hotel) before embarking on your polar expedition.

Drake Passage

Named after the famed 16th-century explorer, Sir Francis Drake, this watery thoroughfare flows between South America and Antarctica and is a popular migratory route for the Wandering, Black-browed and Sooty Albatross.

Elephant Island

Imagine seeing the place where Shackleton and his men made camp after their ship, the Endurance, sank in 1915. Feel yourself being transported as your guide expertly recounts this epic voyage.

Weddell Sea

East of the Antarctic Sound lies the Weddell Sea. Chocked with ice shelves, rock faces and tabular icebergs, it’s an explorer’s delight.

Antarctic Sound

Welcome to “iceberg alley” and the accompanying views that can be described only as amazing. Based on how easy this icy waterway is to navigate, we will determine whether we visit Paulet Island, Hope Bay or Brown Bluff.

Antarctic Peninsula

This is the spot for experiencing the best wildlife on the continent. There are gentoo and chinstrap penguins. Blue-eyed shags and snowy sheathbills. Crabeater seals and minke whales. And that’s just for starters.

South Shetland Islands

This string of islands lies about 100 miles north of the Antarctic Peninsula and includes such diverse treats as a penguin rookery and a sunken caldera.

Cape Horn

This southernmost point of South America marks the place where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet. Thanks to the California Gold Rush of 1849, this route became a popular shortcut to North America. Consider this your invitation to the Antarctic.