April Tours in Svalbard

This tour offers incredible chances to see and capture the beautiful landscapes and nature of Svalbard in its full glory. Longer days and usually more stable weather conditions gives us more options for locations to visit. We are generally able to travel further than the March tours. We will be looking for Svalbard wildlife to photograph with stunning backgrounds in the best light.

We have numerous options for where to put our focus, this can also depend on the conditions of the year. In terms of landscapes, there are fjord-terminating glaciers we can reach, glacial icebergs frozen into the sea ice, grand scenics of mountains and valleys, numerous ground ice formations. In terms of wildlife we will be looking for great locations and light in which to photograph the arctic fox, the Svalbard reindeer, and the Svalbard rock ptarmigan. We may also be lucky to find seals and walruses, we use our local connections here to stay informed. Polar bears are very difficult to photograph now due to the 2025 regulations. We need to maintain 500 m distance from bears which makes good photography very very difficult. We may be able to get distance shots of bears walking across fjords but the days of close up bear photos are gone. 

Sunrise is around 4 am and sunset around 10 pm during the tour. We will have sunsets that last for hours and we usually plan this tour around the great evening light conditions. Usually we set out in the afternoon and return midnight or later. Please note: we are at the mercy of the arctic weather conditions. In the event of winter storms we may be forced to stay very local to Longyearbyen or not be able to go out at all. We always do our best to go out but safety has to come first. We can be out for a maximum of 12 hours per day.

You need a class B driving license to be able to drive a snowmobile (regular car driving license). You do not need to have driven a snowmobile before. The machines we use are very balanced and easy to drive. It is also possible to join as a passenger on a snowmobile if you do not have a driving license or dont want to drive. Please enquire about this as we need to have enough free seats available on the tour to be able to return to town safely in the event of a snowmobile breakdown. Included in the tour price we provide warm windproof insulated snowmobile suits, snowmobile boots, thick mittens for driving, face mask and helmet.

You will be in safe hands. Stuart teaches classes in snowmobile driving, natural hazard awareness and arctic safety at the university and has many years experience leading snowmobile expeditions in the field.

Our tours offer the smallest group sizes on the market. Our prices are lower than almost all other professional photographers operating here. This is solely because these professionals need to hire an additional guide with the expertise to lead their expeditions. With Stuart you get the photographer in the guide in one. Stuart also lives on the island and has huge knowledge of operating here which sets him apart from many other pro photographers working here. 

Information

• Max 4 guests
• Local expert guide and professional photographer
• From $3900 per person