Journey to the Arctic

This trip is dedicated to my mother Gill who has been a keen traveller all her life and coming up to 80 years old she told me that she had come to the end of her bucket list. As a keen traveller myself I didn’t think there was any way that you could reach the end as there is always somewhere else of interest, when you tick something off the list you always seem to add 3 more things to it. So it became my mission to find somewhere that she hadn’t already been (that was the difficult part) that she would like to go to. I found a trip to the Arctic and casually sent her an email saying “this looks interesting, would you like to come”. This elicited the response “here’s me thinking my travelling days are done, of course I’m interested!” Success!!

Then we set to work investigating different trips. The one I first spotted would have cost far too much for us to afford and others were at the wrong time of year for me for work. Then we found Peregrine Adventures’ Arctic Express: Greenland’s Northern Lights 10 day trip going to the Eastern Coast of Greenland above the arctic circle in September (a great time to see the Northern Lights). It is too far to go for just 10 days so of course we had to look at other tours as well. Intrepid Travel’s Iceland Discovery also runs for 10 days and matched perfectly with the end of the Greenland tour. It was more than we usually spend on trips but it was a special trip to celebrate Gill’s 80th birthday, I managed to get a large part of the second trip free as I’m now an Intrepid Legend (more on that later), and we got a discount for Gill so we took a deep breath and said ‘let’s just do it’.

Looking at different flight combinations that would work for us, the Intrepid travel agent found flights through Singapore to Copenhagen and then on to Reykjavík, Iceland. Neither of us had been to Copenhagen before so opted to spend a couple of days there on the way through.

I was also keen to visit some friends in Canada that I had travelled with previously so we found a return flight through Toronto and then Vancouver on the way home. Both Eke and Brian, and Marcia live in or near Toronto so this was perfect – and we arranged to spend a week with them at the end of our trip. I first met Eke and Brian on a trip through Southeast Asia, then we travelled together again through Northern India where we met Marcia. We had intended to travel together again when Gill and I went to Mexico, Guatemala and Belize but unfortunately that wasn’t to be, so it was fantastic to meet up with them again.

Please join me over the next several posts as I take you on our journey to the Arctic (and more).

 

The Joy of Business Class

Copenhagen Stopover Day 1
Copenhagen Stopover Day 2

Arctic Express: Northern Lights
Day 1: Copenhagen to Reykjavik
Day 2: Reykjavik to Constable Point, Greenland
Day 3: Scoresby Sund: Frederiksdal & Flyvefjord
Day 4: Scoresby Sund: Nordvestfjord & Ingmikortilaq
Day 5: Scoresby Sund: Eskimobugt & Immikkeerikajik
Day 6: Scoresby Sund: Danmark Island & Vikingsbugt
Day 7: Scoresby Sund: Cap Hope & Ittoqqortoormiit
Day 8: Scoresby Sund: Steward Island & Constable Point
Day 9: Constable Point back to Reykjavik

Iceland Discovery
Day 1: Reykjavik: Blue Lagoon
Day 2: Golden Circle
Day 3: South Coast
Day 4: Jokulsarlon
Day 5: Eastern Fjords & Moorudalur Valley
Day 6: Moorudalur Valley & Lake Myvatn
Day 7: Akureyri & Trollaskagi Peninsular
Day 8: Grabrok Volcano & Snaefellsnes Peninsular
Day 9: Snaefellsness to Reykjavik

Toronto, Canada
Day 1: Reykjavik to Toronto
Day 2: Toronto to Port Perry
Day 3: Lake Muskoka
Day 4: Millbrook
Day 5: Back to Toronto
Day 6: Toronto
Day 7: Niagara Falls

 

 

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For this and other similar tours see:

Explore Europe with Intrepid Travel (a range of different travel styles – see my post on travel styles)

Peregrine Adventures (Comfort tours)

Geckos Adventures (for 18 to 30s)

Note: After people telling me they had booked an Intrepid Tour on my recommendation, I now have affiliate links with the Intrepid Travel group of companies and may receive a commission if you book a tour online within a couple of months after clicking through to these sites.  So if you are enjoying my tips and stories and finding them useful in choosing your own travel, please click on these links and help me to bring you more .

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