To the Arctic …
Svalbard day one
03.08.2025 - 03.08.2025
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Svalbard 2025
on ToonSarah's travel map.
Our journey to the Arctic began with a flight from Heathrow to Helsinki. The Quark Expeditions cruise we'd booked started from there with an overnight stay arranged in an airport hotel. So we were responsible for getting ourselves to and from Helsinki.
It was a Sunday and annoyingly there was weekend engineering work on the Piccadilly line. So we'd booked an Uber the night before and the driver arrived promptly and got us to Terminal 3 in good time. Being August the airport was very busy, but everything went smoothly and we had plenty of time for a light breakfast before boarding.
The Finnair Airbus was a nice new one and although Chris had the window seat, I was able to enjoy the view from the plane's camera on my seat back screen as we took off, which we did on time.
We’d pre-ordered lunches as the prices seemed reasonable, so I enjoyed a salmon sandwich, blueberry juice, smoothie and chocolate bar. The flight time was only two and a half hours, so passed quite quickly. I read a bit, chatted with Chris over lunch, and followed our progress on the flight map.
We landed on time too and I enjoyed watching our descent via the downward facing camera on the plane! Passport control was very quiet, and we didn’t have to wait too long for our bags. It was then about a five minute walk to the hotel booked for the Quark group, the airport’s Hilton. We checked in with reception and then with the Quark representatives who confirmed plans for our (very early) departure tomorrow and briefed us on plans for our visit to Longyearbyen prior to boarding the ship.
This is what we were looking forward to doing! This image is a screenshot from the Quark Expeditions website showing their Svalbard itinerary. However we were prepared for this to change depending on weather conditions and wildlife sightings. Just as well, as you will see!
We relaxed in our room for a bit and sorted stuff for the morning. In the evening we had dinner in the hotel restaurant – a very good burger for me and club sandwich for Chris. We also had a drink in the bar where I enjoyed a Finnish gin and tonic.
Our room at the Helsinki Airport Hilton
Despite the +two hour time difference we were tired enough to have an early night – important as the alarm had to be set for 4.30 AM!
Posted by ToonSarah 11:32 Archived in Finland Tagged hotel flight cruise arctic
A good start! We used Quark for our Antarctic cruise and found them very good.
by Grete Howard