Oceanwide Expeditions: Where Expedition Still Means Expedition

A key distinction exists between travelling to the polar regions and taking part in a polar expedition.

The first is largely about where a ship goes. The second is shaped by how it operates once it gets there: the decisions made around weather and ice, the willingness to change course when an opportunity appears, the knowledge of the people leading each landing and the amount of time guests spend actively exploring beyond the ship.

Oceanwide Expeditions belongs firmly to the second tradition.

As a new member of ExplorEarth, the Dutch operator brings an approach that feels increasingly distinctive within modern expedition cruising. Its ships are comfortable, but they are not designed around spas, extensive wellness facilities or multiple fine-dining venues. Instead, the emphasis is placed on capable vessels, experienced crews, expert-led education and getting people outside and on landings.

The ship matters, but mainly as a means of reaching somewhere extraordinary.

Oceanwide Expeditions’ story has its roots in the Dutch Plancius Foundation and scientific research in Svalbard. The foundation began organising annual voyages to the archipelago in the early 1980s, combining opportunities for travellers to experience the Arctic with support for field research.

Oceanwide Expeditions was established in 1993 and has since developed into a specialist operator focused predominantly on Antarctica and the Arctic. Yet the character of those early voyages remains visible. These journeys are shaped by scientific curiosity, field knowledge, and the practical realities of operating in remote environments.

That history matters because genuine expedition expertise is cumulative. It comes from repeatedly working with ice, weather, wildlife and geography that rarely behave exactly as expected. It also comes from understanding that a polar itinerary cannot be delivered with the rigidity of a conventional cruise schedule.

A landing may be altered by sea ice and a scenic Zodiac outing might be extended because cetaceans have appeared. A planned afternoon ashore may become something entirely different when the expedition team identifies a better weather window or a rarely available route.

For Oceanwide, this flexibility isn't a compromise; it’s part of the experience.

The four ships in Oceanwide’s fleet are notably different from one another, but all reflect the company’s expedition-first philosophy.

At the largest end is the 170-guest Hondius, launched in 2019 as the world’s first registered Polar Class 6 passenger vessel. Purpose-built for expedition cruising, it combines a high ice classification with practical operational features intended to move guests efficiently between ship and shore.

The 108-guest Plancius began life as an oceanographic research vessel for the Royal Netherlands Navy. Also carrying 108 guests, Ortelius was originally built for the Russian Academy of Sciences and retains the unmistakable profile of a serious polar working ship. Its ice-strengthened construction and helicopter capability enable it to undertake some of Oceanwide’s most ambitious Antarctic itineraries.

Then there is Rembrandt van Rijn, a three-masted schooner carrying just 33 guests through parts of Greenland and Svalbard. Originally launched in 1924 and extensively rebuilt and renovated during its long life, it offers an entirely different kind of expedition: intimate, communal and influenced by the rhythms of sailing whenever conditions allow.

These are not identical hotel concepts placed inside different hulls. Each ship has its own character, history, and operational purpose.

The smaller passenger capacities also shape the experience ashore. Guests can be transferred more quickly, expedition teams can respond more easily to changing conditions and groups are generally more manageable in remote locations. On Rembrandt van Rijn, all 33 guests can explore together without the landing rotations required aboard larger ships.

Fleet ownership, which can be unusual in the sector, gives Oceanwide another important advantage. Rather than depending entirely on chartered tonnage and fixed third-party operating parameters, the company has greater control over where its ships go, how they are deployed and which new routes it is prepared to attempt.

Describing Oceanwide’s ships as rugged should not be mistaken for describing them as basic.

We recently asked an expedition professional about their favourite operators, and when discussing Oceanwide they mentioned, ‘proper’ ships, said in a very positive way. 

Their fleet is also popular with the better-known expedition specialist resellers, who often understand better than most the needs of the guest when it comes to hardware. 

Cabins are comfortable, meals are thoughtfully prepared, and the public areas provide warm, sociable spaces to relax after a day outside. What is absent is the attempt to make the polar environment compete with an onboard resort.

This produces a noticeably different atmosphere. People travel with a shared purpose, often joining the same activities, attending lectures together, and gathering in the lounge to compare what they have seen. Expedition guides do not disappear into crew-only areas once a landing is complete. They eat, talk and spend time with guests, allowing conversations to continue beyond formal presentations.

They learn names, interests, and personal preferences. A guest with a particular interest in seabirds, glaciology, photography or polar history can find themselves in conversation with someone who has spent years working in that field.

The result is less anonymous than conventional cruising. Guests are not simply passengers following a programme. They become part of a temporary expedition community.

A polar guide can be many things at once: naturalist, lecturer, Zodiac driver, interpreter, wildlife spotter, safety professional and problem solver.

Oceanwide draws its expedition teams from a wide range of backgrounds. They include marine biologists, geologists, glaciologists, historians, photographers, former polar station leaders, field researchers and wilderness specialists. Many have lived or worked for extended periods in the regions they interpret.

That experience matters most when an itinerary moves beyond familiar landing sites. A rehearsed presentation can explain a species or a historic event, but genuine field expertise is needed to interpret what is happening in front of the guest, particularly when conditions change.

Education is therefore woven through the journey: expert lectures provide the important context onboard. While interpretation continues during Zodiac cruises, wildlife encounters, hikes, and shore landings. The intention is not simply to show guests an impressive landscape, but to help them understand the systems, history and pressures that have shaped it.

Like the strongest expedition operators, Oceanwide sees this understanding as part of a longer legacy. Travellers who return home able to explain what they have seen can become advocates for the polar regions and the issues affecting them.

Some of the best field video we have seen of polar encounters and experiences has come from Oceanwide.

Oceanwide’s clearest point of difference may be the breadth of ways in which guests can actively experience the destination.

Depending on the voyage, these can include kayaking, snowshoeing, mountaineering, polar diving, snorkelling, camping, photography workshops, helicopter operations and extended hiking. These are not simply distractions added around a cruise itinerary. They are ways to explore a landscape from different perspectives.

Oceanwide was also an early pioneer of the polar Basecamp concept. On selected departures, a range of additional activities is brought together within one voyage and included in the experience, giving guests repeated opportunities to try different forms of exploration without paying separately for each one.

A Basecamp voyage might include kayaking through sheltered water, snowshoeing across polar terrain, mountaineering with specialist guides, camping ashore and photography workshops alongside the regular programme of landings and Zodiac cruises.

The philosophy is straightforward: polar travel should involve more than watching the scenery from a deck.

That thinking has recently extended to ambitious long hikes in Antarctica. In locations including James Ross Island, Snow Hill Island, Seymour Island and Marguerite Bay, Oceanwide teams have taken guests beyond the relatively short walks typically possible during an Antarctic landing. Where terrain, regulations and conditions permit, participants can spend several hours travelling through the landscape on foot.

This experience changes the scale of Antarctica. From the ship, even immense scenery can appear contained by a window or viewing deck. On foot, distances become more tangible, the silence feels deeper and the physicality of the environment becomes impossible to ignore.

The word “expedition” is now used across a broad spectrum of cruises. Oceanwide’s more unusual itineraries provide a useful test of what that word can still mean.

In February 2025, Ortelius reached 78°03.471′ South, the southernmost point then recorded by a non-icebreaker passenger vessel in the Weddell Sea. Earlier in the same 27-night voyage, the ship had travelled east to the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land, entering a part of Antarctica visited by remarkably few passenger vessels.

The location of the record added a powerful historical dimension. It was achieved 110 years after Endurance became trapped in the Weddell Sea during Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, only a few nautical miles from the position reached by Ortelius. The circumstances were entirely different, but the geography remains among Antarctica’s most formidable, shaped by dense pack ice, rapidly changing conditions and immense distances from conventional expedition routes. 

One year later, Oceanwide returned and went farther still. On 5 February 2026, Ortelius reached 78°05.60′ South in Vahsel Bay, breaking its own record for the southernmost position reached by a non-icebreaker in the Weddell Sea. The voyage also made a continental landing in Queen Maud Land at the far eastern reaches of the region.

The significance is not simply the coordinate entered into a ship’s log. Reaching these remote waters in consecutive seasons demonstrates the combination on which genuine expedition travel depends: a capable vessel, experienced navigation, detailed interpretation of weather and ice, a skilled expedition team and guests who understand that the journey will be determined by conditions rather than a fixed promise.

This is where Oceanwide’s ownership of Ortelius, the vessel’s working heritage and the company’s operational experience converge. The ship is not merely transporting guests through Antarctica. It is enabling an expedition into parts of the continent that remain beyond the routes followed by almost every other passenger vessel.

On another recent voyage, Oceanwide’s team explored islands in the far south of the Antarctic Peninsula that were absent from conventional charts. Expedition staff used satellite imagery and the information available to identify possible approaches and landing opportunities around the Glinka Islands.

These are rare moments when discovery is shared not only with guests, but by them. The expedition team does not know precisely what will be found before the landing takes place. That sense of uncertainty is not manufactured. It is the natural result of travelling beyond the established circuit.

Exploration also creates responsibilities.

In early 2026, Oceanwide supported the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust in completing conservation and survey work at Base Y on Horseshoe Island and Base E on Stonington Island. Ortelius transported contractors, materials and provisions, while members of the Oceanwide team contributed operational coordination, field safety, communications and practical support.

The work included urgent repairs, structural surveys, roof maintenance and the construction and repair of protective shutters. It followed Oceanwide’s support for restoration work on Deception Island in 2025. UK Antarctic Heritage Trust project

It is a practical example of what an experienced, independently operated expedition vessel can contribute. Ships travelling into remote regions carry people, equipment, accommodation and logistical capability that can support science, conservation and heritage work as well as tourism.

Oceanwide Expeditions will not be the right choice for every traveller, and that is part of its identity.

Those seeking extensive wellness facilities, high-end retail, numerous restaurants or a resort-style ship may find other operators better aligned with their priorities. Oceanwide is designed for travellers prepared to trade some of those extras for more time outside, active participation, expert interpretation, and flexible exploration.

Its ships feel like expedition vessels because they are. Its guides are not present simply to deliver lectures, but to lead people into remote environments. Its more ambitious itineraries are not built around adding another destination name to a list, but around seeing how far knowledge, preparation and favourable conditions might allow the journey to go.

In an industry where expedition cruising continues to grow in scale and luxury, Oceanwide represents something enduringly important: the belief that the destination should remain more compelling than the ship.

For travellers who share that belief, it is a powerful reason to step aboard.