Fabled Arctic expeditions led by explorers like Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen all launched from Tromso, Norway. So will yours into the Northeast Passage. Modern must-sees in this gateway city include the Arctic Cathedral, designed to resemble an ice floe cresting under pressure and above the city.

The Franz Josef Land archipelago is the world’s northernmost chain of islands and its glaciated Hall Island is a standout. Experience immense magmatic dikes at Cape Tegetthoff and a history that begins in 1873, when the island was discovered by the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition.

In 2016, Russia expanded its Russian Arctic National Park to include Franz Josef Land, making it the park the largest in the country. You may visit this newly protected archipelago, also a favorite haul out for Atlantic walruses.

At the center of Franz Josef Land on Champ Island, look for giant cannonball-shaped spheres known as concretions, and more playfully dubbed the “footballs of the gods.” Some scientists believe concretions were sedimentary deposits that eroded into spherical forms.

Another vast wilderness, the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve (Great Arctic Zapovednik) covers nearly 16,000 square miles and is among the world’s largest conservation areas. Animals that inhabit the reserve include beluga whales, reindeer, and the endangered Arctic fox, here in its summer coat.

One inhabitant you may spy is the breathtaking ivory gull, among the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve’s impressive variety of bird species. More than 124 species recorded have been recorded here, including the endangered gull, the region’s northernmost bird.

When conditions allow, there is a chance for Zodiac cruising amid stunning, blue-hued icebergs, perhaps in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, where the massive Academy of Sciences Glacier calves into the Laptev Sea.

Seeing the majestic polar bear in its native, wild habitat is a dream come true that few travellers can claim. Your chances are greatly enhanced in the Northeast Passage, where bears roam a vast range, with possible encounters from Franz Josef Land in the west to the Chukchi Sea in the east.

Check a UNESCO World Heritage Site off your list at Wrangel Island, nicknamed “Noah’s Ark” for its jaw-dropping wildlife. One of the last refuges on earth for the woolly mammoth, today the island draws the world’s largest population of Pacific walruses, which have tusks twice as long as their Atlantic cousins.

Wrangel Island’s superlatives never stop. More than a polar bear habitat, it is the world's largest denning site for the bear and a place where rare sightings like this will have you taking a second look at coastlines dotted not with snow, but polar bears.

Witness a traditional way of life in the remote settlements of the Northeast Passage. In Russia’s sparsely populated Chukotka, you may visit with the Siberian Yupik and Inupiaq peoples as well as the Chukchi, who welcome you in beautiful costumes, and share stories through singing and drum playing.

The coastal wildernesses of Eastern Siberia are unlike anything you’ve seen. You may visit Chukotka’s Kolyuchin Island, where a short hike to the top of its birding cliffs reveals a spectacular mashup of rock, lush greenery and ocean views.

Bird lovers won’t want to miss sightings of the gorgeous horned puffin from Chukotka’s cliffs. Found here and on Wrangel Island, the bird is unique from other puffin species with its striking orange-and-red bill and delicate horns extending above each eye.

A&K voyages through the Northeast Passage end in Nome Alaska, where nature continues to put on a show with Indian summer colors and sightings of musk oxen. Rarely seen anywhere else in Alaska, the oxen are protected in Nome and have cleverly taken up residence in town.