Quark ExpeditionsReviews of quarkexpeditions.com

This experience was THE BEST. Housekeeping was amazing. We got special towel animals every night. I absolutely loved the housekeeping people’s friendliness towards me and my family. The crew were SO NICE. It truly made the experience feel special and different every time. I have no doubt to give this expedition company 5 stars. I loved this company, and these trips are AMAZING. I suggest you go on the Gems of west Greenland trip and the northwest passage trip.

The company changed the itinerary at the last minute deleting a major part of the trip named Following the footsteps of Franklin. They claimed that the east side of Baffin Island was closed to Cruise ships and ice may be an issue, however my investigation showed it was not closed at all to Cruise ships, and ice maps shown on the first day of the voyage showed little if and ice problems especially for a class 6a ice hardened vessel. what the did instead was go from town to town with one landing not in a town in West Greenland, then lazily spend 3 days crossing Baffin Bay to go to Pond Inlet so they could take advantage of the customs agents flown in by another cruise company. This left relatively few days for the rest of the trip. The overall flavor of the was a Small Ship Cruise rather then a true Expedition Cruise. We expected two zodiac excursions per day and usually received one mostly to a town rather then the wilds of the arctic. Six out of 15 days during the trip had no zodiac cruise or landing. Only on two occations were two cruise/landings offered on the same day. That is not to say there were not nice highlights such as seeing polar bears multiple times, just they wasted several days and skimped in landings and zodiac cruises. The food overall was lower than average and sometimes overcooked and not so fresh, such a noticeable freezer burn taste in bacon all the time and fish on two occasions. They showed lack of experience and planning and were poor in explaining future plans as the trip went on. We would never use this cruise line again and will stick with others who have performed much better for us. Another thing is the tips are for room cleaners and expedition staff only and separately, this means that only 2/5 of the total ship employees are eligible to receive the tip, no method is allowed to add the remaining staff members to your paid tip, this naturally made us furious. Other expedition cruise lines we have used split the tip evenly to all ship employees, so we reduced our tip by 3/5 to compensate for the unfairness.

Duped! very disappointing - we inquired about a trip to greenland and was sold a trip to norway after erick from quark clearly said we were going to the east coast of greenland. there was also almost no wildlife except birds. waste of time and money. will never travel with quark again If you listen to the recording Erick says it’s the east coast of Greenland. So when your expert tells me this I believed it as thought the names of those places were Greenland. Check out just before the 3 min mark of the recording you sent to me And the 2 polar bears looked like tiny dots. You couldn’t make them out. This was a bird watching tour which was not enjoyable

Superbe croisière ( grand tour du Svalbard) du 11-23/07 sur l’océan adventurer. Équipage et expédition team au top ( merci en particulier au chef Ryan , à Ema ( la spécialiste mammifères marins), Karl ( l’historien du bord) et tous les autres pour ces moments précieux dans une super ambiance.

Truly a trip of a lifetime. To spend time in the Arctic is a very special thing to do, something which Quark fully understand so they go out of their way to ensure everyone has the best wildlife viewings and appreciation for Nature at its very best. I loved the way the Staff all rushed out when bears were spotted! We were phenomenally lucky with our Polar bear sightings but this was also down to the brilliant guides scanning and scoping 24/7 in the Midnight sun. Daily routines changed according to the weather and this unpredictability made it even more of an adventure. From Expedition Leader through to knowledgeable and friendly guides, the whole catering and hospitality teams to the crew helping and welcoming you back onboard - it was exceptional. Special mention also to the wonderfully stocked shop with a full range of gifts and souvenirs. Food was exceptional, accommodation luxurious and fabulous - Just perfect. I was only ever likely to do this once so chose the best and got the best. Far too many highlights to list - but having a pod of Beluga whales pass within 10m of my RIB then seeing and photographing an adorable Arctic Fox - has to be at the top. But then there was the Polar plunge under bright blue skies set against the Glacier and polar ice ….. and seeing so much different polar bear behaviours ….. OK, I’ve listed them after all. This will stay with me forever - the Arctic is forever in my heart.

Very kind courteous staff. We were made to feel like part of the Quark family from the very start of our trip.

The ship cabins, the hotel staff, the expedition staff, the breakfast and lunch buffets were all very nice. The Expedition team worked very hard to provide us with very enjoyable shore experiences. The evening briefings and scientific talks were entertaining as well as informative. 5 stars on all accounts! This is our second time and we will certainly be back again.

Trip to Svalbard/Spitsbergen in June 24. Extremely well organised, very competent and friendly guides, very nice cabin, equivalent to 4/5 star hotel, very decent food, interesting and entertaining talks in the evening by the guides on local biology, geology and history - could not have been better. Ship (hotel) staff was extremely friendly as well. Excursions were very well prepared, the guides made certain that we saw as much wildlife as possible and had ample opportunities to take photos.