Svalbard Luxury Expeditions
Svalbard is a permit, a season and a guide with a rifle.
A Svalbard luxury expedition starts at Longyearbyen, at 78 degrees north: about three hours from Oslo, and no road leaves town or joins one settlement to another. Beyond the town zone everything runs on the Governor's rules, a guide who carries the bear protection and a short window of light or ice.
Algoz is a protection house that runs concierge. We arrange a private Svalbard expedition through our Swiss travel partner house and the expedition operators who run it, with one contact, one written proposal and an officer only where the brief needs one. Send the months and the party.
- One contact from first message to last transfer, in your language
- A private yacht or a small ship, matched to the party and the ice
- Hotels in Longyearbyen and outposts beyond the road, named and confirmed
- Private aviation filed correctly with CAA Norway and the Governor
- A written medical plan, because the hospital has six beds
- Discreet, unarmed protection when the name needs it
A Svalbard luxury expedition: the first questions.
What the house actually arranges
The vessel or the lodges, the operator and guides who hold the Governor's permit, the flights, the hotel either side of the voyage and the medical plan. We do not sail the ship. We choose who does, and we answer for the plan.
What a private expedition costs
There is no honest single figure. Each element is quoted as its own line, one figure per line, confirmed before you pay. See what a luxury concierge costs.
How far ahead to book
We ask for at least seven days for a stay in town. Peak weeks on the water book out far earlier: operators are selling 2027 and 2028 now. Under 48 hours carries an urgency fee and is not guaranteed.
Will we see a polar bear?
Perhaps, and nobody honest can promise one. About 300 bears live on Svalbard all year, and there are no organised tours aimed at seeking them out. The law keeps you 300 metres away, 500 from 1 March to 30 June, and obliges you to retreat.
A private yacht or a small ship?
A yacht for a family or a party that wants the whole vessel. A small ship for those who want an expedition team and can share it. Ships above 200 passengers can no longer call in the national parks.
Is protection included?
No, it is a separate service, quoted to the brief, with travel and the officer's berth as separate lines. Protection in Svalbard is unarmed. See close protection explained.
Everything a Svalbard expedition needs.
Expedition Yacht or Small Ship
Chartered whole or taken by the cabin, through our Swiss travel partner house and the operators who run these waters. Named in the proposal before you commit.
Longyearbyen and the Outposts
A suite in town before and after the voyage, or the voyage replaced altogether by Isfjord Radio and the glacier lodge. Each property named, each confirmed, each with its limits stated.
Guides and the Bear Watch
Your guides come from an operator with the Governor's permit. From 1 July 2027 operators working outside the settlements must field approved Svalbard guides, able to handle weapons and deterrents.
Getting to 78 North
Scheduled seats from Oslo or Tromsø, or a private aircraft with traffic permission filed at CAA Norway. Once there, aircraft for tourist purposes are prohibited: no helicopter sightseeing, no heli-skiing. See private jet charter.
The Plan for a Bad Day
The hospital stabilises and sends you on by air ambulance when weather and aircraft allow. We write the plan and check that your cover includes search, rescue and evacuation. See medical travel protection.
Discreet Close Protection
An officer for a recognised name or a family that wants one, working the advance, the town and the people around you. Unarmed, and never the bear guard.
Longyearbyen: the base at 78 degrees north
Flights arrive on one 2,483 metre runway, five kilometres from town. You stay at Funken Lodge, 88 rooms in the residence built in 1947 for Store Norske's salaried staff, at the Radisson Blu Polar, 95 rooms and two of them suites, or at Basecamp Hotel with 16. You dine at Huset, in a room redesigned by Snøhetta with a serious cellar, or at Gruvelageret in an old mining warehouse. Inside the marked town zone no bear protection is needed. On the mainland leg, executive transportation runs on the same brief.
Private jet charter to LongyearbyenIsfjorden: Isfjord Radio and the glacier lodge
The great fjord at the door of the town leads to two places without a road. Isfjord Radio at Kapp Linné, a coast station since 1933, is now a hotel of 15 rooms about 90 kilometres out, with a sauna on the cliffs and no Wi-Fi, reached by boat in summer and by snowmobile or dog team in winter. Nordenskiöld Lodge sits in the moraine of its glacier in Billefjorden: four guest rooms, eight beds, a wood stove and a sauna fired by the hosts, and no road in. Barentsburg and Pyramiden lie on these waters too. Visit Svalbard removed their Russian state-operated products after the invasion of Ukraine, and we do not arrange them through those companies.
Private travel with AlgozThe north-west: Ny-Ålesund, Magdalenefjorden and the whalers
Ny-Ålesund is a research town inside a 20 kilometre radio-silence zone: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off, feet on the roads and wooden paths. The flights are not open to tourists, so you arrive by sea, to the mast from which Amundsen and Nobile left for the Pole. Further north, Gravneset in Magdalenefjorden holds about 130 whalers' graves and Smeerenburg survives as rings of hardened whale oil. Anything from before 1946 is protected, with a 100 metre zone around it. From 26 May to the end of the year, tourist landings in most protected areas are allowed only at mapped sites, with a guide. At 80 degrees north, Moffen is the walrus island you do not visit: from 15 May to 15 September no vessel may come within 300 metres.
Travel and destination managementThe circumnavigation: Hinlopen, Alkefjellet and the Austfonna ice
The full round of Spitsbergen is a July and August voyage, and the ice decides. Hinlopen Strait, 150 kilometres between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet, is hard to pass when the pack sits in it. When it opens you reach Alkefjellet, a cliff with more than 60,000 pairs of Brünnich's guillemots, then the rim of the Austfonna ice cap, about 7,800 square kilometres, and home past the glaciers of Hornsund. No ship with more than 200 passengers may call in the national parks, or in the north-east and south-east nature reserves and bird reserves. If the ice stays shut, an honest captain turns the circumnavigation into a north coast voyage, and we tell you that before you sign.
Yacht charter for the High ArcticBy expedition yacht or small ship: what private buys
Hanse Explorer shows the class: 47.76 metres, 12 guests, 15 crew, an ice-class hull and her own Zodiacs. A vessel that exists, not one we hold. Larger ships carry up to 200 passengers and share every landing with strangers. Private buys the route decided with the captain within the landing rules, your own guides and bear watch, your own hours of light and nobody else's camera. It does not buy a closer bear or a landing off the map. Your name stays off everything we control. It goes to the Governor, as the law requires. Each vessel is quoted as its own line through our yacht charter desk.
What a luxury concierge costsWinter: the polar night, the northern lights and the snow routes
From 11 November to 30 January the sun stays down and the sky is dark enough for northern lights in the middle of the day. Polarjazz runs from 4 to 7 February 2027, the town comes out to meet the sun in March, and from 20 April the midnight sun falls on snow that still holds. You travel by dog team through Bolterdalen and Adventdalen, or by snowmobile to the East Coast and Tempelfjorden, for which a valid driving licence is required. Selected fjords close to motor traffic on the sea ice after 1 March. Bears are active in the dark, so you leave town with a guide who carries the protection.
Northern lights across the ArcticThe calendar the ice is booked around.
The Polar Summer
Midnight sun to 23 August, open fjords, day boats to Isfjord Radio, walrus, seals and whales in the fjords. The Golden Autumn from 24 August brings the first dark at night, and the Isfjord Radio Music Festival runs from 3 to 5 September 2027.
Sea ice and the first voyages
The north coast still holds ice and the first expedition departures leave. The Spitsbergen Marathon runs in town. The 500 metre bear distance applies until 30 June.
The circumnavigation window
Hinlopen clears when it clears, and the full round of Spitsbergen becomes possible. Light through the night to late August. The weeks a private yacht goes first.
The Northern Lights Winter
Twilight first, then the polar night from 11 November to 30 January with aurora at midday. Dark Season Blues in October, Polarjazz in February, the blue hour before the sun returns. Dog sleds, snowcats and ice caves.
The Sunny Winter
The sun festival in March, the snowmobile and dog sled season to the East Coast and Isfjord Radio, the Skimaraton in April and midnight sun from 20 April, on snow. The 500 metre bear rule is in force.
The calendar behind the calendar
Operators apply to the Governor at least eight weeks ahead. Private visitors beyond the travel area notify at least four weeks ahead and await a reply. Camping permits need four weeks, weapons applications up to eight.
How a private expedition is built.
Enquiry
You write once, in whichever of our languages, with the months, the party and the purpose. Held under NDA from the first message.
The Brief
Ages, mobility, medical conditions, the ice you want, any name that changes the security picture. Short, written and honest.
Proposal
One written proposal with the vessel or lodges named, one figure per line, confirmed before you pay. If nothing genuinely fits your weeks, we say so rather than sending a compromise.
The Voyage
Flights, hotel, operator and permits lined up through one contact. We state in advance what the ice may change, and what happens then.
Who Is in Charge
The captain decides the ship and the expedition leader the landings. Your contact handles the rest, and any officer in the party works the town and the people, never the bears.
When You Come Home
Accounts closed line by line, the file kept private and the notes kept should the next journey be the other end of the world.
“In Svalbard the weather is the captain's, the bears are the law's and the rifle is the guide's. Everything else is ours to answer for.”
What a Svalbard luxury expedition costs.
There is no honest single figure, and we do not publish one for a voyage we have not scoped. The vessel, the guides, the hotels and the aircraft are each quoted as their own line, one figure per line, confirmed before you pay. Protection, where the brief needs it, is quoted to the brief, with travel and the officer's berth as separate lines.
Peak weeks book out far earlier than the rest of the journey, and a private yacht for July or August is decided before anything else. See what a luxury concierge costs and private yacht charter.
Send the months you can travel.
Yachts and cabins for June to August 2027 are on sale now. Tell us the months, the party and what the journey is for, and we reply with a plan and one figure per line, under NDA from the first message.
Enquire WhatsAppWho books a private Svalbard expedition.
Three generations on one vessel
A cabin for each branch, a guide who can talk to children and landings that suit the grandparents. We say early if Svalbard is wrong for someone.
Your own yacht, or a chartered one
Outside the travel area your own yacht needs notice to the Governor at least four weeks ahead, rescue cover and guides who know the ground. A charter needs the right vessel and a contract someone has read.
A name in a town of 2,500
Longyearbyen is small and a recognised face is noticed. The hotel chosen with care, the transfer to the quay timed, and an officer who reads as one of the party.
One accountable desk
Your office can run the whole booking, from the passenger and crew lists the Governor receives to the rescue cover certificates, with a proposal in lines that stands up to audit. The NDA covers your staff as well.
Light, not landings
Hours chosen by the sun rather than the dinner bell, and a guide who will wait. Drones are banned in every protected area and need tower permission anywhere in Longyearbyen.
Ice, birds and history
An expedition leader who can read a glacier, a bird cliff and a whaling station, and who stays until you have finished asking.
Longyearbyen first, then as far as the ice allows.
From Longyearbyen we cover Isfjorden and Billefjorden, Kongsfjorden and Ny-Ålesund, Magdalenefjorden and the north-west, Liefdefjorden, Hinlopen Strait, Nordaustlandet and Hornsund. Seven national parks and the reserves cover about 65 per cent of the land, and that shapes every route. The same house runs destination management, private aviation and close protection worldwide.
Other polar journeys and the services behind them.
Algoz FZ-LLC (Trade License 5033995 | TRN 105119056700001) is licensed by RAKEZ for Businessmen Services and Lifestyle Development Consultancy. Operational services such as security, transportation and concierge are delivered through vetted, licensed specialist partners, selected, contracted and overseen by Algoz. All operational execution is performed exclusively by licensed third-party partners holding the necessary local permits. We provide direct assistance and support in partnership with regulated local providers, in compliance with local law. Clients remain responsible for obtaining any required approvals. Rules on armed services vary by country and there are exceptions; where an authorisation is required, it needs a minimum 30-day lead time and may be refused. All activities comply with UAE law and RAKEZ regulations.