Quark Expeditions

Quark’s guides and the staff of the Ocean Nova where exceptional. The weather cooperated, wildlife seen up close. It was a glorious adventure.

We took this trip hoping to see wildlife, and it truly exceeded expectations. Also, the Ocean Nova was a very nice ship - highly recommended. What really surprised me was the quality of the Quark guides. They were highly educated in diverse fields and were all very personable. We are so glad we chose to do this and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a once in a lifetime experience.

The trip was great. It was as advertised and exceeded my expectations. Staff was knowledgeable and friendly. Food was great. Accommodations were great.

Wow, what a great trip that was, we saw a total of 10 polar bears!!!! The scenery was unbelievable. The expedition team and the crew members were very professional and they are definitely the leader of polar expedition.

The Spitsbergen Photography: In Search of Polar Bears cruise was amazing. Incredible scenery including glaciers and icebergs and many lucky animal spottings. Although you can never be assured of polar bear sightings, we were fortunate enough to see two bears up very close to the ship and several more at varying distances, as well as reindeer, many walrus and lots of birds. The food was plentiful, varied and quite tasty. All of the ship's personnel, from the expedition staff to the dining room staff down to the cabin stewards were friendly, pleasant and extremely helpful. Woody, the expedition leader, was a real gem! It was obvious that he spent many hours on the bridge conferring with the captain to get us to the best locations for viewing and exploration. All of the expedition staff were excellent in their assigned tasks, including presentations, zodiac excursions and photography assistance. My husband had some medical issues while on the trip and Ryan McDevitt, who was in charge of guest services, went way above and beyond in getting us medical assistance while on the ship and arranging a speedy ER visit once we arrived back in Longyearbyen. The dining room staff, most especially Michael, were very solicitous of his needs during meals and bent over backwards to see that he was taken care of. There were about 117 guests on the ship, which seemed just about the right number for us and we met and made friendships with quite a number of lovely people. We highly recommend Quark Expeditions to anyone looking for an arctic (or antarctic) expedition.