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Spitsbergen

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Walrus safari - Two tons of happiness - Better Moments

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Svalbard's wildlife is unique and fascinating. Join us on our day trip to experience it from up close! Every day we use our closed and comfortable RIB boats to go to a well-known walrus colony.

Svalbard’s wildlife is unique and fascinating. Join us on our day trip to experience it from up close! Every day we use our closed and comfortable RIB boats to go to a well-known walrus colony. Here we do a landing on the beach. We will then have the opportunity to observe these funny and extraordinary animals in the arctic landscape. 

The walrus is one of the most intriguing animals in the Arctic. Most of the summer, they stay in the same area and love to sunbathe on the beach and feed on clams in the surrounding waters. Our boat is comfortable, closed, dry and heated, with a panorama view, bar and toilet.

We will start our trip crossing the beautiful Isfjord towards Borebukta. On the way, we are accompanied by the many different birds that nest in Svalbard. A frequent visitor is the Atlantic puffin. Our guides will try to point out all the interesting birds we get to see during this trip.

On a regular day, there are around 10-30 walruses in the colony. Standing on the beach in silence, we will be able to clearly hear the walruses argue over who gets the best sun beds. Don’t forget your camera, you will have many perfect photo opportunities. In case the weather does not allow us to have a landing, we will still be able to see them up close from the aft deck of the boat. On some days we can come to an empty beach, but our guides will try their best to find walruses nearby. Keep in mind that we cannot guarantee any wildlife, however, the walrus is an animal we frequently see in this area.

Once back on board, we serve a lunch and start heading towards the Bore glacier. This beautiful wall of blue ice will fill the bay with floating icebergs, bergabits and growlers. If we are lucky, we will see it “calving”, this is when ice falls off the glacier front. After the visit at the glacier front, we start making our way back to Longyearbyen. 

Early in the season (May and June) there is a good chance that there is still sea ice in the area, and then the walrus does not have access to the beach and will rest directly on the sea ice. If so, it is also not possible of us to do a landing, but we will enjoy the animals from our boat.

We can never guarantee wildlife, however, this is a well-known hauling-out place for walruses. Better Moments has the right to change the route and destination of the trip due to the weather conditions. The weather forecast is never completely reliable in the areas we are travelling in, therefore like on all other boat trips, we always want to go out and see for ourselves if we can reach our destination. In case the weather prevents us from getting all the way there, we will spend the day in the beautiful Isfjorden, visiting glaciers and searching for other wildlife. 

We can facilitate wheelchair users on this trip. Please contact us prior to booking for assistance.

We require a minimum of 7 persons on this trip. The minimum age is 4 years.

Please let us know if you have any food allergies or restrictions.

Last updated: 09/15/2023

Source: Svalbard Reiseliv AS

Walrus safari - Two tons of happiness - Better Moments

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