Svalbard
Svalbard boat tour to Pyramiden: nine hours to a glacier and a ghost town
Nine hundred kilometres north of Tromsø, at 78 degrees, Longyearbyen is the northernmost town of any size on earth. From its harbour a boat runs up Isfjorden to a glacier front that calves while you watch and to Pyramiden — a Soviet coal-mining town abandoned in 1998 and left standing in the cold, statue of Lenin included.
Quick answer
The Pyramiden boat tour sails from Longyearbyen on Svalbard, not from Tromso, takes about nine hours and costs from $490. It runs up Isfjorden to the Nordenskiöld glacier and then to Pyramiden, where a guide walks you through the abandoned town. Wildlife — walrus, beluga, seabird cliffs, occasionally a polar bear at distance — is possible and never promised. Svalbard needs its own flights and its own days.
The Svalbard sailing, at a glance
- Departs
- Longyearbyennot Tromsø — a separate flight
- Latitude
- 78°Nabout 1,300 km from the North Pole
- Length
- ~9 hoursthe longest sailing on this site
- Price
- $490per person
- The glacier
- Nordenskiölda calving front in Billefjorden
- The town
- PyramidenSoviet mining town, abandoned 1998
- Still standing
- Most of itthe cold preserves everything
- Wildlife
- Possible, not promisedwalrus, beluga, seabirds
- Season
- Summer sailingswhen the fjord is ice-free
- Rating
- 4.6 from 53 reviewsa thin evidence base
Pyramiden
A town that was left exactly as it was
A Soviet town frozen in place in 1998, and a glacier front that calves while you watch.
Pyramiden was a Soviet coal settlement, founded by Sweden, sold to the Soviet Union in 1927, and built up into a model Arctic town: apartment blocks, a cultural centre with a grand piano, a swimming pool, a hothouse that grew vegetables at 78 degrees north, and the northernmost statue of Lenin in the world.
At its peak it held around a thousand people. In 1998 the mine closed and the town was evacuated over a matter of months. Because it is above the tree line, in permanent cold, with no vegetation and almost no rain, it has not rotted. Books are still on shelves. The piano is still in the hall. Signs are still on doors. It is not a ruin; it is a town with nobody in it.
A small number of people are there in season, and a guide leads visitors through the buildings that are safe to enter. Polar bears are a genuine consideration on Svalbard and the guides carry rifles — that is standard practice everywhere outside Longyearbyen and it is not theatre.
The sailing gets there through Isfjorden, past bird cliffs and, on most trips, up to the front of the Nordenskiöld glacier: a wall of ice several kilometres across that cracks, groans and occasionally drops. Between the glacier and the ghost town, this is the strangest nine hours on this site by a distance.
Planning Svalbard
Six things to know before you book anything
This is a trip you build a holiday around rather than adding to one.
- It is a flight, not a drive
Longyearbyen is served from Oslo and Tromsø. There is no road to Svalbard and no ferry from the mainland for tourists.
- Sailings are seasonal
The Pyramiden trip runs when Isfjorden is navigable, which in practice means the summer months. Winter travel on Svalbard is by snowmobile and dogsled instead.
- Polar bears are real
Guides carry rifles outside the settlement because they are required to. Never leave Longyearbyen unguided.
- Nine hours is a full day
Bring layers, food if it is not included, and something for the crossing if you are sensitive to motion.
- Bring proper optics
Distances on Svalbard are enormous and everything interesting is further away than it looks. Binoculars change the day.
- The review count is small
Fifty-three ratings at 4.6. That is normal for a remote seasonal operation and it is worth knowing that the score rests on a handful of people.
Everything else on this site sails from Tromsø, which is a different trip entirely — and about a fifth of the price.
The Tromso fjord cruise→Svalbard in context
A treaty, a mine and 2,500 people
A 1920 treaty, a town of 2,500, more bears than people, and permafrost that preserves everything.
Svalbard is Norwegian, and it is governed under a 1920 treaty that gives citizens of the signatory countries equal rights to live and work there. That is why Pyramiden was Soviet, why Barentsburg is still Russian, and why the archipelago has a history that does not look like the rest of Norway’s.
Longyearbyen has around two and a half thousand residents, a university centre, a supermarket and an airport. It is a real town at 78 degrees north, and it is the base for everything on the archipelago that a visitor can do.
The rules that surprise people are all about bears. Polar bears outnumber people on Svalbard, and leaving the settlement without protection is prohibited — which is why every guide carries a rifle and why every excursion is guided. It is not theatre and it does not make the place dangerous; it makes it organised.
The other surprise is the ground. There are no trees, almost no soil, and permafrost under everything. That is what preserves Pyramiden: a wooden building here does not rot, it simply stands until the wind takes it apart.
Other Svalbard boat trips
Five sailings that exist alongside this one
For anyone building a week rather than a day.
- Barentsburg
The other Russian settlement, still inhabited, reachable by boat in summer.
- Bird cliffs at Alkhornet
Tens of thousands of guillemots and kittiwakes on a single headland.
- The glacier fronts of Billefjorden
Nordenskiöld is the one on this sailing; there are several others.
- Zodiac safaris
Smaller, faster and closer to the ice than a passenger vessel.
- Multi-day expedition cruises
The only way to circumnavigate the archipelago, and a different order of cost entirely.
Common questions
The Svalbard boat tour, answered
Where does the Pyramiden boat tour leave from?
Longyearbyen on Svalbard, at 78 degrees north. It is not a day trip from Tromsø — Svalbard is a separate flight and a separate stay.
What is Pyramiden?
A Soviet coal-mining town abandoned in 1998 and left standing. The cold has preserved the buildings, the cultural centre and the northernmost statue of Lenin in the world.
How long is the trip?
About nine hours, including the sail up Isfjorden, the glacier front and a guided walk through the town.
Will I see polar bears?
Possibly, at a distance, and never as a promise. Guides carry rifles outside the settlement because it is required, not for effect.
What else do you see?
The Nordenskiöld glacier front, bird cliffs, and often walrus or beluga. All wildlife on Svalbard is luck.
Is it worth the price?
For anyone already on Svalbard, it is the trip to do: a calving glacier and an abandoned Soviet town in the same day. It is not an alternative to a Tromsø fjord cruise, it is a different holiday.
Go deeper
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WinterWinter cruises
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SummerMidnight sun sailings
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CostWhat it costs
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