Source: The Points Guy
Summary
Ponant Explorations offers expedition cruises to remote destinations, including Antarctica, the Arctic, Oceania, Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. The company operates 13 small, luxury vessels designed for polar and remote travel. Itineraries range from 7 to 30 nights, with fares starting at $7,000 per person. Ponant emphasizes access to less-visited regions, often using ice-class ships like Le Commandant Charcot. The line also partners with luxury tour companies for some Arctic sailings.
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The escape is carefully planned.
Ponant offers 10-night Antarctic trips starting at $18,000 per person. Le Commandant Charcot reaches the North Pole. Oceania voyages include Papua New Guinea and the Kimberley. African itineraries visit Madagascar and the Seychelles. Mediterranean trips explore Greek islands and Sicily.
Destinations are chosen for their remoteness and accessibility only by small ships. Itineraries include wildlife viewing and cultural stops. Fares reflect the exclusivity of these routes.
Travelers pay for access to places few can reach. The experience is structured, with scheduled landings and guided tours. Luxury is a key feature, even in the most isolated regions.
There’s no real escape from planning when the journey is designed to be planned.
Author: Evan Null
Antarctica
Ponant is one of a handful of expedition cruise companies that dominate the market for trips to Antarctica. In fact, depending on how you count things, it might be the biggest Antarctica cruise operator.
Ponant often sends five vessels to the “White Continent” each year — more than any other major cruise brand. This includes four 264-passenger sister vessels (Le Soleal, Le Boreal, Le Lyrial and L’Austral) that were specifically built to bump through ice in polar regions (each has a 1C ice class rating from Lloyd’s Register) and the brand’s groundbreaking, 200-passenger luxury icebreaker, Le Commandant Charcot.
Le Commandant Charcot, which debuted in 2021, is renowned as the world’s toughest passenger vessel. It is capable of traveling through solid ice to the remote parts of Antarctica and the Arctic.
The five vessels that Ponant regularly sends to Antarctica operate a wide range of itineraries, from 10-night trips that focus on the Antarctic Peninsula to epic, 30-night sailings that take in far greater swaths of the continent.
Fares for Ponant sailings in Antarctica are among its most expensive, with rates for 10-night Antarctica trips starting around $18,000 per person, based on double occupancy.
The Arctic
For years, Ponant has been a major player in expedition-style cruises to the most remote parts of the Arctic, from the famed Northwest Passage across the Canadian Arctic to, more recently, the North Pole.
While the line’s itineraries across the region vary from year to year, they often center around sailings to the Svalbard archipelago — a cluster of rugged islands that are known as a haven for many of the Arctic’s best-known wildlife. There, you can see polar bears, whales (if you’re lucky), walruses, and giant colonies of Brunnich’s guillemots and other Arctic birds.
The brand also frequently offers voyages to the glacier-lined coasts of Greenland as well as trips that touch Iceland.
As with its trips to Antarctica, Ponant deploys some of its fleet of five vessels specifically built for polar sailing to the Arctic, including Le Commandant Charcot, which operates its North Pole trips. It also sometimes sends one of its six smaller, 184-passenger vessels known as the Ponant Explorers to the region.
In the summer of 2027, Ponant will dedicate four of its polar vessels (Le Boreal, Le Lyrial, L’Austral and Le Commandant Charcot) to Arctic sailings, as well as two Ponant Explorers (Le Bellot).
Oceania and the Pacific Islands
Ponant offers one of the most diverse arrays of sailings to the Oceania region of any line. It operates several dozen voyages each year that explore the far-flung islands of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia, as well as the islands of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand.
The line often has a particularly robust lineup of voyages focusing on Papua New Guinea, with at least a few 10- to 16-night trips each year that are almost entirely devoted to the destination. Stops highlight local cultures, World War II history, nature and wildlife.
Ponant also offers one of the largest arrays of expedition sailings to the remote Kimberley region of northwestern Australia. This area is known for its massive crocodiles and natural wonders such as “horizontal waterfalls” and a reef that seemingly rises like magic from the sea.
Other classic Ponant itineraries in the Oceania region include a 16-night trip from Fiji to Guam that visits Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and several of the islands and atolls of Micronesia — many of which are steeped in World War II history.
In a typical year, the line will send at least two of its vessels to the Oceania region for extended seasons. (For 2027, it’ll be the 184-passenger Le Jacques-Cartier and 264-passenger Le Soleal.) Both ships will typically spend at least some time in the Kimberley region before heading to other parts of Oceania.
Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean
Ponant is one of a handful of small-ship cruise operators that regularly offer expedition-style sailings to such African countries as South Africa, Namibia and Madagascar, as well as to Indian Ocean destinations, including Reunion Island, the Seychelles and the Maldives.
Among the line’s itineraries in the region is a 10-night From Madagascar to the Seychelles: Unexpected Islands voyage that brings visits to a wide range of idyllic islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean, including volcanic Nosy Komba (known for its black lemurs) and Assumption Island.
The latter, part of the Aldabra group of islands in the southwest corner of The Seychelles, is home to just a handful of people who live in small village and has beaches famous as a major egg-laying and breeding site for sea turtles. The surrounding waters are also ideal for scuba diving.
Other Ponant routes in the region include 10-night trips along the coasts of South Africa and Namibia that include stops at Luderitz, Namibia — for a visit to the ghost town of Kolmanskop and its colonial buildings now overrun by sand — and Port Elizabeth, South Africa — for a safari trip to see the elephants in Addo Elephant National Park.
Other itineraries focus exclusively on the Seychelles or bring passengers to wildlife-filled Madagascar.
The Mediterranean
While particularly known for expedition-style voyages to more remote destinations, Ponant does offer a diverse array of sailings in more traditional cruise destinations such as the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and the Caribbean — all with Ponant’s signature small-ship touch.
In the Mediterranean, the line offers dozens of voyages every year that often focus on less-visited destinations that only its small ships can access, such as little Greek islands and tiny towns along Croatia’s coast.
Primarily available in the summer months, the trips range from seven to 10 nights in length and often go in-depth into a particular area of the Mediterranean. For instance, one seven-night itinerary on Ponant’s smallest vessel, the 32-passenger sailing yacht Le Ponant, is almost entirely devoted to the coastal towns and islands of Croatia. Another itinerary offered in partnership with Smithsonian Journeys, on the 184-passenger Le Dumont d’Urville, spends eight nights circumnavigating the island of Sicily.
The itineraries often include stops to visit ancient ruins and historic sites, as well as countryside wineries, natural areas and pristine beaches.
The Sicily sailing includes a stop at the island’s Porto Empedocle — gateway to the fabled Greek temples of Agrigento — and Taormina for a tour to a winery on the slopes of Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe.
