The Arctic and Antarctic oceans have become popular holiday destinations. Tourists sail through isolated seas and pose new dilemmas in terms of human impact on these refreshingly natural landscapes. These images, taken during a return sea voyage from Dover to Svalbard in the High Arctic last summer, capture some of those instances where the nature/culture boundary becomes blurred. In an area of such remoteness, I am comforted by the constant presence of our ship Boudicca. The VDU in the cabin displays our position high above Norway. The High Arctic waters appear to lack any movement at all, so that I feel as though I am sailing on top of the world, having left rough seas behind. As we sail along Kongsfjord into Ny Alesund, large dark shapes can be seen under the water as whales seemingly but unobtrusively pass by in the opposite direction on either side of the ship. Are we as unobtrusive to the whales? At Ny Alesund, the northern-most community in the world, research scientists occupy the wooden huts that sit opposite large glaciers across the bay. Boudicca, however, intrudes more than the huts do on this natural scene. Magdalenefjord, all glaciers and blue water, is magnificent. The ship is motionless and I scan the land for polar bears. Is that a polar bear in front of me? No, the furry hat of a fellow passenger detracts from the beauty of this fiord. Alas! too warm for polar bears at 13 degrees C. Sailing back along the Norwegian coastline, Boudicca’s wash interrupts the Midnight Sun landscape. We enter a small Norwegian fiord in the Low Arctic early in the morning. In a scene reminiscent of Apocalypse Now, the captain plays Grieg’s ‘Morning’ through the loudspeakers and navigates Boudicca close to the rocks to turn round. In this spectacularly “natural” and otherwise quiet place, I observe oil in the water and worry about whether this is output from our ship or has collected there from passing ships. On this holiday of a lifetime, how much do we disrupt the nature in the Arctic and what do we leave behind? For how much longer will Svalbard be referred to as the Kingdom of the Polar Bear?