Like many in travel, the pandemic almost sank Norway’s Hurtigruten, one of the world’s oldest and most recognisable names in ocean cruising. But new ownership has buoyed it, as has separating the company’s expedition cruising arm from the Norwegian Coast-only operations that continue under the Hurtigruten moniker. The cruising wing had been HX Expeditions since 2021 but it is now under separate ownership.
Hurtigruten does triple time as a ferry as well as carrying cargo and mail for remote communities along the country’s seaboard, and hosting tourist adventures.
Nonetheless, they share a remarkable history.
The original Hurtigruten dates to 1881, when Norwegian shipmaster Richard With laid the foundations by running trade routes along his country’s coast. But it was in 1896 that he committed to passenger routes.
And so in 2026, HX will celebrate this, the 130-year anniversary of what is widely acknowledged as the birth of the cruise industry and history buffs and cruise fans are being offered a unique opportunity to take part.
For all of next year, one cabin aboard the HX Expeditions’ ship Fridtjof Nansen will be a recreation of a late 19th-century expedition cabin.
Launching on January 29, its first outing being an Antarctic voyage, the 1896 Cabin invites guests to spend one night in a recreation of late 19th-century ship digs. Other guests will be able to tour the cabin when it is not privately occupied.
The 1896 Cabin comes with handcrafted period furnishings, and enticingly or alarmingly, depending on your viewpoint, “authentic scents, and curated touches that capture the spirit of HX’s earliest explorers”.
Ship interiors specialist AROS Marine drew upon meticulous research to create the special experience, while HX Expeditions executive and Antarctic ambassador Tudor Morgan says the experience will be moving.
“I like to remind people that on the Belgica Expedition, the first winter exploration of the Antarctic Peninsula with Frederick Cook and Roald Amundsen onboard, they left Belgium in June of one year (1897), and got to Antarctica in the following January. And then the ship was encapsulated in ice for winter – and trapped.”
Of course, today’s sailing will be far from the conditions Cook and Amundsen endured, with mod cons and comforts included among the atmospherics. But, says Morgan, “it’s a bit of fun, but we hope that the people who will spend the night in the cabin will take a bit of time for reflection”.
The 1896 Cabin is an add-on that costs $795 (€450) a night (single or double occupancy). Half of all profits will be donated to the HX Foundation, a charity that supports various eco-focused projects.
HX has an education partnership with the University of Tasmania and its Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. The award-winning HX-UTAS Antarctica Pre-Departure Course, launched in 2024, was the world’s first university-developed program designed to educate Antarctic passengers.
In the collaboration, new Arctic Introductory Courses will be launched in 2026, featuring programs for Alaska, Arctic Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Northwest Passage and Svalbard.
Says Morgan, “[UTAS/IMAS] do some incredible world-class research. So we work with them closely. We host lots of researchers and scientists from IMAS and UTAS on our ships, and we’ve developed with them this online learning program for Antarctica for our guests before they go to Antarctica, so they can do an introduction to Antarctica course and be really prepared.”
The 20-hour comprehensive course, which guests can do in their own time, has been so successful that HX is working with UTAS to roll it out worldwide, he says.
“We really feel at HX a connection with Tasmania and Australia and Antarctica,” he says.
“I get asked, ‘Why are you partnering with a university in Australia? Why aren’t you partnering with the Cambridge or Oxford or Harvard or Yale?’. Because they’ve got so many different interests, while for UTAS, Antarctica is on their doorstep.”
See travelhx.com
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Julietta Jameson is a freelance travel writer who would rather be in Rome, but her hometown Melbourne is a happy compromise.Connect via email.
