What is a spa onboard an expedition cruise really like?

Think of expedition cruises and you may think of the expedition ships of old – dingy cabins, tiny portholes and wipe-clean metallic surfaces.

Fast forward to 2024, though, and you’re more likely to find velvet banquettes, grand pianos and spas – like Polar Spa on Albatros Expeditions’ Ocean Albatros.

Nestled on deck seven in the heart of the ship, the spa is a modest single room. But as well as manicures and pedicures, its menu offers an aromatic therapy facial, Indian scalp massage and hot stone massage.

If you’re unsure what to choose, you can opt for a 50-minute spa taster, pick ’n’ mix or best-of-both-worlds treatment – a combination of neck, shoulder, back, leg and foot massages.

Sipping ice-cold water while browsing the menu, I opt for a Swedish massage. My therapist kneads the knot in my right shoulder with almond-scented oil as the ship sways gently from side to side, lulling me to sleep like a baby in a cradle.

After my treatment time is up, my therapist returns a few times to wake me – allegedly – but I’m in such a deep sleep she can’t. I stir on her third attempt, questioning whether she’d dropped a tranquiliser into my water.

But I was just relaxed – for the first time in weeks. Cocooned in a robe, I eventually leave the spa to rejuvenate in the nearby electric sauna, which has a window. Still drowsy, I’m hypnotised by the waves crashing beneath me.

Like the sauna, the ship’s gym has floor-to-ceiling windows, so you can watch the waves as you work out on running and weights machines, cross trainers and exercise bikes. However, I take the view of the hotel director, Oliver Sevilla. “I always see the gym,” he jokes. “And sometimes I touch it. That’s as far as I go.”

Instead, I pad outside and bathe in balmy bubbles in a Jacuzzi – again, it’s not the first experience you think of when on an expedition cruise.

Get onboard

Albatros Expeditions’ seven-night Arctic Odyssey cruise aboard Ocean Albatros, from Tromso to Svalbard via Skarsvag and Bear Island, departs on 30 May 2025.