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Our team were fortunate enough to sit down with Conrad Combrink, Silversea's Senior Vice President for Expeditions and Destination Management, and a true expert in this extraordinary way to cruise. He shares his unique insights into expedition cruising, plus some expert recommendations and first-hand experiences when sailing to some of the world's most spectacular destinations on a Silversea expedition.
Learn More About Silversea Expeditions
"I think what makes Silversea expeditions different is that we were truly the first luxury operator in the space. Back when we started in 2008, there were really no luxury options for any traveller on an expedition, and it wasn't until Silversea started that we introduced luxury to this incredible experience – the expedition cruising experience. And for us, that is how we innovate.
It's the experience that we offer on board the ship, bringing that beautiful Silversea luxury and the service that we are so well known for to the segment. But it's also our commitment to delivering the destinations. We have got an incredibly focused team just on research and development, looking at all our destinations, and we will never take our guests to a destination unless we are intimately familiar with it. The reality is, no matter how well equipped your ship is, without an incredible expedition team the experience will fall flat. So, we spend a lot of resources in training and developing and making sure that we have got some of the most qualified staff in the industry on our ships."
"So, we have 4 ships in our fleet – we have Silver Cloud, Silver Wind, Silver Endeavour, which is the latest addition to our fleet, and we have our purpose-built ship for the Galapagos, Silver Origin.
In fact, Silver Origin was our very first purpose-built for a destination ship. She's an amazing little vessel, 100 guests, and she operates year-round in the Galapagos. She is fully staffed with an Ecuadorian team, some of the most incredible team members, and extremely well-equipped, beautiful, modern and we are very proud of Silver Origin.
Silver Endeavour joined our fleet in 2022; she’s an extraordinary vessel of 228 guests – a remarkable vessel, extremely luxurious, very, very modern. We operate Silver Endeavour in the polar regions, mainly Antarctica, as well as in the Arctic. She focuses mainly on our fly-cruise programme, which is our beautiful, innovative programme where our guests fly across the Drake Passage to Antarctica and spend six nights on board Silver Endeavour, and then they fly back to the South American continent, which is an incredible experience just to fly across the Drake Passage to Antarctica.
Silver Cloud and Silver Wind are two beautiful older ladies, but with age comes experience! These are the two ships, in fact, that launched Silversea Cruises back in the 1990s. These ships have been converted beautifully to expedition ships, and they operate worldwide with a focus, again, on the polar regions.
Silver Wind operates basically a north-south polar itinerary; she will do Antarctica, and we've used Silver Wind on the West Coast of Africa expeditions. She spent the summer in the British Isles, and she does a lot of the Canadian Arctic itineraries for us, including voyages like the Northwest Passage.
Silver Cloud is a Southern hemisphere ship, in fact, she doesn't come into the Northern Hemisphere at all. She does Antarctica during November to March, and then she transitions either through the Indian Ocean to Australia where she operates the Kimberley season. Alternatively, she does French Polynesia, Cook Island, South Pacific, she does Micronesia, Melanesia, and then she spends two or three months on the West Coast of Australia doing the Kimberley region."
"With four ships in the fleet, we're always looking at opportunities to expand. Although there's nothing that I can officially announce, there's always opportunities for us to either add to our fleet through new boats or through acquisitions.
In terms of changing our profile and adding what I sometimes refer to as toys (i.e., helicopters and submarines), that is not Silversea, we don't believe in that. I don't say there's anything wrong with it, we just, at Silversea, believe the destinations should shine. Naturally, we take a little bit of an old school approach to expedition. I've been in the expedition industry for over 30 years, and so I like the traditional approach of expedition voyages, where it's all about the destination, and therefore we focus heavily on how we deliver that, how we can make the destination shine.
We do so through scouting missions, through research and development, working with local communities where they are available, local tour operators, tourism organisations, but we also invest heavily in our staff. For us, our expedition staff really is the star of how we deliver our experiences.
Therefore, we have come up with industry leading training programmes. We have got an online curriculum for Silversea expedition staff that they have to complete before they go on our ships to really enhance their destination knowledge. We do regular training on board our ships for our team, and we do seasonal trainings in the field, so it's just a comprehensive training and development programme that truly is industry leading – and for us, that is innovation.
That is how we can make sure that our guests have the very, very best experience because ultimately, they decide to go to these destinations because the destination attracted them, and we need to make sure that that we live up to their incredible expectations."
"Many people consider expeditions polar, and I guess that is true. The expedition industry started because of expeditions to Antarctica back in the early 1970s. In fact, 1969 was the first expedition voyage to Antarctica and expedition travel has become a little bit synonymous with these regions. However, that is not the only destination that expedition companies offer, and at Silversea we like to explore the world. We were the first and only company a few years back that offered an expedition to Bangladesh, for instance. So, we always try to find these interesting destinations.
We were the first company to offer the West Coast of Africa, which is one of our most popular non-polar expeditions. We start in Cape Town, and we go all the way up to Lisbon along the West Coast of Africa. This expedition is really about seeing life along this extraordinary coast that is not easy to visit. It's just over a month-long journey; we visit Namibia, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, and countries like Togo, Benin, Ghana, further along Sierra Leone, and Cape Verde Islands. These are destinations that are extremely difficult to get to and very hard once you're there to travel as the infrastructure is just not there. We deliver the cultural element and showcase these destinations because we've got such great relationships with the communities and with the destinations, and it's fascinating not only to learn about the history, but also to see the different cultures. Not so much a wildlife expedition, it really is more of the human element and life along that coast.
On the other side of Africa, we also visit the Indian Ocean – starting in Cape Town, going all the way through the Indian Ocean up to the Seychelles, visiting extraordinary places like Mozambique. We have visits to Ilha de Mozambique, we go into Tanzania, Zanzibar, the incredible islands of the Seychelles, Aldabra Atoll – a UNESCO World Heritage site that, in fact, has more giant tortoises than the entire Galapagos combined.
We also visit the Kimberley region – a spectacular part of Australia. It's an area larger than England, and it's all about natural history. One of the most incredible expeditions that we that we offer is Micronesia and Melanesia, in places like Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Raja Ampat. These are very cultural and very diverse in the communities – the different cultures and different tribes that we visit – but also an opportunity to snorkel in some of the most pristine waters and most untouched and beautiful healthy coral reefs in the world.
There are some itineraries that are under development at the moment that I can't say too much about, but I'm really excited as we continue to explore this incredible planet that we live on!"
"This is a question I get often, and it's a little bit like asking who is your favourite child – I guess that you're never allowed to say you have a favourite, but most of us do. For me, although I'm absolutely, incredibly in love with the polar regions, I think there's just something so incredibly fascinating about visiting these destinations, I love culture, I love different tribes, learning about history, learning about how people live in places that you know, are a little bit more off the beaten track and seldom visited. So, I guess my favourite destination in the world must be the Micronesia and Melanesia area – Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
I find places like the Federated States of Micronesia – Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei – absolutely fascinating. The history, from the colonialism to the role that the region played in the Second World War, is absolutely fascinating. And in the cultures of places like Papua New Guinea, where we visit different islands almost every day – you might think that it's just another island, another sandy beach, another palm tree, but that’s not the case. Every island has a different tribe and is developed differently, and you can really see it – people are still trying to keep their cultures alive where we don't have these modern influences.
I can share a story: When I was a young expedition leader, we were visiting an island in the Federated States of Micronesia – an island called Ifaluk – and I remember having a conversation with the village elder, with some guests.
We were introduced to a young man in his early 20s, who just came back from an exchange programme in the United States, in Los Angeles, and you can't imagine the difference between this village and Los Angeles. One of our guests asked him: “If you could bring something from your time in Los Angeles back with you onto the island to make your life easier, what, what would it be?”
And he seemed a little bit perplexed. He thought about it for a moment, and his answer was literally tea bags – he enjoyed tea bags, and it was just such a wonderful moment where you just realise that we overcomplicate our lives. Most things that we think are essential in our lives are probably not, and you see this in these regions of the world where people are not poor – this is their life. This is how they live life in a very simplistic, simple manner, and it's really incredible to see and to take our guests there and experience that."
"When we travel to the polar regions it's all about natural history, and a little bit on polar exploration and learning about these incredible people, like Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen. But the big attraction, of course, has to be nature. I remember, a couple of years back, I was in a Zodiac in Antarctica, and we were doing a Zodiac cruise. One of my favourite activities is Zodiac cruising in Antarctica – you get to cover such a big area, you see a lot of wildlife, you see a lot of scenery, and it's a great easy way to explore.
We were in a place called Neko Harbour – absolutely stunning, and one of the most beautiful areas in the Antarctic Peninsula. While we were on this cruise, we could hear the sound of whales blowing – it’s a very distinctive sound and, because it's so quiet in Antarctica, you can really easily hear any kind of noise.
We could see the blows probably about half a mile or so away from our Zodiacs, so we slowly got closer and closer and then at one point made the decision to switch off our engines, just to witness the whales a little bit in the distance.
But, because we are just interacting as another species in Antarctica, there's no threat from us to any of the wildlife, and none of the animals down there see us as a danger or as a threat. A specific whale came closer and closer to our Zodiac, and we realised quickly it was a mother and a calf. She started swimming around the Zodiac, coming right up to the boat and swimming just under the surface, turning around and spy hopping. At one stage she was nudging her little calf up to the surface, almost saying, “hey, look at these humans,” and it was just the most remarkable wildlife encounter.
There was not a dry eye on that Zodiac. It was such an emotional experience to have this interaction with a 15-metre-long, 40-tonne animal and just realise that we are two different species interacting, and that we share this planet and coexist here. It was an incredible experience."
"Expedition travel is different than a regular cruise. In fact, it's not a cruise. We use the ship as a platform to take our guests to these remarkable destinations. So, prepare a little bit, learn a little bit, and read up.
We send all of our guests reading lists ahead of their departure, of books or a watch list of some documentaries about their expedition. I highly recommend that that you do that because you'll just be a little bit more aware of the destination. Antarctica, specifically, is such a beautiful experience, such a fragile, unique environment - and it's an environment that is still very inhospitable.
Listen to the expedition staff. They are extremely well equipped to lead these expeditions; they know this area, and they know what is the best and the safest way to deliver and make sure that we follow the rules. It's a fragile environment and we need to keep it as pristine as possible, and that's what makes tourism in Antarctica successful, is that we have very clear parameters on how we can operate, and it's on all of us a responsibility that we stick within those so that we don't have a lasting impact on the environment at all."
"When planning your expedition, especially your Silversea expedition, we will send you a packing list. Regardless of which destination you go to, whether it's the Kimberley islands, the Indian Ocean, the British Isles, Svalbard, Antarctica, or Galapagos, you will get a packing list from us, and I would recommend you stick to that. There's no need to pack more – certainly don't pack less.
When it comes to Antarctica, or the Arctic regions, most people tend to over pack. If you follow the guidelines that we give in our packing list, you will be absolutely fine. For our polar expeditions, we provide a parka which is more than adequate – it’s waterproof, it's windproof, so you'll be very warm. It's an easy to put on and take off, and you can wear it on board the ship, going out on deck, and the same thing when in Zodiacs.
We provide our guests with backpacks, so you don't have to bring a backpack on any of our expeditions, and we provide complimentary water bottles as well, so you don't have to bring a water bottle – we don't use plastic water bottles on our ships.
For the polar regions, our recommendation is layers – 3-4 layers. Gear these days is so technical, so you don't have to be dressed like a woolly mammoth anymore as the gear is absolutely superb.
For the tropical regions, bring insect repellent and sunscreen in addition to the clothing – those things are important.
What I do always just want to remind everybody is, whether it's in the tropics or in the polar regions, stay hydrated and use sunblock! It's pretty remarkable how easy it is to get sunburned in the polar regions and how easy it is to get dehydrated there. You think that you need to stay hydrated in the tropical areas and drink more water there, it's equally true in the polar regions. In fact, most people get more dehydrated there because they just don't think about the amount of liquid they take in, but it’s super important."
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