Founded in 1941 as a US Air Force base, Kangerlussuaq is home to Greenland’s main airport and a place that most visitors to the country will pass through at some point. The town also offers easy access to the magnificent Greenland Ice Cap, and the surrounding countryside is a great place to see the Northern Lights.

The colourful houses of Kangaamiut tumble down a hillside, in a region renowned for its dramatic fjords and rugged mountains. It’s a place to drink in spectacular views, learn about daily life in a Greenlandic village, and get to know some of the friendly and welcoming locals.

Greenland’s capital and largest town, Nuuk is positively cosmopolitan compared to the rest of this remote and isolated country. The setting amongst mountains and fjords is striking, and attractions include the Greenland National Museum and the picturesque Old Harbour.

The name Sisimiut means ‘the people living in a place where there are fox dens’, though these days the town is better known for being Greenland’s northernmost year-round ice-free port. Around 25 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it’s a common stop for ships making the journey north to Disko Bay.

The spectacular Ilulissat ice fjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it's the source of the many icebergs that float out across Disko Bay. The town of Ilulissat itself is Greenland’s third largest settlement, and activities on offer here include dog sledding and whale watching.

The small Inuit settlement of Pond Inlet sits at the entrance to the fabled Northwest Passage, on the north coast of Baffin Island. A dramatic landscape of fjords, glaciers and icebergs provides a habitat for wildlife including whales, seabirds, seals and narwhals, the otherworldly ‘unicorns of the sea’.

Devon Island is the world’s largest uninhabited island, a barren and frozen place that is used by NASA scientists to carry out research on the practicalities of missions to Mars. The chilly waters off the coast support species including bearded seals, harbour seals and humpback whales, and if you’re lucky you may even spot polar bears.

Devon Island is the world’s largest uninhabited island, a barren and frozen place that is used by NASA scientists to carry out research on the practicalities of missions to Mars. The chilly waters off the coast support species including bearded seals, harbour seals and humpback whales, and if you’re lucky you may even spot polar bears.

The Inuit community of Resolute Bay is the second most northerly settlement in Canada, at the northern end of the Northwest Passage, and is named after the British naval vessel HMS Resolute, which was trapped in the ice here and abandoned in 1854 while searching for Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition.

Gjoa Haven was known by the Inuit as Uqsuqtuuq, the ‘place of plenty blubber’, but was renamed when Roald Amundsen became the first explorer to traverse the Northwest Passage on his ship the Gjøa. It was also here that the wreck of the HMS Erebus, from Franklin’s famous lost expedition of 1845, was finally discovered in 2014, followed by the HMS Terror in 2016.

The remote community of Cambridge Bay is located on the southeast coast of Victoria Island, part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It’s the largest stop for ships transiting the Northwest Passage, despite a population of less than 2,000, and it's a great place to learn about the wildlife of the Arctic and the culture of the Inuit people who live here.

Banks Island is the largest island in Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, though the only human settlement is the tiny Inuvialuit hamlet of Sachs Harbour. The landscape is spectacular, home to wildlife including caribou, Arctic foxes, polar bears, wolves and musk oxen, while offshore you may spot white and bowhead whales.

Only accessible by air or sea, the remote Alaskan town of Nome sits overlooking the Bering Strait, surrounded by miles of largely featureless tundra. This was once a boomtown; the discovery of easily extractable gold in 1898 led to a gold rush, and you can still see the remnants of the mining industry which thrived here.

The former Soviet military port of Provideniya is home to just 2,000 people, many of whom belong to the Yupik indigenous group. The port sits on a fjord sheltered from the Bering Sea, and is close to the southern limits of the Arctic ice pack.

St Paul is the largest of the Pribilof Islands, situated in the middle of the Bering Sea between the US and Russia. Sparsely populated by humans, the island comes alive in summer with some 500,000 northern fur seals and sea birds including tufted puffins, auklets, kittiwakes, cormorants and fulmars.

Dutch Harbor is the port that serves the city of Unalaska, and is known for the hardy fishermen who brave the turbulent, icy seas off the Aleutian Islands. Points of interest include the remains of defensive fortifications built during the Second World War and the striking Russian Orthodox church.

Geographic Harbor is situated in Alaska’s stunning Katmai National Park, and is known for its large brown bear population. As you approach the shore you might spot the bears foraging for clams and crabs when the tide goes out, or fishing for salmon in the mountain streams.

The Hubbard Glacier, which straddles the border between Alaska and Canada, is the largest tidewater glacier in North America, six miles wide where it reaches the sea, and the glacier’s rapid advance means that giant icebergs regularly calve into the waters of Disenchantment Bay.

Point Adolphus, on the northern tip of Alaska’s Chichagof Island, is a fantastic place to see humpback whales, lured here by the nutrient-rich waters during the summer. It’s also a top birding spot, with species including marbled murrelets, pigeon guillemots, Pacific loons, pelagic cormorants and black-legged kittiwakes.

Sitka was founded by Russian fur traders in 1799 as the city of New Archangel, and there is still a discernible Russian influence here, including the distinctive St Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral. The town also enjoys spectacular natural surroundings, facing the Pacific Ocean and dramatic Mount Edgecumbe.

Back in its 19th century heyday Wrangell was a lawless gold rush town, and it's still a little rough around the edges, but it's also a very welcoming place, ideal for exploring the surrounding Alaskan wilderness. Take a trip to the nearby Anan Wildlife Observatory for the chance to see black and brown bears at close proximity.

Cosmopolitan Vancouver is a city that rewards exploration, an eminently liveable place and an easy gateway to the natural beauty of British Columbia. The culinary scene here is a particular draw, with seafood galore and some fantastic Asian restaurants.