Pretty Stykkishólmur is the largest town on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, on a natural harbour looking out towards the islands of Breiðafjörður Bay. The town’s colourful 19th-century wooden houses have been lovingly restored, and nearby attractions include Mount Kirkjufell and Snæfellsjökull National Park..

The island of Flatey lives up to its name, flat and almost devoid of hills, its colourful cottages only inhabited during the summer months. The nutrient-rich waters along the coast support a healthy population of birds including Atlantic puffins, Arctic terns, eider ducks, red-necked phalaropes and snow buntings.

The little island of Vigur is a haven for seabirds during the summer months, when thousands of Atlantic puffins, Arctic terns and black guillemots gather here. The island is also home to a single family-owned sheep farm, a 200-year-old rowing boat and Iceland’s last surviving windmill, built in 1840.

Bolungarvík is the northernmost town in Iceland’s Westfjords region, a remote fishing settlement of some 950 people. You can learn about the town’s history at the Ósvör museum, a replica of an old fishing station, and the surrounding countryside is popular with hikers, horse riders and bird watchers.

Akureyri is Iceland’s second city, though with just 18,000 inhabitants it’s really more of a small town. Situated on the north coast at the head of Iceland’s largest fjord, it’s a cute and quirky place that also serves as a base from which to explore the bubbling mud pools and lunar landscapes around Lake Mývatn.

The island of Jan Mayen sits several hundred miles north of Iceland, a remote and inaccessible place where tourist numbers are strictly limited. Towering Mount Beerenburg is the world’s northernmost active volcano, and there is no human settlement except for a very lonely Norwegian weather station.

The Svalbard archipelago is a true wilderness, a land of snowy peaks, frozen tundra and glassy seas. You’ll likely have no fixed itinerary here, due to the unpredictable nature of an Arctic expedition; be prepared to drop everything and rush up to the top deck for the chance of a polar bear sighting!

Bjørnøya, or Bear Island, is the most southerly island in the Svalbard archipelago, marooned in the Barents Sea halfway between Spitsbergen and the Norwegian mainland. Despite the name there are no polar bears permanently resident, and the island’s most impressive sight is the huge bird colonies nesting on the cliffs.

The steep-sided Gjesværstappan islands tower dramatically above the freezing waters off the north coast of Norway, carpeted in grass and home to thousands of seabirds. Species that nest here include puffins, kittiwakes, fulmars, guillemots, razorbills, cormorants and skuas.

Skarsvåg is the world’s most northerly fishing village, situated on the north coast of the Norwegian island of Magerøya. The village is less than 10 miles from the North Cape, where the Arctic and Atlantic oceans meet, and you may spot reindeer grazing on the surrounding tundra.