Franz Josef Land

Franz Josef Land is a Russian archipelago of 192 islands in the Arctic Ocean, most of them under ice, and since August 2016 it has been part of the Russian Arctic National Park in Russia's Arkhangelsk Region.¹ It lies beyond the northeastern tip of Svalbard, and the two share polar bears and walruses.¹⁵¹²¹⁴ For a traveler from the West the short answer is that you cannot easily go: no Western expedition company sells trips there for 2027. Poseidon Expeditions, which ran cruises to the islands for years, says it cannot operate in Russian territory because of the war in Ukraine.⁵ The visitors who do arrive now come on Russian-run trips, mainly on the nuclear icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy or on ice-class yachts, and the whole national park, which also covers northern Novaya Zemlya, receives only 600 to 2,000 visitors a season.⁴¹ The icebreaker's operator, Atomflot, has been under US sanctions since 2023.¹⁷¹⁶

Is Franz Josef Land part of Russia?

Yes. The archipelago is Russian territory and forms the northern part of the Russian Arctic National Park, which the park describes as Russia's northernmost and largest protected natural area: about 34,000 square miles (8.8 million hectares) across Franz Josef Land and the north of Novaya Zemlya, with no permanent residents.¹ The islands were a federal nature reserve before they were added to the park in August 2016.¹

Can you visit Franz Josef Land?

Legally, yes, but only on terms set by the Russian park. Its rules say:

• Season: June to September, with mid-July to mid-August the most convenient time.²
• How: almost always on a cruise ship or yacht sold by a tour operator, usually for 10 to 15 days; the park itself sells no trips.²
• Escort: every cruise is accompanied by a state environmental inspector, and the park limits how many people can be on a route at once.² Walking on your own is prohibited because of polar bears.⁴
• Permit: visitors pay a fee of 160 rubles and need a permit; independent travelers must apply at least 30 days before departure and list every landing point they want, because only those points go on the permit.³

Getting there is the harder part. In 2019, the park's director said cruise ships first had to sail to Murmansk for customs clearance before heading to the archipelago, adding three days of sailing, and he asked for a border checkpoint on the islands; a Hurtigruten voyage planned that August was cancelled at the last minute, reportedly because of a Russian military exercise.⁷ Today a further obstacle sits on top of the logistics. The US State Department's advisory for Russia is "Level 4: Do Not Travel", telling Americans "Do not travel to Russia for any reason".¹⁰ Foreigners also need a Russian visa; RussiaDiscovery's icebreaker fare includes a letter of invitation to apply for one.⁹

The usual ship adds a sanctions question. 50 Let Pobedy belongs to Russia's nuclear icebreaker fleet, run by Atomflot in Murmansk.¹⁸ The State Department designated Atomflot for sanctions on May 19, 2023, and it is still on the Treasury's sanctions list as of October 15, 2026.¹⁷¹⁶ US rules bar US persons, without a Treasury license, from "the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person", so for Americans a berth on the icebreaker is a legal question as well as a travel one.¹⁷

Do any cruises go to Franz Josef Land?

None from Western operators. None of the expedition lines whose 2027 Arctic voyages we have checked, from Ponant and Quark to HX and Lindblad, visits Franz Josef Land. Poseidon Expeditions, which sailed there as early as 2003 on the icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn and in 2019 was among the few companies sailing from Longyearbyen to the islands, now says it is "currently unable to market or operate" icebreaker cruises "that travel in Russian territory" and will resume "when the situation permits".⁶⁷⁵ An official of the Russian park said in June 2026 that foreign demand is waiting for sanctions to be lifted.¹¹

Russian companies still run trips. The park's own list of tours, which Russian agencies supply, showed these when we read it on October 15, 2026; several dates have not been updated since 2024 or 2025:⁸

According to the park's deputy director, speaking to Izvestia in April 2026, the tourist season has averaged 60 days over the past three years, with four to five trips a season, and the park has 38 one-day routes for visitors.⁴ Izvestia put the price of a trip to Franz Josef Land at 900,000 rubles or more per person.⁴ For the North Pole part of the icebreaker trip, and why Western companies stopped selling it, see our North Pole page.

What is there to see on Franz Josef Land?

Ice, wildlife and polar history. The park says 85% of the archipelago is covered by glaciers, yet it is home to 11 mammal species and 50 bird species; polar bears choose these islands to give birth and raise their cubs, and narwhals, bowhead whales, belugas and white-beaked dolphins live in its waters.¹

The park names its most visited places:¹

• Tikhaya Bay on Hooker Island, the archipelago's tourist center, with a Soviet-era polar station, the northernmost post office and the cliffs of Rubini Rock, one of the archipelago's largest seabird colonies.
• Champ Island, known for its round stone concretions of many sizes.
• Cape Tegetthoff on Hall Island, the rock pillars the park calls the archipelago's calling card.
• Cape Flora on Northbrook Island, with plant life unusually rich for its latitude.

The Ocean Adventurer itinerary on the park's site adds Cape Norvegia, where the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen spent the winter of 1895 to 1896, and walrus haul-outs on the islands of Stolichka and Apollonov.⁸

Can you see Franz Josef Land's wildlife from Svalbard?

Partly, because the animals move between the two. Visit Svalbard says some of the polar bears in the Barents Sea region migrate between Svalbard and Franz Josef Land, and the IUCN's Polar Bear Specialist Group notes that bear dens may have shifted from eastern Svalbard to Franz Josef Land in most years.¹²¹³ The walruses around Svalbard belong to a shared Svalbard and Franz Josef Land population, according to the Norwegian Polar Institute's monitoring program.¹⁴ Read more on our polar bear and walrus pages.

The nearest a Western trip gets is Kvitøya, at the northeastern tip of Svalbard. Poseidon Expeditions' 14-day Svalbard Circumnavigation and Kvitøya on Sea Spirit, which starts with a hotel night in Longyearbyen on July 7, 2027 and sails the next day, calls the island "one of the most rarely visited and closest islands to Franz Josef Land"; it starts at $14,795 per person in a triple suite shared by three, with the hotel night included and airfare not.¹⁵ That is our pick if Franz Josef Land's bears and walruses are what draw you. For the other far-north options, start with our Arctic page and Longyearbyen, where the Svalbard ships sail from.