National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions

Expedition ships from polar ice to the Amazon

National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions runs its own fleet of small expedition ships, pairing Lindblad Expeditions' voyages with the National Geographic brand, which the footer says is used under license. It is a cruise operator rather than a tour seller: guests book a voyage on one of its ships, and the landings, Zodiac trips, kayaking and naturalist program happen from the ship. The destination menu covers Antarctica, the Galápagos, Alaska, Central America, the Arctic, Iceland, the South Pacific and Japan as featured regions, plus Asia, Baja California, the Caribbean, Europe, North America and South America, and river voyages on Europe's rivers, the Amazon in Peru, the Columbia and Snake in the USA, the Mekong in Cambodia and Vietnam, and the Nile in Egypt. The homepage traces the company's roots to 1966, when founder Sven Lindblad's father, Lars-Eric Lindblad, "led the first non-scientific voyage to Antarctica," and the menu says discovery "has been in the Lindblad DNA for 50+ years."

The fleet and sample voyages

The ships menu lists National Geographic Endurance ("fully-stabilized" and of "the highest ice class (PC5 Category A)"), her sister ship National Geographic Resolution, National Geographic Explorer ("purpose-engineered for blue water and polar exploration"), National Geographic Endeavour II, Islander II, Quest and Venture, the river ship Delfin II and the Greg Mortimer. A "Charter a Ship" link covers private charters.

The homepage features voyages with starting prices per person: Quest for the Antarctic Circle from $19,700; Inland Costa Rica, the Panama Canal and Pearl Islands from $6,125; Antarctica and Patagonia: Legendary Ice and Epic Fjords from $22,300; and Easter Island to Tahiti: Tales of the Pacific, 16 or 18 days in March, April, September and October, from $22,000.

The Delfin II page shows what a river ship looks like: an Amazon vessel with an iron hull clad in tropical hardwoods, 4 Amazon suites and 10 suites, a lounge with 270-degree views, an open-air bar up top, a small library, an exercise room and a spa, and an open bridge. The page says Relais & Châteaux has inducted the ship into its hotel group for its Amazonian-Peruvian cuisine. Its voyages, including Upper Amazon: A River Expedition, start from $9,000 and $8,000 per person.

Life on board and ashore

The Tools for Exploration page lists the gear carried for getting off the ship. Zodiacs land guests on shores with no infrastructure. Single and tandem kayaks go out from tropical to polar waters, and custom-made stand-up paddleboards are, the company says, built to be extra stable for a wide range of abilities. On ships sailing to snorkeling waters, complete gear, including shorty wetsuits, is fitted on day one and kept for the voyage. Certified divers may dive in the Galápagos, French Polynesia and Melanesia on select expeditions, with advance sign-up and the company's minimum qualifications; the page says dive masters lead guided dives in the tropics, while other voyages offer scuba through local operators.

Other tools: remotely operated vehicles that dive to depths of up to 1,000 feet on select ships, with the footage shown at the nightly Recap; an underwater microphone a naturalist may lower to listen to whales; glass-bottom boats on select voyages; a crow's nest camera on the ice-class ships; an undersea camera below the waterline on some ships; a real-time electronic chart, shown in every cabin aboard Endurance, Resolution and Explorer; and an open bridge where guests can talk to the watch officer.

The expedition team page says each departure carries a hand-picked team of expedition leaders, naturalists, undersea specialists, certified photo instructors, cultural specialists and historians, who lecture on board and lead the outings. The menu also points to guest speakers and a Science at Sea program.

Booking, offers and support

Guests can book online via "Find Dates & Rates" and Book Now, through a request-a-quote form answered by an expedition specialist, or through a travel advisor from the company's global network. Specialists answer the phone Mon to Fri 9 am to 8 pm and Sat to Sun 10 am to 5 pm (ET), on +1.212.765.7740 worldwide and +44.800.098.1496 in the UK. Brochures are mailed free on request.

Current offers on the homepage: up to $2,000 in air credits per person on select 2027 voyages, booked by November 4, 2026; a waived solo premium on qualifying cabins on select departures; family savings; and suite perks. The plan-your-trip menu links separate pages for reservation terms and conditions, what's included, travel protection, the cancellation policy and health and safety protocols, and offers information for private charters, affinity groups, photographers, families and solo travelers.

The awards page is long. Recent entries include Cruise Critic Best in Cruise Awards 2025 (Best Expedition Cruise Line, Best for Education & Enrichment, and Best in the Galápagos and Alaska), Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2025 (among readers' favorite intimate-ship cruise lines) and Travel Weekly Magellan Awards for National Geographic Endurance and Resolution. Older entries show the conservation side of the business: World Travel Awards named it World's Leading Green Cruise Line in 2015, the United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Award was conferred on Sven Lindblad, and the page notes that a newly discovered Galápagos moth, Undulambia lindbladi, was named in his honor for his conservation work there. The municipality of Puerto Ayora in the Galápagos has also given him an award for his commitment to the islands and the local community.

What the site leaves open, and who it suits

The homepage gives "starting from" prices but not what those prices include; the menu links separate what's-included, cancellation policy and travel protection pages rather than putting those terms beside each voyage, and the site does not state a deposit amount. Passenger capacity per ship is not stated on the fleet menu, and the sample voyages do not all show their length. The Greg Mortimer appears in the ship list without a description.

The company suits travelers who want wildlife, ice and remote coastlines with a naturalist team and plenty of active options, whether that is Antarctica, the Galápagos, Alaska or the Amazon, and who are comfortable with expedition-cruise prices in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per person. Families, solo travelers and photographers each get their own planning pages. Anyone after a large ship with casinos and shows, or a short, low-cost cruise, is not the audience here.