Get your heart racing: The ultimate guide to expedition cruising

Want to go on an adventurous cruise but not sure where to start? You've come to the right place.

You've strolled squares in Venice and wandered through the villages of Santorini, and now you are looking for a shore excursion with a difference. What about a hike through bear-infested woods, a visit to an eerily blue lake dotted with icebergs or an exploration of the ruins of a long-vanished civilisation?

If that sounds appealing, it may be time to try an expedition cruise. Instead of following familiar routes through the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, expedition cruising is about heading off the beaten track - and it is more popular than ever before.

"More and more clients are drawn to expedition cruising," says Damian Perry, Asia-Pacific managing director of Hurtigruten. "It offers a deeper, more enriching experience."

To sum up the difference between normal and expedition cruising quite simply: the former is often about the ship, while the latter is about the destination. Expedition ships - which tend to carry at most a few hundred passengers - don't have elaborate onboard entertainment such as theatres or casinos. Instead, they are all about discovering the destination.

Those places may include bucket list destinations as the Arctic and the Antarctic as well as locations such Alaska and Iceland, Central and South America, even remote parts of Australia, Indonesia and beyond.

"On an expedition, each day is different. In the Kimberley, you might be exploring the beautiful gorges, watching a tidal phenomenon like Montgomery Reef or the Horizontal Falls, enjoying rock art or seeing massive numbers of turtles," says Mick Fogg, Ponant's director of expeditions and destination development, Asia-Pacific.

Expedition ships usually come equipped with inflatable Zodiacs designed for exploring bays and beaches; some also carry equipment like kayaks or diving gear. While expedition ships are typically geared towards more adventurous travellers, less mobile guests are also catered for.

"We help people do things they never thought they would do, even if it's something like getting in a Zodiac. It's our obligation to ensure they do so safely, so they can come back and brag about the adventures they have had," Fogg says.

The mood may be adventurous but today's expedition ships also offer plenty of creature comforts. "Every company is trying to outdo each other with food, with service levels, with the comforts available," says Fogg. You don't even have to get off the ship to savour your surroundings. Many ships have plenty of observation decks with floor-to-ceiling windows, and perhaps even a spa.

"One of my favourite memories from Greenland is spending hours just watching the ship move through the ice," Perry says. "I remember sitting in the spa and seeing an iceberg larger than the ship float by."

To help you understand what you are seeing, ships often have a roster of specialist lecturers, from biologists and geologists to historians. In some cases, passengers can even get involved in scientific research.

"We have a ship in the Antarctic at the moment with a researcher from the University of Tasmania observing ice seal behaviours. She has recruited our guests to help participate in the research. We have had other researchers onboard focused on birds, on whales, all sorts of things," says Perry.

Another thing that sets expedition cruising apart is the emphasis on flexibility. In wildlife-rich destinations, ships may alter their route to spend more time observing whales or bears. Weather conditions can also upend the program, with the captain and expedition team sometimes choosing to change the route to suit the conditions.

As expedition cruising continues to grow, ships are increasingly heading to lesser-known destinations. Fogg says he loves some of these under-visited regions, such as parts of eastern Indonesia.

"When you go up past Komodo to West Papua, those outer islands, passengers are just blown away," he says and points out that expedition cruises can also showcase a different side to a more familiar destination. "There are now some really interesting itineraries in the British Isles."

Whichever cruise you opt for, one thing is certain: this is not cruising as you know it. "We will sometimes get a guest whose partner made the booking come up to us and say, 'I never thought I'd like cruising'," says Fogg. "I always tell them, 'It's not a cruise - it's an expedition.'"