Silversea’s 30th Anniversary: Natural Beauty, Wildlife and Serenity

Even before the adoption of its first expedition ship in 2008, the Silver Explorer, Silversea excelled in seeking out the world's natural beauty - its wildlife, the untrammeled landscapes, the places where guests could escape the frenetic pace of life at home. The smaller size of Silversea's ships has meant the fleet can tuck into ports that most big ships cannot, settings that can deliver extraordinary experiences.

One such place for me was the small island town of Wrangell, Alaska where I joined a tour to the Anan Wildlife Observatory on the mainland, 30 miles away. We arrived at the renowned bear-viewing site just after the official season, when just a few dozen permits are issued daily. But the salmon were running late that year, and so, escorted by two rangers carrying shotguns, we followed a short trail through an exquisite forest of Sitka spruce, to a deck and photo hide overlooking gushing falls.

Several of us descended into the wet, cramped hide, its floor just a few feet above the water's edge. At first, I saw nothing. But a few minutes after settling in, I heard the clatter of a camera shutter. Across the churning stream, a snout appeared from behind one rock, right at the water's edge - a black bear, diminutive in size. Soon, other, bigger bears materialized, some approaching atop the downed trees lining the riverbank.

The poor, oblivious salmon repeatedly attempted to crest the falls, but mostly they flailed, pooling up at the bears' feet. The bears also seemed oblivious to us, and from inside the hide there was an anxious moment when one of the carnivores strutted less than 10 feet away. Above, bears materialized on all sides of the deck, which was nominally protected with a railing - and our armed guides. On our way back to the ship, a grizzly mama watched as her three cubs played on the opposite side of the estuary where the stream exits. Several hundred feet away, she paid us no notice.

How privileged, I felt, to inhabit this place, and to share it with some of nature's fiercest creatures a mere stone's throw away. It's a transcendent memory, but I am not the only one to experience such serenity. Silversea guest Jim Cossler brought home such remembrances at least twice in 2024.

"My wife and I know how blessed we are to have traveled extensively in over 50 countries to date, checking each trip off our ever-diminishing bucket list. At least we thought so when Silversea took us to our final continent of travel, Antarctica. We have so many amazing memories: the stunningly beautiful landscapes; the massive art form icebergs; glaciers calving; hiking among the huge penguin and seal colonies. Oh, and the whales - and to be so close to them. But even better for us was to have easy access to the scientists on board who could give us context to what we had actually seen.

"We thought Antarctica was the end of the bucket list - it wasn't. In July, Silversea took us to Svalbard. I can't even begin to describe it: other-worldly, ethereal, surreal - a place of worship and thanksgiving. It's one of the most remote and inaccessible places on the planet, yet teaming with life. The absolute highlight of the trip was the moment the captain sailed our ship into the North Pole ice pack!

"St. Augustine said: 'The world is a book, and those who don't travel only read one page.' Thank you, Silversea, for adding such an amazing chapter to our travel book."

Antarctica paints a vivid picture for most who travel there, and New Zealander [please ck] Douglas Leigh also brought back sterling recollections.

"After leaving Port Lockroy, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, we sailed in perfect conditions through the Lemaire Channel, black and white mountains rising on both sides into lowering cloud. The icebergs bumping and scraping down the hull; passengers in their red jackets on the bow, cameras in hand. Then, around the starboard corner we entered the iceberg graveyard. We boarded our Zodiac. Bergs ground here and roll, creating fantastic shapes. In totally calm conditions, the late afternoon sun gave the low clouds a pink hue. Our driver stopped the Zodiac's motor. The stillness was indescribably peaceful, a moment to treasure. Around another iceberg, another Zodiac was dispensing Champagne while a leopard seal rested on a flat area of ice. The world was perfect and so quiet."

For those who are lucky to have traveled to the ends of the earth, the back of beyond still beckons, and Dorothy Thompson found it, in the remote outer Seychelles.

"From the top of the world to the bottom of the world, I have enjoyed my Silversea adventures - most particularly the expedition cruises, which provide what I find to be the perfect balance of adventure and comfort. I've met and enjoyed conversations about the lives of local people on tiny, remote islands, encountered elephant seals, penguins, bountiful bird colonies. Yet it is what I've learned about myself that may be the most valuable.

"One of my most perfect travel days was what I call Lost in Desroches: No roads, only footpaths on this island. I thought I'd go for a walk, and sort of zoned out looking at giant spiders, birds, coconuts. Soon, I had no clue where I was! Well, it's a tiny island, I thought - if you go to the edge and circumambulate, you should get back to where you started, right? Not to worry, I have my backpack - water, camera, sunblock, a towel. I'm a woman alone with nature. I play tag with sand crabs. Play tag with the ocean. Find red coral. Whew - those sand vistas are deceptive. What looked like a short walk takes an hour… then another, and another. Soaked in sweat, covered with sand, exhausted, I found my way back. It was great."

For guest Cemra Birand, that Silversea "moment" came while visiting a small island nation so far off the usual charts I had to look it up. Niue lies northeast of Tonga, and with a population of fewer than 2,000, sees few visitors. But Silversea manages to swing by on occasion, and Birand was aboard for one of those calls.

"I was on the Silver Discoverer, visiting a speck in the Pacific Ocean, the island of Niue. There was an option of cave diving or normal diving, and I chose the latter as I am claustrophobic. As we approached, I was told the dive site was named Snake Alley! We dived with the most poisonous black and yellow sea snakes swirling all around us. My divemaster told me not to worry, as their mouths were very small and they couldn't get a bite off of me! It was one of the many memorable dives I had with my wonderful divemasters. I miss the Silver Discoverer so very much - not only the dives, but also all the experts who taught me so much about the ocean."

Such epiphanies come at unexpected times, and Richard Anderson recalls a June 2023 sailing with his wife aboard the Silver Spirit, exploring the Croatian coastline.

"The weather was perfect and one Sunday morning we were moored off the small town of Rovinj. The sea was like a mill pond and the morning sunlight was perfect. We decided to have breakfast under the canopy at the rear of the main restaurant and were shown to a table neatly laid out with its crisp white napkins and cutlery sparkling in the sunlight. We ordered our breakfast and as we looked out over the town, only a hundred meters away, I said to Angie, 'Does it get any better than this? We spent all those years working late at the office and bringing work home at the weekend and we had to believe that it was all going to be worthwhile. Well, here it is, right now!'

"Just at that moment the morning silence was broken by the bells chiming from the church on the promontory. 'Yes,' she said. 'The morning church bells just make it perfect!' And so it was. I have a few memories of cruising but this will stay with me for the rest of my days. Just perfect!"

A favorite among the many shore excursions I've done in Alaska is the helicopter flight to the Juneau Icefield, an enormous blanket of ice, up to 5,000 feet deep and stretching 87 miles along the U.S.-Canada border. Seeing the icefield from the air is awesome, but Eleanor Onstott has a choice recollection from her visit:

"It's almost impossible to pick a most memorable experience. Was it the gorgeous scenery from the luxury train in Skagway? The fabulous whale sightings in Sitka? Yes, and yes. But cuddling with the sled dogs in Juneau on the glacier had to be my personal favorite. I didn't want to leave!"

Again and again, we are drawn back to Antarctica. Alfred Steffen visited during Silversea's inaugural 2008-09 season with the Prince Albert II (later renamed Silver Explorer), and explains the appeal of one of the South Pole's chief lures.

"We were on a wet landing at St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia. We waded through the shallow water on the beach. A somewhat penetrating smell wafted, and we heard noises that we could not identify. The beach went up a bit, and we were curious about what would await us up on the hilltop. What we saw then took our breath away: We looked into a valley in which a huge colony of King Penguins had settled.

"There must have been thousands of them who competed for attention. They were full-grown king's penguins in their colored black-white-gold plumage, many of them with their chicks, like balls of fine brown wool already showing the beauty they were to become one day. This spectacle is deeply etched into our memory and reminds us again and again of the magnificence and beauty of our planet with its flora and fauna, which we are always ready to discover with Silversea."

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