PONANT and The Explorers Club: When Exploration Becomes Part of the Voyage
Updated: 2 days ago
I don't think you have to stand at the North Pole or climb Everest to call yourself an explorer.
For me, exploration is about experiencing something genuinely new and, at the same time, pushing beyond your own limits. Every day without learning something new is, in some sense, a day not fully lived. Travel gives us an opportunity to do that on a much larger scale.
That is why the relationship between PONANT and The Explorers Club interests me. It takes exploration out of the realm of something that you simply read about and makes it part of the experience of being onboard.
Exploration Is Also About Exploring Yourself
The word “explorer” can sound intimidating. We tend to imagine someone crossing an unknown ocean, reaching a pole or climbing a mountain.
But exploration can be much more personal.
When you encounter a place you have never seen, learn from someone who has spent years working there, or participate in something completely outside your normal life, you are already moving beyond what you know.
That is one reason I find The Explorers Club such a natural partner for PONANT. Its members have repeatedly gone beyond conventional limits, whether in polar exploration, mountaineering, ocean science or other fields.
The point is not simply that they have traveled far. It is that they have done something that required curiosity, determination and a willingness to go beyond what was already understood.
PONANT describes its collaboration with The Explorers Club as including selected expedition voyages, with explorers and scientists joining guests for onboard lectures, offshore activities and hands-on experiences. Scientists can also conduct research using dedicated laboratories onboard. That creates a very different relationship between the traveler and the subject.
Participation Changes the Experience
If I had the choice between hearing an explorer describe an experiment and actually participating in one, I would always choose to participate.
The reason is simple: you experience more.
You see something, hear it, perhaps touch it or interact with it, and have an intellectual understanding of what is happening at the same time. The combination creates a much stronger personal impression than simply receiving information.
This is one of the things I think expedition travel gets right.
You are not necessarily expected to become a scientist or an extreme adventurer. You are being invited to become more engaged with what is happening around you.
The Explorers Club component can therefore turn an expedition from something you watch into something you participate in.
And sometimes the most memorable part may not be a spectacular landscape. It may be a conversation with someone whose professional life has taken them somewhere you could never have imagined going yourself.
Making Extreme Exploration Possible for More Travelers
There is another reason I think this partnership matters.
Some people are not attracted to adventure because they lack knowledge about what it actually involves. They imagine that going to an extreme environment means giving up comfort, taking care of complicated logistics yourself and being physically prepared for an expedition. That is not necessarily the experience PONANT is creating.
Travel consists of two components, the logistics (the moving) and the experiencing. In case of cruising and PONANT, the logistics are handled by the ship, and the vessels provide a level of comfort that would have been difficult to associate with extreme exploration in previous generations. The experience itself is then supported by people who know the environment and subject intimately. That combination changes who can participate.
You do not have to be an experienced polar explorer before boarding a PONANT expedition. You can arrive curious. The ship provides the infrastructure and comfort. The expedition team and The Explorers Club provide the knowledge and guidance. The destination provides the challenge. For someone who has always thought, “That kind of travel isn't for me,” that can be an important distinction.
What You Bring Home Is More Than a Photograph
The experiences that stay with us are rarely just photographs.
They are usually connected to something we saw, understood, felt or participated in.
That is why I think the combination of intellectual and multisensory experience is so powerful. You are not only looking at a polar landscape. You may have spoken to a scientist studying the environment, heard an explorer describe working there, participated in an activity and then gone outside and looked at the same landscape differently. The information gives context to the experience, and the experience gives meaning to the information.
That is particularly relevant to PONANT because the company has created a way for travelers to enter environments that once seemed inaccessible while retaining a high level of comfort. The Explorers Club adds another layer: people who have actually pushed the boundaries of exploration become part of the voyage.
Personally, the polar expeditions interest me enormously for exactly this reason. I would want to be there with the scientists, learn from them and experience an environment that is far outside my ordinary world. You don't have to arrive as an explorer.
You can become more exploratory simply by being willing to learn.
Learn more about PONANT and their Unique way of cruising:
Would You Consider Yourself an Explorer?
Exploration does not have to mean giving up comfort. Sarasota Cruise Agency, the cruise-specialist sister brand of DeSalvio Travel, a Virtuoso-affiliated agency and a PONANT and Paul Gauguin Cruises Certified Expert, can help you explore voyages that bring together exceptional destinations, experienced explorers and the comforts of small-ship luxury.
Contact us when you feel ready, and we will begin, calmly and thoughtfully, exactly where you are in the process.
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