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I shot an enormous amount of footage in Svalbard,

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more than I could ever use in regular videos, so I thought I would take some time to show you that footage,

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and at the same time explain how to get there, what you can do there

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and whether it's actually worth going on the adventure.

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I'm actually away from there now, I'm in the old fortress in Oslo,

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which is kind of the staging point on the way back.

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Tim and Matt, the folks I went with, they're going off and doing their own things.

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We've been together for three-four days and are sick of the sight of each other.

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But, I thought I would do some frequently asked questions

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and also show you some really nice footage of the Arctic.

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Svalbard is not nearly as inaccessible as it was just a few years ago.

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We expected to go, and to have to book all sorts of visas and permissions, no, none of that.

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First of all, Svalbard, no one needs a visa for, but practically you do need to transit through Norway,

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so if you have permission to go to Norway, you have permission to go to Svalbard.

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And you just book a flight. This startled me, Matt and Tim, we actually booked this on our phones

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while sitting in a restaurant. We thought you would need to get on some special tour

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or have scientific permission. You don't, you go online, you book a flight to Svalbard,

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which is Longyearbyen Airport. And it's a modern, normal airport like anywhere else.

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You book your flight, you book your hotel, the hotel is on the normal booking sites.

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There's a Scandic and a Radisson, we actually stayed in the Coal Miners' Cabins,

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which have all sorts of history to themselves, it was the only hotel rooms available when we wanted to go.

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I don't know, by international standards they're rough and ready, they're not en suite,

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you walk down the hall to the shower, but in practice there's hot and cold running water,

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there's fast Wi-Fi!

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It's just like booking a holiday anywhere else.

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It's slightly more expensive, because you're going up to the Arctic Circle,

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but the flights aren't much worse than going to anywhere else that's a little bit remote.

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They're about the same.

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And the hotel was reasonably priced as well.

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Svalbard is tax-free, so yes, it's expensive to buy stuff there, but it's only about as expensive as London,

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because there's no tax on top of it.

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For crying out loud, we came back on a budget airline, we came back on Norwegian Airlines,

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and, they're the Jet Blue,

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they're the EasyJet of the Scandic countries.

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You just... go.

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Svalbard is not that remote, I mean, physically it is,

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yeah, you're at 78 degrees north. I think we were when we were at the airport,

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one of the thousand, or perhaps the 500 most northernly people on the planet,

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which is a hell of a claim to be able to make.

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But at the same time, there's fast WiFi in all the hotels.

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Oh, and absolutely everywhere takes credit cards, even the bus to transfer you from the airport

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to your hotel, takes credit cards and debit cards on board.

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If you have something that works in Europe, and has a chip and pin in it,

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then yep, you are gonna be absolutely fine.

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There is fast 3G and I think 4G. We were posting Instagrams, we were tweeting.

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It just... it works.

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They've got an undersea cable, it's not even satellite internet.

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It is fast, it is just like being anywhere else in a city in Norway.

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There are two types of people that are going to be watching this,

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One is: "Oh, that's lovely but I never want to go there, I want something a lot more comfortable."

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That is a perfectly valid choice. I respect that.

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And then there are people like me, who saw photos of Longyearbyen

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Mispronounced that, I think it's "Longyearbean", I can't get the vowels right, who saw photos of the place

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And who thought, "Oh, I wanna go there, that is amazing"

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What can you see?

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If you are a tourist, and let's be honest, unless you are there as a part of a scientific expedition

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or you are doing a degree in polar micro-biology

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-- which is someone we met on a bus from the airport

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Unless you do that, you are going to be a tourist.

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There are tour companies

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And they are just like tour companies anywhere else in the world

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You do research on the internet, you google it, you look at the tour companies

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"I want to go on that, I want to go on that"

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So, we took a mini bus tour, around a local area which I would thoroughly recommend

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Because first of all, you can't leave the settlements without a gun(!)

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It is also quite a long walk

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We got to see the Seed Vault

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we got to at least look at the solar research station that is there

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And we got to hear stories about the town and the people that used to live there

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So I recommend doing that

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We also went kayaking across a fjord

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Which is very hard work, my muscles ache now.

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But, if you want to do that, you are going to have to do that in summer.

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If you go in winter or spring, then you can go snowmobiling, or "icemobiling", whatever you call it, across the fjord

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Aside from the kayaking, we also went on a speedboat trip

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I will recommend that, but be aware, it is anything up to five hours, on a slightly uncomfortable jockey seat,

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You know those short speed boat trips, where you bounce over waves, it's that - but for several hours

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If you want to do that, go for it, it's amazing. You get to see glaciers, you get to stand on something that looks it's the moon or Mars.

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It is just... there are no trees in the arctic, it is geology and geography like nowhere else on the planet

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And you get to go and do things you can't do anywhere else.

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Other options: there is husky dogs, either on sled or on wheels, depending on the time of year

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You can take a long slow boat trip to Pyramiden, which is the now-abandoned Russian mining town.

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Which is now a ghost town with the northern-most statue of Lenin

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Loads and loads of other options.

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Do your research, check if the tour company is reputable, but to be honest...

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The crime rate in Svalbard is low, because it is a settlement of only a couple of thousand people.

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Most people know each other.

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And there is not much... well, I imagine 'crimes against the person' still exist.

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There are people who get drunk in bars and deck someone in the middle of the Arctic night

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But, there is a pretty low crime rate there.

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I think if there is a rip-off tour company, they 'd be run out of town very quickly.

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You need to take appropriate weather gear for whenever you are going.

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We actually went when it was as warm as it gets

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Which is about six to eight Celsius, so low forties, mid forties Fahrenheit.

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We were fine with big windproof, waterproof coats, gloves.

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You don't really need much more than that, if you are going then.

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If you are going in winter. I will assume that you know how to survive in the arctic.

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Because you will need to. You need to take sunblock in summer.

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Just because it is cold, doesn't mean you don't need sunblock. We were constantly slathering it on.

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You absolutely must do that.

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You should also take a set of shoes that you can just slip on and slip off

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So you need, big outdoor shoes. Ideally that are easy to lace up and unlace.

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And then you need some indoor shoes as well.

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The reason is: It is a Svalbard custom that if you go into a hotel, a restaurant, anything like that.

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You take your shoes off, your big muddy, icy outdoor shoes off, on entry and put on something more comfortable.

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It is going to be significantly easier for you if you take something that's comfortable

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rather than the disposable dodgy plastic ones they have for people who forget that

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and it is going to be much easier for you if you are able to undo your shoelaces in your big stompy boots quickly.

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I did not bring easy to lace shoes

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and I had to leave my hotel room, get out of that building, put my shoes on,

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walk about 10 steps where I was getting breakfast, and take my shoes off.

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Take some comfortable shoes, and take some that are easy to lace.

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Make sure you've got good gloves; for whatever you are doing, you'll need good gloves.

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But other than that: sunblock, decent shoes, gloves, and a camera.

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Pretty much everything is provided by the tour companies if you go with them.

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There are shops there. I keep saying this, this is not a remote outpost, it 's just a city.

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It just happens to be a long way from anything else.

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If you are sensible, you do not need to avoid much in Svalbard. Don't leave the settlements, follow your guides' instructions.

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You will be absolutely fine. There really isn't much to be concerned about.

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I am removing any kudos that I would get for going to the Arctic here, but

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it is just another tourist destination like any other.

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It's an obscure one, it is a remote one, it sounds really impressive.

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But it is much easier than it was ten, twenty years ago, you can just go.

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