Swan Hellenic
Along-established culturally-oriented British firm that got its start in 1954, Swan Hellenic was most recently owned by the British firm All-Leisure Holidays until it ceased trading in early 2017.
Sold to G Adventures, the line, using Swan’s past passenger lists was expected to resume operations but never did.
Now a consortium of international ship-related businesses have restarted the line using two expedition-style ships (152 passengers).
Ship number one, SH Minerva, is in service and the second, SH Vega entered service in September 2022.
A third, SH Diana will appear in 2023 and somewhat larger with 192 passengers but still nine decks as the earlier pair.
The emphasis is cultural expedition cruising, including history as with the original Swan. The expedition cruises are new for Swan.
Swan Hellenic’s new SH Minerva. * Photo: Swan Hellenic
Swan Hellenic Fleet
SH Minerva (b. 2021 & 152 p)
SH Vega (b. 2022 & 152 p)
SH Diana (b. 2023 & 192 p)
Passenger Profile
The English-speaking market is expected to be British, US, Canadian, Europeans who speak English, and also Australians and New Zealanders.
Itineraries
While the culturally-oriented thrust is to be continued, there is an initial heavy emphasis on the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions. In addition Northern Europe, Atlantic Iles, Mediterranean, North Africa, West Africa from Ghana south to Angola, South Africa, Far East, Australia, and South Pacific Islands.
The 152 passengers are looked after by 120 crew in high-end accommodations spread over nine decks with spacious outdoor access. The new ship has a slightly higher capacity and larger crew.
More information will be added as the year progresses.
RELATED: Anne Kalosh tells us about the new small-ship expedition vessels for 2022.
Contact
For more info, contact Swan Hellenic — www.swanhellenic.com & 1-800-537-6777.
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HEIDI SARNA
Big disappointment, beautiful ship great hotel staff, but Sara, Liz and the expedition team treat it as a private tour for themselves, rarely are the passengers allowed off and when we are we are confined to as little as 500 meters of rocky beach. Many expeditions cancelled except for the scouts who could scout for over 2 hours to come back and say it was to rough for us, then make us sit for another 2 hours as with them all off scouting, nobody could plan the next destination. As to captain Kai ukkonen, he certainly doesn’t want to scratch the new boat, the few times we did get off he lets us off he always parks the ship several kilometres out, and when it came to cruising the Labrador coast he chose to keep 100 miles out so he could dump the sewage without regulation, leaving us with no view of the coast . He was too scared after canceling the landing at the highlight Torngat national park to even take his baby into the fjord. If you are looking for adventure but look elsewhere.