Ponant Explorations Group has announced speakers for its 2027 collection of voyages in collaboration with The Explorers Club.

Entering its fourth year, the 2027 edition will feature 12 itineraries and mark the first time the Paul Gauguin joins the program, the cruise line said in a press release.

“The Explorers Club partnership reflects the spirit of exploration that defines our voyages. From Greenland to The Kimberleys to French Polynesia, our guests engage with exceptional voices and individuals who bring destinations to life through their knowledge, perspective, and lived experience,” said Samuel Chamberlain, CEO Americas, Ponant Explorations Group. 

“These meaningful encounters offer deeper insight into the cultures, environments, histories, and stories that shape each place we visit, creating journeys that are more immersive, enriching, and inspiring.” 

The 2027 Explorers Club voyage collection: 

• The Essential Seychelles 

Mahé roundtrip | Le Dumont d’Urville (eight nights, January 15, 2027) 

Speaker: John Heminway – an Emmy Award-winning documentarian and conservationist. 

• Scott & Shackleton’s Antarctic Ross Sea Expedition

Dunedin roundtrip | Le Soléal (21 nights, January 25, 2027) 

Speaker: Cassandra Brooks – a marine scientist researching Antarctic marine ecosystems and ocean conservation policy. 

• Secrets of Central America 

Puntarenas to Colón | Le Bellot (10 nights, March 29, 2027) 

Speaker: Dimitri Deheyn – a marine biologist and bioluminescence researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 

• Beyond the Inhabited World 

Nuuk roundtrip | Le Commandant Charcot (12 nights, April 16, 2027) 

Speaker: Nicolas Dubreuil – explorer and adventurer with ties to the polar regions, who spent more than two decades exploring the High Arctic, particularly in Northern Greenland. 

• Australia’s Iconic Kimberley 

Darwin to Broome | Le Jacques Cartier (10 nights, June 16, 2027) 

Speaker: Wade Davis – anthropologist and writer with a body of work from global travels focusing on culture. 

• In the Ice of the Arctic, from Svalbard to Greenland 

Longyearbyen to Reykjavík | Le Commandant Charcot (16 nights, June 24, 2027) 

Speaker: Sunniva Sorby – a polar explorer who led a Greenland ice cap crossing and overwintered for 19 months at 78°N. 

• The Geographic North Pole and the East Coast of Greenland 

Reykjavík to Longyearbyen | Le Commandant Charcot (17 nights, July 10, 2027) 

Speaker: Peter Hillary – mountaineer and writer, son of Sir Edmund Hillary. 

• Icelandic Mosaic 

Reykjavík roundtrip | Le Bellot (seven nights, July 22, 2027) 

Speaker: Karim Iliya – an underwater photographer and ocean advocate.  

• An Escapade in the Heart of Melanesia

Darwin to Lautoka | Le Jacques Cartier (16 nights, September 4, 2027) 

Speaker: Pier Nirandara – underwater photographer and writer with experience in the cultures and waters of the Indo-Pacific. 

• Emperor Penguins of the Weddell Sea

Ushuaia roundtrip | Le Commandant Charcot (12 nights, October 27, 2027) 

Speaker: Annette Scheffer – marine biologist and penguin specialist whose fieldwork has taken her deep into Antarctic penguin colonies. 

• Society Islands & Tuamotus

Papeete roundtrip | Paul Gauguin (11 nights, May 29, 2027) 

Speaker: Jad Davenport – National Geographic photographer whose lens has captured the world’s most remote cultures and wild places.

• Cook Islands & Society Islands

Papeete roundtrip | Paul Gauguin (11 nights | November 6, 2027) 

Speaker: Emma Camp – coral biologist and a pioneering researcher in coral resilience and reef conservation.