Take your book, says Damian Perry. You probably won't read it.
Hurtigruten has been sailing the Norwegian coast since 1893, when it began as the coastal lifeline for communities the winter cut off from everywhere else. More than 130 years on, the ships still fly a postal flag, still collect fish and produce village by village, and still run to a timetable the locals set their evening by.
In this episode of Luxury Unpacked, Fiona Dalton sits down with Damian Perry, Managing Director and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Asia-Pacific at Hurtigruten, to unpack what that heritage gives a traveller today. The conversation moves from 1893 to the modern Coastal Express and its thirty-four ports, out to Svalbard where there are more polar bears than people, and into what slow travel actually feels like once the restlessness of day one wears off.
It also goes to the harder question. Sustainability is the word every travel brand uses, so Fiona asks for the operational version: where the food comes from, what happens to the waste, and the honest state of Sea Zero, Hurtigruten's plan for an emission free coastal ship by 2030.
The episode closes with Ask the Expert, a new segment where Fiona puts three questions to an advisor who plans these journeys with real clients. This time it is Mark Trim, founder of the Adelaide-based agency Flat Beds Tour and Cruise, on who the voyage suits, how to choose a season, and the one thing he tells every client before they go.
Start planning at hurtigruten.com/en-au
Read more about Sea Zero, Hurtigruten's zero emission ship project here
Connect with Mark Trim via Flat Beds Tour and Cruise here
Subscribe to the Luxury Unpacked Podcast here
Read more about the Luxury Unpacked Podcast here
Read more about this episode Turning Cruising into Belonging: Slow travel on the Norwegian coast here
Discover more from the Karryon Podcast Network:
Into the Hearts of Canada here
The Karryon Check-In with Matt Leedham here
Visit: karryon.com.au for more
Luxury Unpacked is a Karryon Podcast Network original show, hosted by Fiona Dalton and executive produced by Matt Leedham.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the many Countries and Nations in which this show is made and travels, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.
