About Us
Our team and our passion
Our passion
Polartours is an Expedition Cruise Specialist for trips to Antarctica and the Arctic. We partner with over 20 operators to bring you a huge range of expedition cruises, ranging from Greenland to the Falkland Islands, from Svalbard to the Antarctica. We take great pride in our unrivalled knowledge of the ships, itineraries and their philosophy of sustainable traveling.
We have no preferred operators, which means that we will gladly advise against one ship and for another, if we feel that this will enhance your experience and match your interest, budget or level of fitness better.
Meet Benno, the founder of Polartours. Benno's great passion is traveling and online marketing. After travelling to Polar regions several times, Benno wanted to make it easier for everyone to choose their own journey. Together with his team, he created a platform that allows travelers to compare and book Polar Cruises easily. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Our expert team of travel specialists strive to understand each ship's philosophy in detail and pride themselves on their extensive knowledge of the destinations. We are experts in our field and want to share our wealth of knowledge with you to enhance your polar experience.
A Polar Cruise: For most a once-in-a-lifetime experience
A cruise to the Arctic or Antarctica is not something you book without having done extensive research. We understand the importance of your investment and that, for many of our clients, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
This is why we give a best-price guarantee: Should you find a better price for the same route anywhere else, let us know, and we will outmatch it. This way, you will never pay more than if you booked with the operator directly. In addition, we also have excellent rates for any arrangements you'd like to make around your cruise including flights, accommodation and land tours.
And the best thing: Your trip is an investment into sustainable tourism. All our ships follow strict ecological guidelines and, out of our own pocket, we chose to compensate 100% of the CO2-Emissions created by your voyage.
Our promises to you
Polar Expedition Specialists
We are Polar Specialists and love to share our knowledge.
Travel for good
Each booking contributes to Ventura’s Conservation Project.
Best Price Guarantee
Let us know if you find a better deal anywhere. We will match it.
The team
All of our team has a passion for South America. But do not take our word for it: get to know their team and their descriptions, so you can see how much passion our travel specialists and tour guides have for this continent. You truly are in good hands!
Benno Schmidt
Founder of Galapatours, Polartours & DiveIndonesia
Travel addict, polyglot, and paragliding fanatic
A true travel addict, Benno has ventured all over the world and speaks five languages (six, if you count Portuñol). When he discovered Galápagos in 2014, he immediately fell in love with small ship expedition cruising. Benno founded Galapatours.com - a booking portal specialized on Galápagos Cruises on board small, sustainable expedition vessels. In 2020, he created Polartours.com - a booking portal specialized in Antarctica and Arctic Cruises on board expedition vessels. Later he created Fairtrips.com, is a non-profit for community-based tourism. His latest venture: DiveIndonesia.com, a booking platform for expedition cruises in South East Asia. Write Benno: [email protected]
Kevin Morgan
Polartours Embassador
The Natural Explorer
Kevin has worked for many years as a wildlife guide on expedition cruise ships and is well known for his infectious enthusiasm. He has explored the Natural World from tropical to temperate seas, and has a particular passion for the polar regions, first visiting Antarctica in 1995, the Arctic in 2010, and many times since. A keen birdwatcher since childhood, he has a particular passion for seabirds, amassing a lot of experience over the years. He has also built up considerable experience of observing marine mammals, and where to look for them, observing over 80 species. Based on his experience at sea he was also behind the concept of Sealife - A Complete Guide to the Marine Environment, persuading the artist to illustrate dolphins from above, as they are seen when bow riding. In addition to work on cruise ships, he was a resident naturalist in Tambopata area of the Peruvian Amazon in the 80’s. This really enhanced his naturalist skills in the very diverse but challenging ‘hidden realm’ of the rainforest, and, always wanting to make a difference, he went on to be a founder of the Tambopata Reserve Society. He has now experienced most rainforest regions, from chimps and gorillas in Uganda, to Orangutans on the island of Borneo. In the UK he carries out wildlife surveys (bats, bird, reptiles & amphibians), lectures on his travels, and has led wildlife walking tours. He has an Oceanography masters, is a member of the Marine Conservation Society and, with a passion for sharks, is a founder member of The Shark Trust. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he is an experienced sub-aqua diver and free-diver.
Andre Kiwitz
CEO & Founder
Authentic Travel & Modern Entrepreneurship
Andre founded Viventura - the first Ventura TRAVEL brand - while still a student out of a desire to make trips more fun and show travelers the real South America. On the ground there, he set up different offices that took care of travel organization, trip development and customer service. He moved back to Berlin in 2012 and, three years later, he founded Ventura TRAVEL. Since then, he has been supporting tourism professionals who have a passion for a specific tourism niche to build their brands within Ventura. Through this construct, these "intrapreneurs" develop their vision for their destinations, while having an experienced team with professional infrastructure on the background for areas such as finance, marketing, IT, and HR. Privately, Andre enjoys spending time with his wife and son and tries to eat good ceviche as often as possible.
Erick Feijoo
Integrator, Head of Business Operations
U.S.-born, Ecuadorian bred, Berliner by choice
Erick works from our Berlin office as Integrator and oversees our company's business operations. From a very early age, he's been fascinated by new languages and cultures, and he especially enjoys getting to know countries' politics and history. Erick's family is from Ecuador and Peru, and he previously worked on economic development issues across different Latin American countries. He joined Ventura TRAVEL after working in Washington D.C., Germany, Belgium, and Costa Rica.
Maxime Fournier
Sales Specialist
Fan de kitesurf accroc aux voyages
Maxime est un français de 33 ans, expatrié au brésil, actuellement en télétravail depuis Curitiba au brésil en tant que Sales spécialiste pour Ventura TRAVEL. Passionnée de géographie et d'histoire depuis la tendre enfance, c'est tout naturellement qu'il s'est dirigé vers une carrière dans le tourisme. Guidé par la curiosité et la découverte, il ne rate jamais une occasion de voyager. Passionné de kitesurf, il a parcouru le monde à la recherche des plus beaux spots et assouvir sa passion pour le voyage et le sport.
Gustavo Cataño
IT Director
Using technology to make life easier
I love tech things, and use this passion every day in my work with our IT team to deliver great value for Ventura Travel. I like to travel and enjoy riding my bike along unknown roads. However, above all things, I really enjoy spending my free time with my family and my daughter.
Louis Poissant
Performance Marketing Specialist
Always open to novelty
Specialist of performance marketing, he is a big fan of sports and gastronomy. After an MBA in Paris and first work experience in Berlin, he decided to move to Asia for several months and took Japanese classes to increase his immersion. In charge of performance marketing in the marketing department of Ventura Travel, he is able to combine two things he enjoys: numbers and writing.
Marcia Sanchez
Human Relations Director
Passion for travelling and discovering new cultures
Born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia she is mad in love with the cultural diversity of her country. She loves working with people and found her passion working in Human Resources. In her spare time, she loves to read historical novels, travel and feels the happiest when she can get to know a new country, a new culture and new people.
