Built from inside the expedition industry.
Founder-led polar expedition advice built on operator-side knowledge, global market context, and one-to-one guidance.
The practice
Expert advice, kept personal.
Most polar journeys are bought before they are properly understood. A traveller compares ships on a marketplace, chooses the departure that fits a window, and discovers the trade-offs onboard. The trip is rarely bad, but it is often not the right trip.
7CEI exists to make those trade-offs visible before a deposit is paid: ship capability, expedition team calibre, route logic, season nuance, cabin location, operator style, and value beyond price alone.
7CEI stays small by design. Raj works with a limited number of travellers so each recommendation can stay personal, independent, and specific.
Why we do this
Travel, at its best, is not simply movement. It is perspective, uncertainty, discovery, and immersion into the unfamiliar — the kinds of journeys that begin beyond the familiar.
“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.”
Founder
Raj turns a traveller brief into the right expedition.
Before founding 7CEI, Raj Shetty held leadership roles with respected expedition operators including Quark Expeditions and Adventure Canada. That experience matters because it helps him curate, not just compare.
He reads a brief for the details that change the trip: wildlife goals, sea-day tolerance, photography needs, comfort level, family dynamics, budget, timing, and how much structure or wilderness a traveller actually wants.
The recommendation then becomes specific: the right ship, route, season, cabin, expedition team, and operator style for that traveller. His market knowledge is the engine; the benefit is a journey that feels chosen, not merely available.
Raj Shetty
MD & Founder
How we work
Clear advice before commitment.
Four principles we are unwilling to compromise on, because they are what make the practice worth recommending.
Industry insider, not salesperson
We explain operational differences that are hard to see from brochures: cabin location, ice class, guide ratio, landing style, and expedition team depth.
Tradeoffs made visible
Fly-cruise versus Drake, Peninsula versus South Georgia, season, ship size, and route ambition are laid out side-by-side in plain English.
Value over price alone
Small differences in ship capability, expedition leadership, inclusions, and landing philosophy can change the experience more than cabin price.
Reachable through departure
Raj stays reachable from the first conversation through preparation and departure. When a plan changes, you are not passed to a generic queue.
Honest framing
What 7CEI is not.
We say no to certain kinds of work because clear advice depends on clear limits.
Not a booking platform
HonestThere is no live inventory page, no instant book, no cart. Booking happens once a recommendation is right.
Not a marketplace
HonestWe do not present every operator as equal. We recommend the ships and partners we would trust for your specific brief.
Commercially transparent
HonestOur advice is free to travellers. When a booking proceeds, we may be compensated by the operator. The recommendation is still made on fit.
Not the right fit for some travellers
HonestIf you want the cheapest available departure or the largest possible ship, you will be better served elsewhere. We will tell you that early.
From the journal
Notes from the field.
Short reads on ships, routes, season strategy, and the questions travellers send Raj most often.
Working with 7CEI
A short first conversation tells us a lot.
Most trips start with a short call or a careful written brief. From there, expect a focused shortlist: the options, the trade-offs, the value logic, and the next step to hold space once you are ready.
Plan your expedition
Bring us the options you are comparing.
Bring us the ships, routes, or dates you are considering. We will tell you what fits, what does not, and why.