Because of climate change (easier access) and an increased international interest to experience the nature and societies of the Arctic, cruise activities are increasing in the Arctic region and this calls for experience-sharing and cooperation in pursuit of best practices. Sustainable tourism development is necessary for the region to prevent negative impacts from a growing tourism industry and protect local natural, social and cultural resources. Cruise communities in Russia, Iceland, Greenland and Norway face similar challenges when it comes to safeguarding their natural environments and welfare of their societies. Cruise research in the Arctic is a field that is relatively under-researched and there is a need for understanding practices, management and governance of cruise activities. Our ambitions are to connect cruise communities in the European Arctic through our case studies and to provide them with ideas for sustainable development through an overview of research-based best practices. By identifying challenges, practices and governance for sustainability, we contribute to knowledge sharing and capacity building in the sense that communities can build upon experiences from others. There is novelty in a cross-Arctic comparative approach as the majority of Arctic cruise tourism research has been conducted as single case studies. To advance the knowledge of sustainable cruise development in the Arctic we take stance in the innovative research position of Haraway?s (2016) 'staying with the trouble'. This stance offers a valuable lesson on how we might engage with co-creating tourism knowledge. A practice-based approach further enables us to contribute to collective and sustainable governance of cruise tourism in the Arctic.