Most Recent Visit

December 2024

How to Get Here

There are only two ways to get here, by boat or by plane.

Cruise Ship – Most Antarctica cruises start in either Ushuaia, Argentina or Punta Arenas, Chile. There are a few other options including from Australia and New Zealand, but the majority of ships depart from these two locations. On our trip, we took a cruise from Ushuaia with Atlas Ocean Voyages. For cruises out of Ushuaia, the majority of them, including ours, actually start the itinerary in Buenos Aires, Argentina with a one-night hotel stay included. You’ll then board a charter flight down to Ushuaia and likely spend the day touring Tierra Del Fuego National Park via a bus tour before boarding your ship to Antarctica where you will spend about two days sailing across the Drake Passage before your official arrival.

Flight + Cruise Ship – If you don’t want to sail across the Drake Passage, which is known to be the roughest water in the entire world, a more expensive option does exist to fly across the Drake, land in Antarctica, and then board a cruise ship for the rest of your visit before flying back to South America at the completion of the cruise. Not all cruise lines offer this option, but many do. We know a few people that have done this and loved it, although one did have their cruise cut short by a day so they could be flown back before a storm came in which would have made flying impossible.

Flight Only – If you want to stay on the continent, there are a few ‘lodges’ available. The most well-known is White Desert. Flying from South Africa starts at a whopping $15k for one day.

Trip Length

Your trip length is going to be pre-determined by your cruise line or tour package. Atlas Ocean, as an example, primarily operates 9- and 11-night itineraries (not inclusive of your night in Buenos Aires before the cruise), but they do have a few 18-night itineraries as well. We chose the 11-night trip because it gave us the opportunity to Cross the Antarctic Circle which the 9-night trip does not do. Here is a quick summary of what our 11-night itinerary looked like:

• Day 1 – 6am Charter Jet to Ushuaia from Buenos Aires; Bus Tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park; Provided lunch at local restaurant; Boarded our cruise ship (World Traveller) and departed at 6pm
• Day 2 & 3 – Sail across the Drake Passage
• Days 4 – 9 – Explore Antarctica with one to two expeditions (i.e. zodiac cruises or landings) each day depending on the weather
• Day 10 & 11 – Sail back across the Drake Passage
• Day 12 – disembark around 8am and take a charter flight back to Buenos Aires (landed around 2:15pm) where you are now on your own

The other great thing about the 11-night itinerary, compared to the 9-night trip, is it gives you two extra days in Antarctica. The weather is extremely unpredictable each day and there can be days where you don’t get any excursions because of bad weather. If you are only on a 9-night trip (which has 4 days in Antarctica), you could lose a high percentage of your excursion opportunities. The extra two days you get can add peace of mind that you will maximize your time in Antarctica and hopefully be less impacted by bad weather.

Where to Stay

The most common option is on board a cruise ship. There are a few luxury ‘lodges/camps’ that have accommodations on the continent, but they are even more expensive than the cruise options.

Cost

If you are looking to take a vacation to Antarctica, you have to understand that is most likely going to be one of the most expensive trips you’ll ever take in your life. We chose Atlas Ocean because we had heard good things about them, which all turned out to be true, but also because it was the cheapest option we could find. And when we say, “cheapest option”, it cost over $20,000 total for the two of us. That is essentially $2,000 per night on the ship, which is crazy to us, but at the same time, so worth it! We stayed in a “Veranda Stateroom” which had a private balcony which was the 2nd cheapest option. You could stay in an “Adventure Stateroom”, but you only get a port hole. It was only about $1,000 cheaper per guest and while we love to be as frugal as we can, it didn’t feel like a good tradeoff in this particular instance.

Our trip was in December 2024. At the time of this writing, the same trip in December 2026 for a Veranda Stateroom is ~$12,500 per guest (or $25,000 for two people). Make sure to wait and book during one of the many promotions that Atlas or any other cruise line have from time to time to get the best value. As a reference point, the 9-night trip in December 2026 is currently ~$11,000 per guest due to a promotion being offered.

When to Go

The cruise season runs from early November to mid-March. You’ll likely be able to find more discounted cruises in November & March as the weather in Antarctica is even more questionable during those fringe months. We do know someone that went in November and got perfect weather the entire time, but that is highly unusual from what we understand from the crew.

We chose mid-December – specifically December 9 – December 20. We had fairly questionable weather the entire time and had a couple days cut to just one excursion instead of the normal two excursions as a result, but we still had an absolute blast. We did get to go “ice breaking” with the ship which likely wasn’t possible for cruises that left any later than ours. If we had it to do over again, we would probably choose a January cruise for a couple reasons: 1/ better chances of more sustained good weather and 2/ penguin chicks start to hatch towards the end of December (we just missed this by a few days). Because of this, the January cruises are likely going to be priced a little higher though, so there is always a trade-off involved.

What to Do

What you are able to do in Antarctica is going to be at the sole discretion of the crew on your ship. Each ship has an “Expedition Leader” and it is typically that person who coordinates with the ship captain to determine where it is safe to do excursions each day and which type of excursion you’ll be doing (typically either a zodiac cruise or an actual landing). This person will also head out with some of their crew to check out the conditions in the water and on land before they give the official decision on your excursion. It’s a very rigorous process and there were a few times on our cruise where we thought we were going out, but the conditions turned out to be worse than expected and we had to move on to somewhere else.

That being said, typical activities include:

• Zodiac Cruises (included): From the cruise ship, you’ll board a smaller zodiac boat with typically 8-10 people and a driver. You’ll cruise around the area looking for wildlife or exploring other points of interest like abandoned shipwrecks or research bases. These typically last around 45 minutes to an hour.
• Landing (included): You’ll take the zodiac to a landing point on an island or the continent itself. You’ll get off the zodiac and have the opportunity to hang out near shore or take a short hike to a designated point. The expedition team places cones or flags along the path so that you know where you’re going. This is another way to minimize the impact of humans on the environment, making sure that no seals, penguins or nests are disturbed. This is self-guided/self-paced exploring time, and you typically have an hour on land before needing to board the zodiac and head back to the ship.
• Kayaking (fee): If you’d like to get a little closer to that icy water, you can sign up for kayaking. There is a short fitness test when you sign up to ensure you can safely enter/exit the kayak from the zodiac. A dry suit is provided as accidents happen, and people do fall in. Smaller groups are accompanied by 2 guides. The guides will lead you through floating ice, around wildlife, and will ensure you are safe and enjoying your time. Prior experience isn’t required but you may feel more comfortable if you’ve paddled before.
• Camping (fee): If you’re up for a real adventure, you can camp for a night on land (an island or the continent depending on weather & schedule). You’ll be provided with a ‘sleeping pod’ to keep you warm and will dig your own little hole in the snow to add some protection from the wind and cold. Expedition team members will be on-hand to help you prepare your site and are in contact with the ship if any emergencies occur. You’ll depart the ship around 9pm and will be picked up around 6am. Keep in mind there is no toilet! …just a bucket for #1 in emergencies. For #2, you have to get taken back to the ship which they really try to avoid.
• Luxury ships have additional experiences like a submarine and helicopter.

Our Experience

Every cruise will be different, but we will lay out how our days went below to give you an idea of what your time in Antarctica will be like. While the cruises are different when you get into the details, they generally all have a similar structure. As a reminder, our cruise was 11 nights on the ship. Unless you are flying over, every cruise is going to include 4 days of sailing the Drake Passage (2 on the way and 2 coming back) along with a pre-departure day (touring Tierra del Fuego in our case). So, on an 11-night cruise – you have 6 nights in actual Antarctica compared to 4 nights on a 9-night cruise.

Pre-Departure Day

Atlas lodging pre-cruise was the Hilton Buenos Aires hotel. It is in a really nice area of the sprawling city with many dining options in walking distance. It was a very short night though as our charter flight departed the airport at 6am. We had to put our luggage outside our doors before going to sleep so that Atlas could collect it all and get it to the airport and then ultimately to the ship where it was waiting in our room when we boarded. We left the hotel extremely early (3-4am timeframe) on a charter bus and had to go through normal security and then sit/stand at the gate just like a normal flight. Once we took off, it was about a 4-hour flight down to Ushuaia.

After we landed in Ushuaia, we were given a bus number to board to take us on a day tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park which was a really cool experience. The bus made several stops where you could choose to get out and walk around for 15-20 minutes. Almost everything you see in this area is the “Southern Most” of the world. For example, you’ll see the “Southern Most Post Office” and the “Southern Most Golf Course” in the world as part of the tour. There are some amazing water and mountain views from the park, and it really helps build the anticipation and excitement for getting to Antarctica. After the bus tour, we stopped at a local restaurant and had lunch in a room with 360-degree views of the water and mountain range. You could also see the port below where our cruise ship was docked. After lunch, we were taken by bus to the World Traveller, which was our ship for the next 11 nights.

We boarded around 3:30pm and departure was at 6pm. In between, we grabbed our welcome drinks to celebrate, watched the safety briefing on our room television, and went through a live safety demonstration at our muster station where we had to get our life jackets on.

We spent the rest of the time exploring the ship to learn where everything was. After departing, we went to dinner in the dining room and then came back to our room to find our first “Daily Traveller” which was a summary of the following day and all of the events that would be taking place on the ship. This was always waiting for us in our room after dinner each day. This isn’t your normal cruise and all the activities are completely weather dependent, so we had no idea what the next day would bring until we got this summary and there were several times that the summary didn’t even hold up the next day because the weather changed.

Drake Passage Navigation from Ushuaia

The Drake Passage is known as the roughest water in the world as the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans all converge together. If you’ve done your research on Antarctica, you know you are likely to get either the “Drake Lake” or the “Drake Shake”. On the way over, we got the “Drake Lake” version, although it felt worse than that at the time. On the way back at the end of the trip, we got the full on “Drake Shake” which was a crazy experience to say the least. More on that later.

During the two days on the way to Antarctica, there were plenty of activities on board to keep everyone busy. There were several mandatory events including a briefing on the rules and regulations of Antarctica which you had to attend if you wanted to go ashore. There was also a biosecurity inspection of any clothing that was coming onshore with us as well as distribution of our boots and parkas (which we could keep if we wanted). Finally, we had signed up for one kayak trip while in Antarctica, so we had a mandatory briefing for that including a physical test to make sure we could handle it.

Outside of these mandatory briefings, there were several educational lectures including Penguins 101, Birds of the Drake Passage, and History of Tourism in Antarctica. These lectures took place in the auditorium but were also broadcast to the televisions in each stateroom and the common areas in case you didn’t want to be in the closed in auditorium with the ship rocking around which could cause sea sickness. The captain opened up the bridge for guests to self-tour when the weather was calm. There were also always evening events such as a piano performance or the cruise director singing in the lounge area while everyone enjoyed drinks and views of the endless Drake Passage.

On the 2nd night in the Drake, we also had our first “Expedition Briefing” which was always the most exciting meeting every evening where we learned what the planned excursions were for the next day. We were warned repeatedly that we needed to stay flexible as the plans are always subject to change due to the weather. There are very strict regulations on how many people can even be on land at one time. For our cruise, there was an “A” group and a “B” group, and we would alternate who went first on each excursion. All cruise ships operate this way because not everyone can be on land at one time. The cruise ships also communicate with one another and ensure they are registering and visiting different excursion spots because of this limitation.

Day 1 in Antarctica

We woke up excited to get our first landing underway at Yankee Harbor. We watched the scouting team go out in the Zodiac to check out the conditions in the water and on land. They spent 20-30 minutes out there and when they came back, the announcement was made that there were severe winds and it wasn’t going to be safe enough for us to get on and off the Zodiacs at this location. So we started to make our way over to Fort Point, but the crew quicky realized the weather was even worse in that area. So that was also cancelled. The expedition team quickly pivoted to giving some more lectures in the auditorium while the expedition leader and the captain figured out our next move.

Luckily for us, the decision was made to go over to Half Moon Bay and try a landing there. Once we got there several hours later, the scouting team went back out and this time came back saying we were good to go! We were in the first group, so we headed downstairs and got all of our gear on – parkas, rain pants, boots, etc. and boarded our zodiac which took us over to land. It was a pretty cloudy / dreary day, but as soon as we landed, we were greeted by several penguins on the beach which was our first chance to see them up close in the wild. We got to spend a little over an hour hiking around the island which was covered in snow and lots and lots of penguin poop…. There were penguins everywhere you looked and it was a great first experience in Antarctica even though we only got one excursion in.

Day 2 in Antarctica

The plan for Day 2 was do some zodiac cruising at Enterprise Island and then to our first landing on the actual continent of Antarctica (instead of on an island) at Meusnier Point. And we actually stayed on plan this day! Enterprise Island was fantastic as it is a place where whaling ships hung out to escape bad weather in the early 1900s. One of those ships caught fire and still sits there today and was one of the focus areas of our zodiac cruise. The water was very icy, but the zodiacs cut right through that. It was also snowing fairly hard during our cruise which added to the experience.

Once we were done there, we headed over to Meusnier Point where we had a decision to make. As we mentioned above, we signed up for one kayaking trip and we were the very first kayaking group. Day 1’s weather wasn’t good, so kayaking was cancelled all day. However, the weather was good at Meusnier Point, so Group A kayaking was a go! But it was also our first continental landing and normally if you go kayaking, you miss the excursion that everyone else is doing. What if the weather failed us and we didn’t get another continental landing? It was a tough call – but we took our chances and did the kayaking. It turned out to be an amazingly good choice. We kayaked around large ice sheets (a couple of which almost pinned our kayak in which was kind of scary actually) and we also had a humpback whale pop up in front of us, swim right below us, and then pop up again behind us. Then our guide surprised us and said – “I know you all want to do this continental landing as well.” We got the chance to kayak right up to the continent and then walk through the shallow Southern Ocean waters in our dry suits right up to shore. It was absolutely incredible. We walked around the area, took a picture with the Antarctica flag, saw a huge seal up close, and then got in a Zodiac to head back to the ship. As it turned out, it was our only continental landing of the trip, so we got super lucky.

Day 3 in Antarctica

We had stayed at Meusnier Point overnight as several passengers paid ($750 pp) to “camp” on the continent for one night which was effectively just a sleeping bag in a hole that you had to dig yourself. We passed on that opportunity! When we woke up the next morning, it was still snowing, and the crew was shoveling the snow off the decks. We made our way over to Charlotte Bay and got one of the coolest moments of the trip. There was a sheet of ice as far as the eye could see and our ship turned into a temporary icebreaker. After we hit the ice, you could see the large crack form and also go as far as the eye could see. This was very rare to have this opportunity, so even the crew was in awe and out taking photos. It also helped that we had many humpback whales right by our boat feeding for 20-30 minutes.

Once we were done with this experience, we did some scenic cruising through Charlotte Bay the rest of the morning and then headed over to Danco Island in the afternoon for another landing and a fairly difficult hike up to the top (if you chose to hike the whole way which many people did not). As soon as the ship pulled up near the island, you could see all of the “penguin highways” from the water to the top of the island. Gentoo penguins like to nest up high, so it is a lot of work for them to get between the ocean and their nest. Scott of course went all the way up and got some great shots of the Gentoos climbing their way to their nests. The cloudy weather also partially broke for the first time, so it turned into a great excursion.

Day 4 in Antarctica

Today was the main reason we chose the 11-night trip. We got an opportunity to cross the Antarctic Circle and join the very exclusive “blue nose club”. The crew made sure to get everyone out of bed and was aware that we were about to cross. Once we did, there was a large celebration on board where we all got blue Cool Whip placed on our nose and an ice cube down our back (this was really cold and didn’t melt!). We were also handed a shot of alcohol, and everyone was dancing around the ship and taking photos and throwing snowballs at one another (yes, it was snowing hard here as well). The hope was we would also get our chance to do the polar plunge south of the Antarctic Circle, but it was far too icy, and the sea conditions were too rough to pull that off at this time of year, so we headed back north to the Crystal Sound area.

We cruised through the Crystal Sound and made an afternoon stop at Dodman Island where we were able to get out and do some zodiac cruising. The sun also decided to come out for the very first time on the trip. There were tons of very large ice bergs floating around that we were able to circle in our zodiacs along with several ice caves. After our zodiac cruises, it was time for another trip highlight – the Polar Plunge. About 50% of people decided to do this and of course we both participated. You do get hooked to a rope before you make the jump in case your body ceases up after hitting the extremely cold water. We both had a blast doing this and the scenery was incredible with the sun now fully out. Highly recommend this if you ever make an Antarctica trip! Once done, we got the chance to watch everyone else go and take in the incredible views before we started cruising to our morning destination. With the sun out – the views were even more amazing, so we stayed up until after midnight taking them all in (the sun doesn’t really go down here during the Antarctic Summer).

Day 5 in Antarctica

This was by far our favorite day of the trip. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the sun was shining brightly. We started with a zodiac cruise around Winter Island which is home to the Ukrainian Research Base, Vernadsky. We cruised around the base and many icebergs seeing more penguins than we could count. In addition, we saw a number of seals at this location and got so close to one seal, we could have reached out and touched it if that was allowed (but it isn’t). With the sun out, the ice was all reflecting on the very still water which made this whole area just magical. We didn’t think it could get better than this, but were we wrong about that.

We were now headed for Port Charcot and the way we were going to navigate was apparently blocked by too much ice, so we had to take a different route which turned out to be the absolute highlight of the entire trip. On the way we sailed by several icebergs with penguins hanging out on top of them, likely getting some sun on this rare sunny day. Then we approached the world famous Lemaire Channel which we needed to sail through now to get to Port Charcot. No words or pictures do this place any justice. It will be seared into our memory for the rest of our lives – it was that beautiful. Similar to the ice breaking on Day 3, this was a moment where every crew member was out taking their own photos and looking in shock that we were this lucky. Not only did we get to go through the Lemaire, but it was also a perfectly sunny day.

Once we got through the channel, it was time to head over to Port Charcot for what would turn out to be our final time with our feet on Antarctic ground. We knew the weather wasn’t promising for Day 6, so we definitely took it all in knowing this could be it. We had a fairly long zodiac ride to get to the landing, and it was made even longer because 6-7 humpback whales decided this was a great area to feed today and put on a show for us as we cruised by. They were joined by thousands of penguins who were trying to get in on the feeding as well.  Once on land, we hiked up to the top of the island and watched the humpback whales from above and took in all of the amazing sunny views. We made the hike back down, got on the zodiac back to the ship, and then watched the sun reflect off of the nearby mountains as we sailed away. What an incredible day this was.

Day 6 in Antarctica

As expected, the weather deteriorated quickly on Day 6. We actually woke up when we felt the ship rock in what was apparently a 60+mph wind gust. We were on location at our planned morning stop, Orne Harbor, which would have been our second continental landing and one of the longest hikes of the trip. However, it was clear this wasn’t going to work. There had been wind gusts on land reported at near 100 mph. It was determined we would try to sail north and find a more protected bay to do some zodiac cruising in before we departed back across the Drake Passage. We did eventually find this at Lapeyrere Bay and on the way actually got to see some orcas hunting a baby humpback whale which was cool to see, but sad for the humpback. When we arrived in the bay, it was fairly calm, but we were the last group out today (literally the very last zodiac to leave the ship). By the time we went, the bay was starting to rock and roll. We still got to go – but this was as close as we came to getting sea sick the entire trip. We got to go around and into a lot of ice and take in our last views of Antarctica.

We were still hoping for a second excursion as we were not supposed to start crossing the Drake until night time. But there was a reason the seas were so rough today. There was a major storm brewing and our captain decided we needed to get going to try and beat it, so we headed back across the Drake about a half day early.

Drake Passage Navigation to Ushuaia

The Drake Passage was not nearly as kind on the way back due to the approaching storm. As a result, we got to experience the full on “Drake Shake” which was a wild experience and something we won’t soon forget. You could hear the wind loudly whistling through the outdoor hallways on the top deck. Waves were crashing into the ship from all directions. Given we got a late start on our motion sickness patches (should have put them on before the last excursion instead of afterwards), we were a little more nauseous on the way back, but we never got sick. At dinner, it felt like several glasses broke anytime a wave hit us as they would fly off the table. People were getting sick at their tables – it was wild.

Just like the way over, there were several events on the ship as we crossed the Drake. Several lectures took place, though most people chose to watch them in their room this time instead of the closed in auditorium. Once we got back into calmer waters, there was also the “Crew Talent Show” where crew members got to show off their talents to all of us. We also got the final expedition briefing which was an overview of everything we had done on the trip including a video slideshow which was extremely well done.

Disembarkation Day

We got back to Ushuaia at around 6:45am and were expected to start disembarking around 8am. This was very bittersweet. We had just experienced the most memorable 11 days of our lives, but we were also now saying goodbye to many people that became friends over that time period. We still keep in touch with some of our fellow passengers and crew members to this day.

Once we were off the ship, we boarded buses that took us to the Ushuaia airport where we boarded a charter flight back to Buenos Aires. After collecting our luggage, we were on our own for the first time in 11 days! We made a bigger trip out of it as we toured around Buenos Aires, Uruguay, and Iguazu Falls before heading back to Seattle, but nothing was as memorable as those 11 days in Antarctica. We don’t think it’s possible those days will ever be topped by another adventure anywhere else in the world.

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