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To allow for delays caused by shifting weather, Silversea has built a wide "weather window" for the charter flights to and from Antarctica into its itinerary. Silversea's trips begin and end with a night at a hotel in Punta Arenas, with downtime there built into the itinerary that creates a significant amount of wiggle room for when the flights can occur. The big knock on fly-cruise sailings to Antarctica over the years has been that there is a risk that poor weather at the landing site at King George Island could cause flights to and from the island to be delayed.
South Georgia
Every research station needs to employ a number of support staff to help manage its operations. Support staff includes everyone from plumbers, mechanics, electricians, and doctors, to cooks, housekeepers, and waste management professionals. There are a few different tried-and-tested ways to get a free ticket down south, though each one of them requires jumping through quite a few hoops that aren’t possible for everyone. Any visit to Antarctica is sure to be one to remember, but planning a voyage to the White Continent isn’t cheap. It's not uncommon to encounter waves of 10 or 15 feet during a Drake crossing and, as I've experienced myself, the waves can be much higher. Whatever you need, we are here to satisfy your curious expedition mind whilst giving you the best experience possible.
Environmental Responsibility When Choosing an Antarctica Cruise Operator
My favorite was the Russian, complete with vodka, but I also enjoyed the wine tasting and the cart of French pastries in the observatory lounge for a Belgian waffle teatime. Personnel at the various bars made an effort to learn your tastes. Often, I had my morning post-breakfast expresso in the observatory lounge and my diet coke in the 5th floor lounge.
Prepare & Travel
We leave nothing to chance in delivering your perfect trip and have over 6500 happy travellers to show for it. With a dedicated Antarctic co-ordinator & support throughout - you’re in safe hands. The most important of these being the cruise that was recommended, which was exactly what I was looking for. The Swoop staff were very organized and followed through on everything, ensuring that I knew what and when things needed to be completed. When exploring Antarctic travel options, there are four key variables that will affect the cost of your trip. For reference, the higher the number, the more premium the cabin with category 1 representing a basic cabin and category 10 being the most expensive cabin you can choose.
Antarctica or the Arctic: Which Polar Cruise Is Best for You? - AFAR Media
Antarctica or the Arctic: Which Polar Cruise Is Best for You?.
Posted: Fri, 22 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
The price of a trip to Antarctica doesn't start and end with the price of the actual cruise itself. The time of year you travel will have a significant impact on your Antarctica cruise cost. The most expensive time to travel is during high season from mid-December through the end of February. In general travelers can save about 20% by traveling in the shoulder seasons. In general cabins lower on the ship, closer to the waterline, are the least expensive.
Let Swoop's deep knowledge and valuable insights help you to understand what a trip to Antarctica costs. The first time I stepped onto Antarctica, I just closed my eyes and tried to envision the globe and where I was on it at that very moment; definitely a wow moment and a wow trip! Since I prefer masses of wildlife to masses of humanity, I had a wonderful experience. The cruise was well-planned and the scientists aboard made the experience unique and memorable.
What to Wear in Antarctica – Ultimate Travel Packing List
If you love the idea of kayaking but don’t want to do it every single day on your trip, many companies now offer what’s called ‘day paddle excursions’, where you sign up for a once-off and jump in an inflatable kayak for an hour or two. When you book a sea kayaking package you are given a dry suit and instruction from your experienced guides, and the goal is to get out as much as possible during your itinerary. As icebergs loom majestically overhead and seals laze on floating ice, you can navigate through a surreal world rarely experienced by others. If you’re ready to step up the adventure, here’s a guide on what’s on offer and how to ensure you don’t miss out. Once you’ve used a zodiac to get to shore you have a few other included activities – landings and hiking.
After a few days at sea you’ll really start to appreciate how excited pirates in those movies get when they spot a palm tree and yell, “Land, ho! ” That first iceberg you see out your cabin window will be a marvel, and if the clouds stay overhead, you’ll spend your trip in an eerie black and white landscape of towering ice and steely water. However, if the sun comes out, it’s far more intense than it is up north and makes the sky and water a brilliantly intense blue. It also makes the snow a blinding white, and the specs of orange and red on the wildlife shine. Retrofitting a ship to navigate the most treacherous waters in the world isn’t cheap.
You might be tempted to book a tour onboard a larger cruise ship for a number of reasons. They have some pretty unique offerings, including a submarine that you can book for seeing Antarctica beneath the surface, and really fun activities. However, their ships are very large, with between 250 and 500 passengers on each trip, meaning your actual time spent off the ship is limited.
If nothing else, the two days provide a much-needed period of transition for travelers who have just left the frantic, crowded, modern world and soon will be thrust into a land of utter emptiness and wonder. Bird-loving travelers who cross the Drake Passage by ship have the opportunity to see such remarkable bird species as the giant albatross, which you normally won't find in Antarctica. This roughly 500-mile stretch of the Southern Ocean between Ushuaia and the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula can be either the Drake Lake (calm and smooth as can be) or the Drake Shake (a rocking and rolling journey with pounding waves). Which you experience depends on the weather, especially the wind, which can be highly unpredictable at these lower latitudes. The main port of embarkation and disembarkation for Antarctica itineraries is Ushuaia, a remote city located on the southern tip of Argentina on the Beagle Channel.
As such, expect to pay a premium for not cruising the Drake Passage. For those short on time, when considering cheaper, shorter cruises, just be mindful that sailing days will take up a larger proportion of your time in Antarctica and limit your time enjoying excursions. For example, on a classic Antarctica itinerary of 10/11-days, 4 of those could well be spent crossing the Drake Passage getting to and from the Antarctic Peninsula, meaning a possible 3 or 4 days of landings in Antarctica.
Crew and guests often participate in science projects and data gathering, endowing the journey with even more meaning and allowing visitors to leave their own personal contribution and legacy in this largely inaccessible part of the world. The number of tour companies offering such trips is much more limited. They include Silversea Cruises (which just began such trips in December), Antarctica 21 and Quark Expeditions. Fly-cruise tours to Antarctica typically start with a two-hour flight from Punta Arenas, Chile, to a Chilean research base on Antarctica's King George Island, thus skipping a ship crossing of the Drake Passage. The Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva base, as it's known, has a gravel runway that is just long enough to handle some relatively small, hardy jets. On such trips, travelers still explore the coast of Antarctica by cruise vessel.
But to many travelers — including me — crossing to Antarctica in such seas is an integral part of the experience of a trip there. It's part of understanding the remarkable history of Antarctic exploration, for sure, as it offers a taste of what the great Antarctic explorers such as Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen had to endure in their epic journeys to the continent a century ago. It's also part of understanding the true remoteness of Antarctica, as the journey covers such a massive stretch of ocean. Expect to pay a minimum USD$6,000 per person for a classic Antarctica cruise. Prices rise quickly from there, with average prices more in the USD$10,000 range, and high-end berths on luxury ships costing up to four times that much.
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