Exploring the Antarctic Peninsula

The chilling adventure to Antarctica starts in Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city. Though a city, the place gives vibes of a beautiful town as it stands perched on a steep hill, surrounded by Martial Mountains and the famous Beagle Channel. Feel free to explore this wonderful city on your own or join our optional day excursions to near by Tierra del Fuego National Park. After a tiring day, you enjoy an overnight stay here before you embark the ship next day noon. The morning on the second day is another chance for you to explore on what you may have missed the previous day. In the afternoon, we transfer to pier, to embark our expedition ship MV Sea Spirit. Explore the interior of your ship which will act as your base camp for the coming days. After attending safety briefings and drills, enjoy a Welcome dinner as we start sailing across the Beagle Channel.

Prepare yourself for Antarctica as we cross the famous Drake Passage. This is the same passage through which explorers found the prominent route to this cold continent. Our ship is especially designed for such polar explorations and offers both knowledge and entertainment. To keep everyone engaged, there will be lectures held out at the common lounge on geology, history, wildlife and more, to prepare you for the polar destination and activities taking place to help you get mingled with fellow travelers. Watch out for Antarctic Petrels, and various sea birds, from the observation lounge, or simply head out on the decks to breathe the chilling winds. We hope to arrive in the South Shetland Islands on the evening of our second day at sea.

Enter the frozen continent, Antarctica. As the captain announces our entry, you will see stunning glaciers , snow covered land, sea covered with occasional ice sheets in all directions, making it picture-perfect. As the excited photographers change their cameras into landscape mode, enjoy the vast expanse of naturally made sculpture-like iced structures floating around you. The moment you set foot on this continent, you will be a Polar Wilderness Explorer. You might not see the sights we mention here, or you may see the sights that someone before has never seen! Trust us when we say that every second of this journey has something new to offer. Elements of weather, sea and ice will play a big role in determining our activities here, but to expect the unexpected is what expedition is all about. On clear days, after determining prime safety, we hop on with our expedition team on smaller boats to enjoy close encounters with wildlife and glaciers, go on hikes to explore the land, scientific stations and abandoned whaling stations. Once in this continent, there is no specific route. We explore on the go everyday, every minute, every second. This is why every Antarctica experience will be unique. Therefore, we need to be pragmatic; we change landings, re-route and sailing plans as we go along. This also means that we will take advantage of the o en ideal conditions – spend hours ashore, on the water with kayaks, hiking or simply cruising amongst huge pods of whales. Weather, wind and ice conditions have a great influence on our programme and schedule. During the next four days, we explore the highlights of the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. This region contains some of the world’s most impressive scenery and the best wildlife viewing in Antarctica. The South Shetland Islands are the northernmost islands in Antarctica and will likely be our first area of exploration. This wildly beautiful island chain contains many landing sites with historical significance and abundant wildlife. We will also explore the supremely picturesque Gerlache Strait area of the Antarctic Peninsula, a pristine wilderness of spectacular white landscapes, colossal icebergs, obliging marine mammals and bustling penguin colonies. We hope to show you the famous Lemaire Channel, also known as “Kodak Gap” because of the photogenic way the narrow channel reflects the image of sheer snowy mountains. Throughout the islands and on the mainland, we find nesting colonies of gentoo, chinstrap and Adélie penguins, sometimes side by side. At this time, penguin pairs are taking turns incubating their eggs. This is a good time to observe the importance of pebbles in penguin culture, as prized nesting material to be stolen from rivals and given to mates. Also at this time, a high concentration of sea ice provides opportunities for seals and penguins to congregate on ice floes, a situation that attracts killer whales. Minke whales have started to arrive and leopard seals can be spotted patrolling the coast near penguin colonies. Photographers will appreciate the pristine appearance of undisturbed snow across the landscape in this early summer month. On days where we cant make a landing, join gatherings where the various members of the expedition team recount the day’s activities, make presentations, and the expedition leader discusses the next day’s plan. These gatherings are great opportunities for sharing and making a shared memory while mingling with the expedition community.

After exploring the exhilarating continent, we set course back to civilisation. Spend the day at sea recapping your experiences, having fun at the Lounge or just relaxing on deck. Bid adieu to all glaciers you pass by and for one last time, take your chance to stand out on the decks and breathe in the fresh, pristine and alluring Antarctic air. As we sail past the drake passage, the sea birds are here to give us company once again.

An unforgettable adventure comes to a satisfying and fulfilling end. It is time to say goodbye to the crew and all your new friends when we reach Ushuaia. We transfer you to the airport for your flight back home or drop you at the city center if you have any extended plans. This is the best time to explore more of the unseen Argentina. If time permits, extend your stay for a few hours to a few days for more exciting activities, or simply head back home.