Destinations Antarctica

Destinations

Antarctica

If you want to visit Antarctica and the islands of the Southern Ocean, it will be expensive. Expedition costs range from $300 to $1500 per person/per day not including airfare to get you to the bottom of the world. A typical cruise is a minimum of $3-4,000 (9-12 days) not counting airfare to the bottom of the world with an average cost of about $5,000 but can range up to $16,000 for 25 days. There is no budget travel to this area of the world! But what a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience! It is the most pristine place on the planet. Remember to keep it that way!

For information on specific islands around Antarctica, visit our Southern Ocean page.

The most popular and accessible landing on the west side of the Antarctica Continent is on the Antarctic Peninsula and its nearby islands. On the east side of Antarctica, cruises leave from New Zealand and Australia and land at some of the scientific research stations on the continent as well as islands in the vicinity. Heritage Expeditions is a one of the tour companies.

Mastromedia has an excellent online history of Antarctica.

Antarctic Peninsula Travelogue. A traveler's journey with lots of good pictures and information.

Tourist Season

Summer in the Southern hemisphere is winter in the Northern hemisphere. Antarctica cruises start in October and run through March. Different things are happening at different times:

October - November. The pack ice which can stretch up to a 1000 km around Antarctica starts to break up. Birds are dating and mating, especially penguins in their splendid tuxedos.
December - January. The most popular time for cruises as daylight lasts 20 hours a day and it is the warmest time of the year. Penguins are hatching their eggs and little chicks are under foot.
February - March. This is the best time to see whales.

Both expedition companies and luxury cruise lines visit Antarctica.

Please choose a tour company from IAATO (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators), an organization whose members are committed to preserving the unspoiled beauty of the region.

Antarctic Cruise Information: CoolAntarctica and Ocean Cruises' Antarctic Cruises have excellent basic tourist information about visiting Antarctica.

Some Expedition Companies: Escorted Antarctic Tours, Fathom Expeditions, Lindblad, Mountain Travel Sobek, Peregrine, Quark Expeditions, Zegrahm , Luxury Antarctica Cruises. Geographic Expeditions, TheWorldOutdoors, Cool Antarctica, Polar Cruises, REI Adventure cruising and Adventure-Life. Also the has a nice descriptions of cruises that are available, price ranges and general information on cruising in Antarctica with links to cruise lines. Also see our Tours box at the bottom of the page.

Some Major Cruise Lines that visit Antarctica: Crystal Cruises, Orient Lines, Princess Cruises, Radisson Seven Seas Cruises.

Google Search - This will do it! Southern Ocean Islands , Antarctica Trips Tours ,
Antarctic Tour Companies , Antarctica Cruises and Antarctic Cruises.

iExplore - Antarctic Tours. An excellent source for Antarctic tour companies.

World Links - Antarctica. Our page on Antarctica under our World Links - Places Section with additional resources.

Destinations -Southern Ocean Information and tours to all the islands surrounding Antarctica.

WorldAtlas.com - General information on Antarctica or search for a specific island in the region.

Travel Videos
on Antarctica

Travel Books
on Antarctica

Preserve Antarctica Heritage
Here are organizations preserving the history of exploration and scientific research of Antarctica

Antarctica Heritage Trust. Get involved. They are preserving historic sites in Antarctica including Shackleton's Cape Royds hut he and his men built during their his 1907-1909 expedition before his famous Endurance expedition of 1916. While there he and his men wrote a wonderful book Aurora Australis about Antarctica that has become a travel classic.

United Kingdom Antarctica Heritage Trust. This is the UK branch of the coalition of Antarctic Heritage Trusts:- Heritage Antarctica. The Trust works to protect Britain's Antarctic Heritage - both in Antarctica itself, and in museums in the UK where many artifacts from the early Antarctic expeditions are preserved. They need your help to conserve Antarctica's human legacy.

Antarctica Heritage Trust - New Zealand. There mission is to conserve the expedition bases associated with Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Carsten Borchgrevink; and to Educate and inspire "...future generations to go out and explore and discover."

Shackleton - Our Hero

Our hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton - explorer of Antarctica and leader of men. Here are some tour companies that have yearly tours, usually in the November - February time period that take you to some of the places where he and his men showed so much courage. Here is Wikipedia's article and Encarta's article about him.

Also, see the Google Earth Community moderated forum on Shackleton's famous 1914-1917 expedition. About.com - Sir Ernest Shackleton. Extensive links to websites about him and his famous 1914-1916 expedition of his ship, the Endurance.

"For scientific leadership, give me Scott, for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton. Incomparable in adversity, he was the miracle worker who would save your life against all the odds and long after your number was up. The greatest leader that ever came on God's earth, bar none."

Sir Raymond Priestley
Member of the Nimrod expedition 1907-1909

Just for Kids
A colorful web-book of Shackleton's 1914-16 famous Expedition.

By
Sir Ernest
Shackleton

A good history book
see also the DVD

Documentary
DVD

Drama
DVD

The James Caird Society. If you are a "Shackletonian" as the society calls people who are devout fans of Shackleton, please check out the only non-profit society dedicated to preserving the memory of this great leader.

The James Caird is the name of the 23-foot (8 meter) whaler boat in which Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions made the epic open boat voyage of 800 miles (l,300 km) in the Southern Ocean of Antarctica from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island during the Antarctic winter of l9l6.

Antarctica Cruises to Retrace Shackleton Expedition. Each year different Antarctica cruise and expedition companies visit some of the famous places that are part of Shackleton's 1908 or 1914 expeditions such as Elephant Island and South Georgia island.

Antarctica tours that revisit places that Shackleton visited on his expeditions.

Cool Antarctica - Shackleton Endurance Voyage and Timeline Map. Excellent map that traces his route, including to date he arrived at each point. Extensive articles.

Escorted Antarctic Tours Full Spirit of Shackleton

Polar Cruises Retrace 1908 Nimrod Centennial Expedition

Fathom Expeditions Spirit of Shackleton Expedition

Ultimate Antarctica II 2008 includes both hiking and diving

James Caird Society 2008 Expedition.

Zegram and Eco Expeditions 2008 expeditions

Shackleton Odyssey 20 day voyage

Google Antarctic Directory. A comprehensive list of links with information provided by the Open Directory Project.

Antarctic Gateway. This is a website in Tasmania devoted to providing information and listing available resources for tourist and scientific expeditions leaving from Tasmania for Antarctica. Hobart. Tasmania is a major embarkation port for journeys to Antarctica from the eastern side.

1UpTravel.com-Polar Regions. A travel agency with a difference! Excellent list of both cruise and air tour companies with trips to Antarctica plus links to other Antarctic websites.

70South. The number one source for "antarticles". The most comprehensive and beautiful website we have found about Antarctica. They cover current news as well as, information for tourists.

Antarctic Connection. Another good site covering all things Antarctic. Check out their Antarctic Tours and Where To Go sections.

Cool Antarctica. An excellent and beautifully done website with information on the continent and your travel options to visit it.

Best of Antarctica. An excellent website with lots of information and photographs from a Quark Expedition.

International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. Consider choosing one of the tour companies that are a member of this organization that is dedicated to preserving the unspoiled beauty of Antarctica.

Global Islands Network. Covers over 185 islands of the world. A great resource for islands of the world with excellent links to other island resources. They have the most comprehensive directory of websites directly related to specific islands and island groups that we have found online. Click on the Islands by Oceans Directory and scroll down to the Southern Ocean to see a list of island in Antarctic. It will give you basic geographic and ecology information but no tourists information. Table

Lonely Planet-Antarctica This link takes you to their information for Antarctica.
Peninsula

Antarctic Peninsula

The Antarctica Peninsula, which lies directly south of the tip of South America, is the most popular place that tourists visit because of its many interesting islands and because this is where you can actually set foot on the Antarctica continent. Here is Wikipedia's nice article on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Maps - Here are links to maps we have found plus a Google Antarctic Peninsula Map Search. Both maps are clickable and bring up wonderful pictures and sounds for that location from people who took the MV Hanseatic cruise tour.

Ocean Explorer Peninsula Map 1

Map 2

Map 3

Map 4

Map 5

Map 6

Google Antarctic Peninsula Map

Antarctica Maps. You can buy full-color detailed maps of Antarctica at Amazon.com.

USGS Antarctica Atlas. An interactive map of Antarctica which, unfortunately, is not intuitive. They have a help section but you will need to spend sometime to get used to the interface design.

Antarctica Connections. A great online store for Antarctica clothing, books, DVD, maps and much more.

Tours - Antarctic Peninsula Tour Companies.

Arthur Frommer's Blog -Antarctica on a Budget - Sort of. Article about Vantagetravel.com's 8-day cruise to Antarctica for less than $3,000.

ExpeditionTrips.com. Select Polar Regions and then Antarctica and click GO. Excellent source for small ship expeditions to Antarctica. Easy viewing list of trips with prices, dates and itineraries.

iExplore - Antarctic Tours. An excellent source for Antarctic tour companies.

Virtual Tour of Antarctic. From the British Antarctic Survey. Excellent photos and information.

Please choose a tour company from IAATO (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators), an organization whose members are committed to preserving the unspoiled beauty of the region.