Nearly all Antarctic tourism happens on the peninsula, and nearly all of it leaves from Ushuaia. A standard voyage runs ten to twelve days, of which four are spent crossing the Drake Passage.
The Drake
Two days each way across the roughest regularly-sailed water in the world. It can be flat — "Drake Lake" — or it can be a 6m swell for 48 hours. Take medication before departure rather than after symptoms start, stay midships and low, and go up on deck: the horizon helps and the seabirds are extraordinary.
The alternative is flying to King George Island, which removes four days of sea and adds substantially to the price.
The daily rhythm
Once south, days follow a pattern: a landing after breakfast, a zodiac cruise after lunch, lectures in between, and a briefing each evening for the next day. Everything is weather-dependent and the schedule changes constantly.
The rules
IAATO membership governs almost every operator. In practice:
- Maximum 100 passengers ashore at once; ships over 500 passengers cannot land anyone
- 5m minimum distance from wildlife, more for some species — though penguins routinely ignore this from their side
- Boots washed and disinfected before and after every landing
- Bags and velcro vacuumed for seeds before the first landing
- Nothing taken, nothing left, including organic waste
Ship size matters more than anything
A 100-passenger vessel lands everyone at once and can make two outings a day. A 200-passenger vessel splits into groups. Above 500, you are looking at the continent from a deck. Choose the smallest ship you can afford.
Is it worth the money?
It is the most expensive trip in this journal by a wide margin — typically $8,000–20,000 per person. Nobody we have spoken to regretted it, which is not a defence of the price so much as an observation about how the place lands. If the cost is a stretch, late-season voyages and last-minute Ushuaia berths are the two real discounts.
For the region, see the Antarctic Peninsula guide.