You’ve been dreaming about making the trip to Antarctica for years, and now it’s finally going to happen. So where do you start? How do you pick a cruise from the dozens of companies that travel to Antarctica each season?
It goes without saying that for most of us, cost is the number one consideration when it comes to choosing an Antarctica cruise. When you’re spending a small fortune to start with, you want to make sure it’s a trip you remember forever – for the right reasons.
We invested a lot of time researching cruise options for our trip to Antarctica earlier this year. In this post, we focus on eight major considerations for choosing the best Antarctica cruise for you.
Big Ship, Small Ship?
Your first decision is one that will impact everything else. Do you want to travel on a big ship or a small ship? The kind of ship you choose for an Antarctica cruise, and the number of passengers it carries, will make a difference to the journey, the itinerary and the experience that you have.
Ships travelling to Antarctica vary in size from small expedition ships carrying less than 100 passengers, to large luxury cruise liners with over 1,000 passengers.
Aside from passenger numbers and the facilities on board, the most significant differences between a small ship and a large ship is where they can go and what they can do.
How do you like to cruise?
Smaller ships have access to more landing spots in and around Antarctica than bigger ships. Fewer passengers means less queuing for on and off-ship activities.
However, regulations for Antarctica cruises mean that even on small ships, only 100 passengers at a time can make shore landings.
Given the time and logistics involved in shore excursions, this usually means rosters and rotations of passengers, and time limitations for landings. On ships with several hundred passengers, there’s a possibility you won’t get to make a landing every day – check with the company.
Ships with more than 500 passengers can’t make landings at all. You’ll still get to see Antarctica’s incredible landscapes, but you won’t have the opportunity to get off the ship for close-up wildlife encounters.
Our Experience: We travelled on a small expedition ship carrying 92 passengers and around 40 crew members.
Weather permitting, we made at least one shore landing and one or two zodiac boat cruises every day (except the days we were travelling across the Drake Passage).
Our excursions were usually conducted in two rotations, with one group making a shore landing while the other group did a zodiac tour, and vice versa.
Our ship was small enough to allow a real camaraderie to develop between the passengers on board while being large enough that you could easily find a place to yourself, both on board and during landings.
Cabin Fever: Choosing a Room
Both expedition ships and cruise liners to Antarctica offer a selection of cabin types at vastly different price points. What you choose will depend on the level of comfort and facilities you want, and your budget.
On expedition ships, prices start on the lower decks with cabins sleeping up to 4 people with share bathrooms and porthole windows. As you move up the price scale, cabins offer more space and comfort, with options such as double beds, sitting rooms, private bathrooms and larger windows.
If you’re travelling alone, sharing a small room and a bathroom with strangers for a week or more can be daunting, but here’s the thing: with so much to do on an Antarctica cruise, you won’t spend much time in your cabin anyway.
Who wants to be in their cabin when this is going on outside?
Plus, no matter what kind of cabin you’re in, at the end of the day, just about every other aspect of your cruise is exactly the same, no matter how much you’re spending.
Our Experience: As a couple, we opted for a twin berth cabin with bunk beds on our Antarctica cruise, sharing a bathroom with another twin cabin.
Although it looked small, our cabin was surprisingly roomy (except when we were both trying to dress while the ship was rocking). It had plenty of storage and an in-room washbasin.
Sharing a bathroom was my biggest concern going in to our cruise, but we quickly worked out a bathroom routine with our neighbours so everyone was comfortable.
We had a porthole window, which we found gave the room a bit of an old-world-sailing charm.
The twin cabin at the next price point was almost identical to ours, except that it had side-by-side beds instead of bunks and a private bathroom. It cost around USD$1,500 more per person. It still had a porthole.
How Long Is The Cruise?
Cruises to Antarctica can vary in length from a couple of days or so up to a month or more.
The most typical Antarctica cruise itineraries average around 10 days and travel from Ushuaia on the southernmost tip of Argentina, across the Drake Passage, to the Antarctic Pensinsula and the islands along its north-west coast.
There’s a lot of sea between Antarctica and the rest of the world.
Cruise length can have a major impact on cost, but it’s worth thinking about how the cruise length works with the itinerary.
For example, while a shorter cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula might feel like a better choice cost-wise, it still takes 2 full days to reach the Peninsula and its islands, then 2 full days to get back. Depending on weather, both can take longer
Our Experience: We joined a 10-day Antarctica cruise that had us boarding at 4pm on Day 1 and disembarking at 8am on Day 10.
With 2 days’ travel in each direction and great weather (meaning we made excellent time en route), we had a total of 4-and-a-bit days of actual time in and around the Antarctic Peninsula.
We saw astounding landscapes and plenty of wildlife. We loved every single second of the entire trip. We absolutely wish we’d had longer.
What Will You See On Your Antarctica Cruise?
Different cruise itineraries offer different wildlife, landscape and heritage experiences, according to where they go and when in the season they go there.
Want to spot Emperor penguins? You’ll have a much better chance if you join an Antarctica cruise and helicopter expedition that visits the Weddell Sea.
Mad for Elephant seals? You can see them in huge numbers on a cruise to South Georgia Island.
Keen to witness penguins breeding and chicks hatching? Visit the Antarctic Peninsula and its islands earlier in the season. Love whales? Go later.
Like your snow pristine and white? Go at the beginning of the season before the penguins grubby it up.
You get the picture.
Late season on the Antarctic Peninsula = cute penguins, grubby penguin snow.
When choosing the best Antarctica cruise for you, look for the itinerary and departure timeframe that best capture the landscapes, wildlife and seasonal milestones that appeal to you.
Our Experience: We travelled to the Antarctic Peninsula in early March.
At this late stage in the tourism season, the rocky drama of the landscape was on show due to snowmelt, while plant and algae blooms had turned rocks vivid shades of orange and green.
We saw plenty of Humpback whales. Juvenile Antarctic fur seals were common, along with Crabeater seals and the occasional Leopard seal.
The big penguin colonies had thinned out by the time we visited, but we still encountered hundreds of Gentoo and Chinstrap penguin chicks, and a handful of rarer Adélie chicks. And plenty of grubby penguin snow.
Many small expedition ships to Antarctica are repurposed research vessels, so if you’re after luxury, chances are you won’t find it here.
What you will find are practical, well-laid out internal areas with dedicated spaces for eating, socialising and lectures.
Some ships offer special lecture theatres for presentations and briefings during the cruise, and small libraries with books on a range of Antarctic topics.
There are expansive outdoor decks for watching the landscapes and wildlife. You’ll likely also have access at certain times to the Bridge, where you can meet the Captain and the officers steering the ship.
Expedition ships are designed for polar cruising.
These days, some expedition ships also offer small luxuries like saunas and gyms. There’s always at least one bar.
At the opposite end of the facilities spectrum are the large cruise liners, which offer a vast range of facilities and services like restaurants, shops, bars, pools, fitness centres and more.
Our Experience: Our ship, the MV Ushuaia, was originally built as a research vessel and felt like a true expedition ship – practical and designed for a tough environment, but comfortably refurbished for tourism.
The ship offered large outdoor decks, a dining room, a small library and reading space, and a large communal area with big windows on three sides and the all-important bar at its head.
When we weren’t out on excursions or exploring the decks, we tended to be here with most of the ship’s passengers, listening to lectures and briefings, playing cards, watching documentaries, sharing stories and drinking cocktails made with fresh glacier ice.
What Activities Are Included In The Itinerary?
One of the most exciting aspects of an Antarctica cruise by expedition ship is the opportunity to get off the boat and experience the landscapes and wildlife by zodiac and on foot.
In addition to lectures and briefings from naturalist and wildlife experts onboard, most expedition cruises include daily activities like zodiac cruises, shore landings and visits to Antarctic research stations.
Some cruises provide opportunities for kayaking, skiing, diving or helicopter flights. A couple even offer the chance to camp overnight on the continent. Special activities like these are usually optional add-ons at a premium.
When you’re thinking about the best Antarctica cruise for you, get the specifics on the activities offered, know what’s included in the base fare, and search out the optional extras that interest you.
Getting off the ship daily to explore by zodiac or foot is a highlight of an Antarctica cruise.
Do You Have Continental Expectations?
For some people, actually setting foot on the Antarctic continent is a goal – if not THE goal – of their trip.
If this is important to you, it’s worth investigating cruise itineraries that include this as a possibility (like those visiting the Antarctic Peninsula), but remember there are no guarantees on an Antarctica cruise.
Weather, wildlife, environmental regulations, and a swathe of other variables all mean that itineraries are deliberately kept flexible. Which means there’s every chance you’ll get to walk on the continent itself…and every chance you won’t.
Our Experience: During our Antarctica cruise, we made lots of landings on the islands off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, and one landing on the continent itself.
Would it have made a difference to our trip if we hadn’t set foot on the continent? Not a jot. The sites and wildlife at every single place we visited were unforgettable.
Plus, to paraphrase our expedition leader, Agustin: If you’ve visited Tasmania, you’ve been to Australia, right? Travelled to the island of Bali? Then you’ve been to Indonesia.
Whether you cruise past the Antarctic continent on a big ship that doesn’t stop, or roll out a sleeping bag and spend the night on the mainland itself, you can happily say that you have visited Antarctica.
Is The Antarctica Cruise Company A Member Of IAATO?
Antarctica is one of the world’s last unspoiled wildernesses and there are a tranche of protocols and regulations in place, under the auspices of the Antarctic Treaty System, to ensure the continent is protected for the long-term.
The purpose of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) is to advocate and encourage best practice among the various companies that run tourist cruises to Antarctica.
IAATO members agree to operating procedures and practices, like coordinating itineraries, both for passenger safety and to minimise the environmental pressures of 35,000-odd tourists visiting Antarctica annually.
Most Antarctica cruise companies are members of IAATO, but just in case, make sure your cruise choice is.
Still Unsure Where To Start?
The IAATO website has a membership directory with links to operator websites so you can see what companies offer cruises to Antarctica.
TripAdvisor can also help you narrow the playing field or make a call. Once we’d done our broad research and pulled together a shortlist of Antarctica cruises, it was the recommendations and trip reports we read there that ultimately gave us the confidence we needed to make our final decision.
We’re also building an archive of our tips, advice, experiences and photos on Antarctica here on the blog, in the hopes others can realise their dream of travelling to this magical final frontier.
Over to you and good luck choosing your cruise! If you’ve got any questions, ask away, or share your own Antarctic cruising experience with us below.
From trip planning tips and inspiring pics, to what it felt like arriving in Antarctica, we’ve got plenty more to share on this amazing destination – check out our other Antarctica posts here.
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