Antarctica holidays, Christmas cruise

Antarctica holidays, Christmas cruise. This comfortable expedition cruise offers a comprehensive introduction to the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands on board a highly-regarded vessel with a number of years’ experience of exploring the white continent.

You’ll be accompanied by an on-board expedition team, which will organise a programme of daily landings in Antarctica and help you get the most out of Antarctica’s feast of staggering landscapes and wildlife.

Upon setting sail from Ushuaia, the ship navigates the Beagle Channel and skirts Tierra del Fuego before entering Drake Passage. The Drake Passage is notorious for its high seas but has, no doubt, helped preserve Antarctica’s isolation. During the next two days, magnificent waved albatrosses and a variety of other birds often accompany the boat in its voyage towards Antarctica. It’s a time of excited anticipation of what lies ahead, an opportunity to get to know your fellow explorers and go to on on-board lectures about history and wildlife. After two days at sea the excitement at the first sighting of ice – as you approach the South Shetland islands – is unforgettable and must surely echo that of the original Antarctic explorers.

In contrast to Drake Passage, once on the leeward side of the South Shetlands Antarctic waters can be millpond flat and during the next four days, regular landfalls will provide plenty of opportunity to don your wellington boots and explore. Visits are dependent on prevailing conditions, but the landfall on Neko Bay is an opportunity to step on to the white continent itself. The expedition continues south, with landings planned at Petermann Island, usually reached via the gorgeous Lemaire Channel, as well as Port Lockroy and Vernadsky. You’ll have the opportunity to observe magnificent colonies of gentoo, adelie and chinstrap penguins, and sightings of whales and leopard seals are also likely. With almost endless hours of daylight it can be hard to tear oneself away to go to bed for fear of missing something.

Before embarking across the Drake Passage back towards Ushuaia, a visit is planned to the South Shetland islands at the top of the Antarctic Peninsula. The highlight is usually Deception Island; formed of a submerged volcanic crater, Whaler’s Bay is one of Antarctica’s most sheltered harbours and relics of old whaling stations are strewn across the black sand beach. It’s a haunting place. For the brave, the thermal waters of Deception Island are a unique chance to dip one’s toes – or more – into Antarctic waters, prior to the journey back towards civilisation.