Official Language:
Bus
Secondary Language:
Bus (prounounced Boos) is the original and official language of Antarcticans. Almost all Antarcticans also use English and German.
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Currency:
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Population:
Approximately 1200 people call Antarctica home.
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Weather:
Climate and current weather information for Antarctica: From mid-October until early March, the Antarctic Peninsula can be reached by cruise ships, the great majority of which start from the Argentine port of Ushuaia, on Tierra del Fuego. Aside from the brief summer season the peninsula is ice-locked by a hundred-mile frozen mantle. Cruise itineraries vary, although all visit the Antarctic Peninsula as the major destination. For travel to the Falkland Islands, the South Georgia Islands and the South Orkney Islands, check the individual cruise itinerary.The continent of Antarctica is approximately the size of Australia. 95% of the land surface is permanently ice covered up to 3 miles thick in some places. Antarctic summer, October-March, with December-February being the best months to go. Days can be sunny and clear, with temperatures averaging around 30°F/-1°C. Nights still get very cold though at that latitude, they are very brief. Take heavy winter clothing and be prepared for wind, blowing snow, fog and frigid temperatures.
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A cruise passenger's expedition to Antarctica is an unforgettable experience. It is a journey of discovery. This immense wilderness is a fabulous place and a virtual paradise for wildlife with a mountainuos scenery. Few people have experienced Antarctica. However, of the people who have visited, very few have combined their journey to include the outer islands or the Chilean Fjords.
Please note that since Antarctica is not owned by anyone, there is no need to obtain a visa to visit it. However, shipping schedules are at the mercy of the ice and elements so, even if you are travelling directly from your home country, you will need to bring a valid passport since your vessel could quite possibly pull into the port of another country for shelter. You will need visas for any countries that your ship visits en route to Antarctica.
Like any other continental land-mass, Antarctica experiences a wide range of different climates. During most summer cruises, the outside air temperature during the day hovers around the 0ºC mark once you get into Antarctic waters. However, the wind makes it feel considerably colder than that, and whatever you wear underneath in the way of thermal clothing and fleecy sweaters, you need a windproof layer on top, and a warm hat.
When to goFrom mid-October until early March, the Antarctic Peninsula can be reached by cruise ships, the great majority of which start from the Argentine port of Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego. Beyond this brief summer season the peninsula is ice-locked by a hundred-mile frozen mantle.
What Do You See?You usually sight your first iceberg on the afternoon of the second day in the Drake Passage. Steaming southwards through spectacular narrow channels that separate the mainland from the South Shetlands, there are breaching minke whales, porpoising penguins, leopard seals, Weddell seals and giant petrels.
Broad cinder-ash beaches and soot-iced glaciers give evidence of the active volcanic caldera at Deception Island - there’s often an opportunity to swim in the hot springs there, and visit the whaling station, now half obliterated by volcanic ash.
The Great White Continent. A frozen wilderness. The ends of the earth. Antarctica is truly one of the world's last unspoiled frontiers, epitomizing the unrivaled power and majesty of nature. Here, breathtaking glaciers have existed for thousands of years. An overwhelming abundance of wildlife - including penguins and seals, humpback and killer whales, plus the mighty albatross - freely cavorts in its exclusive domain. And rustic outposts of the early great explorers stand as testaments to their even greater perseverance.
In this soft adventure setting, sightseeing tours ashore are customarily done by Zodiac landing craft - sturdy inflatable boats designed by Jacques Cousteau. These were developed to ease exploration and access to remote regions such as this: a truly spectacular arena of nature punctuated by snow-capped mountains, giant icebergs the size of several city blocks and soaring ice cathedrals ~ all frozen in time at the bottom of the world.
There are many choices of ships going to Antarctica, many tour companies running the programs and a wide range of itineraries, dates and prices. It is overwhelming to those that are trying to plan a trip.
In planning your cruise journey in Antarctica you will find the following cruise lines/ships sailing:
Orient Line - MV Marco Polo
Clipper Cruises - MV Clipper Adventurer
MS Endeavour
Abercrombie & Kent - Explorer
Explorer II
Professor Multanovskiy Polar Pioneer
Academik Ioffe
Academik Vavilov
Akademik Shokalskiy
M/V Orlova
Antarctica - a land of superlatives and extremes, Antarctica is without a doubt one of the most awe-inspiring places on Earth. The fifth-largest continent, it is the highest, most arid, and most isolated. More than 99 percent of it is covered in ice. It is the least explored and least inhabited; yet people are drawn to this place again and again.
Travel to Antarctica is not easy; in fact it has to be earned: its isolation requires a lengthy flight—unless you happen to live in one of the gateway towns, like Stanley, Hobart, or Ushuaia—just to board the ship. Then there’s the matter of the sea itself. Even in the sturdy confidence and relative comfort of an expedition ship or icebreaker, crossing the Drake Passage south of Argentina’s Cape Horn can be a seafaring adventure in itself.
However, nothing can compare with the rewards of traveling to Antarctica! Antarctica’s glaciers, massive rivers of ice, crunch, grind and calve their way into the sea. Gargantuan towers of ice the size of city blocks glow in shades of pink, violet, and baby blue. Humpback whales gracefully loop through the frigid water in search of a meal of krill.
Navigate around an iceberg on a Zodiac expedition and gaze in awe as 18-foot, 4.5-ton elephant seals haul themselves out of the water and gather on icy banks as southern albatrosses soar overhead. Ready your camera for a king or royal penguin encounter in a colony of thousands upon thousands of nesting birds and their fluffy, bewildered chicks.
Antarctica cruises are truly one of the last great adventures. Leave tourist crowds—and indeed, the whole world—behind. Come see more than the tip of the iceberg: venture to terra incognita australis, the unknown southern land.
Antarctica surrounds the South Pole, and much of its land mass lies beneath more than a mile of ice and snow. Mountains punch through this ice cap along the coast and across the wind-whipped interior. The ice cap holds 70% of the Earth’s fresh water, locked up in huge chunks of snow and ice sheets.
Much of Antarctica’s inland areas remain largely unexplored. The diverse sea life in the Antarctic Ocean (the southernmost waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans) and along the continent’s edges, however, draws researchers, explorers, and nature lovers from the world over.
Although there are no vertebrate animals on Antarctica’s interior (in fact, the land fauna consists of only a few invertebrate species, of which the largest is the dime-sized wingless midge), several kinds of birds populate the shorelines.
Penguins, the lovable, flightless mascots of the Far South, include many species. Lines of these penguins belly-flop off icebergs into the ocean. On the Antarctic Peninsula, the chinstrap, Adélie, and gentoo gather in great groups. The emperor is the largest of all the penguins, standing over three feet tall and weighing 40 to 100 pounds. The smaller, 15-pound Adélies are the most common penguins in Antarctica, with up to 250,000 of them gathering in one breeding area. King and royal penguins inhabit New Zealand’s subantarctic islands. Magellanic penguins, found in Argentina, breed north of the Antarctic Convergence.
At least ten species of whales have been spotted in the Antarctic Ocean. These whales include humpback (the most common), minke, right, blue, sei, finback, orca, pilot, sperm, and southern bottle-nosed. The blue whale, the largest animal on Earth, exceeds 100 feet in length and weighs over 150 tons. Just as exciting to watch are the three species of dolphins—Commerson’s, dusky, and southern right-whale—that swim and dive in graceful arcs throughout the southern seas.
Six seal species thrive in the Antarctic Ocean. Watch crabeater and Weddell seals slide off ice platforms in search of crabs and fish. Catch a glimpse of the more vicious, 10-to-12-foot-long leopard seals which feed on fish, penguins, and other seals. Sharp teeth line their powerful jaws. Ross seals, more difficult to spot and less well known, eat fish, as do the smallest seals in the region, the fur seals. Seal hunters once coveted fur seals for their thick, high-quality coats. The huge elephant seals feed on squid around the Scotia Arc Islands and the Antarctica Peninsula. Males weigh nearly 4.5 tons and grow to lengths of 15 to almost 20 feet long.
Forty-four species of seabirds, including two big albatrosses, the wandering and the royal, circle the sky around the Antarctic and subantarctic. Fulmars, medium-to-large-sized petrels, scavenge dead birds and seals along the coast. Other petrels feed only at sea. Long, hook-tipped bills provide shearwater petrels with the means to pull squid from the water. Some species also pursue their prey beneath the water’s surface. Sheathbills, skuas, Arctic terns, cape pigeons, and petrels all live near the coasts and over the seas of Antarctica.
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On visiting Antartica, cruise passengers can't help but be awe-struck. Visit at the right time of the year and enjoy the paradactivities and scenary that this region has to offer.
In November , you will find the penguins mating and nesting with eggs. October and November are early summer when the pack ice is breaking up and the birds, especially penguins, are courting and mating.
December and January represent the height of summer and thus the warmer months on the continent. Daylight lasts nearly 24 hours, penguin chicks emerge, and whale sightseeing's increase.
February is the end of summer and many chicks are leaving their nests. Many consider February the best time for whale sightings. Antarctic summers are blessed with 18-24 hours of daylight. In the late summer months of February and March there are terrific whale-watching opportunities and the adult penguins are ashore moulting. Remember also that some vessels visit Antarctica 10 or more times in a single season and the staff members and lecturers on these ships can become jaded and burnt out well before the end of the summer.
Penguins, Birds and Seals:
During the summer months of January and February you will experience abundant wildlife on the beaches and cliffs of the Antarctic Peninsula islands. Each Antarctic spring the curtains part to reveal a gargantuan drama. As the sea ice melts, releasing the continent from winter's frozen grip, millions upon millions of penguins, sea birds and seals pour from the ocean to breed along the continent's foreshores. Pods of whales move south to feed in the surrounding nutrient rich waters. Warmer temperatures during these months enable much of Antarctica's wildlife to go ashore.
Penguins abound; several species live in Antarctic regions; flightless birds that are better adapted to life in the water than on land. At this time of year you often find penguin colonies populated by young chicks. They have no fear of humans, and will spend as much time observing you and you will them. Seals, whales and numerous species of birds are often spied during the expedition, both on land and at sea.
Learn a little about the history of the Islands in this region:
Coronation Island
South Orkney Islands - Antarctica
A group of lonely rocks situated between South Georgia Island and the South Shetlands, the South Orkneys have two scientific stations, Orcadas, on Laurie Island, belonging to Argentina, and Signy, a British station. The South Orkneys were first explored by a Scottish expedition under William Bruce in 1903. They established a scientific station which is now Orcadas, and the oldest continuously operating station in the Antarctic region. The mission's task was to study the islands' teeming wildlife. A vintage photo from this expedition shows a kilted piper in full Scottish regalia playing to a disinterested penguin to test the bird's reaction! A Zodiac landing on Coronation Island reveals its most dramatic landmark, a 2,100-foot mountain which gives rise to Sunshine Glacier. The South Orkneys are the habitat for almost 200,000 pairs of Adelie penguins, 600,000 chinstraps, and about 11,000 gentoos.
Deception Island
South Shetland Islands
Antarctica
Deception Island is actually the sunken caldera of a semi-active volcano. Approached through a narrow, hidden channel called Neptune's Bellows, the entrance to this perfect harbor is spectacular, to say the least. The mile-wide caldera/bay is ringed by bubbling fumaroles, a reminder of the volcanic activity which took place in 1967-1970, wiping out two scientific stations.
Elephant Island
South Shetland Islands - Antarctica
Elephant Island, named for an abundance of elephant seals, became the unlikely home of Shackleton's crew for 105 days in 1916 after their ship Endurance was crushed in pack ice in the Weddell Sea. Living on penguins and limpets (no seals inhabited the area at that time) and taking shelter in an improvised hut made from two wooden boat hulls, they were rescued by Shackleton on August 30, 1916. He and five men had traveled more than 800 miles in an open boat to South Georgia Island to seek help. Today, elephant and Weddell seals, chinstrap, gentoo, and macaroni penguins stand watch over the spit of land Shackleton's men name Point Wild.
Hope Bay Antarctica
The largest and most permanent of the Antarctica research stations, Argentina's Esperanza was the birthplace of the first "native" in 1978. Since then, a few more births have taken place, but this tenuous human habitation does not bode a future of subdivisions and shopping malls, as permanent development is prohibited by the Antarctic Treaty (although 124,000 pairs of resident Adelie penguins might well qualify as a city!). Hope Bay offers breathtaking icescapes of tabular icebergs, marching in flat-topped formation to the sea.
King George Island
South Shetland Islands - Antarctica
King George Island is the home of several scientific stations, including the Polish station of Arctowski, whose scientists welcome visitors. King George has Antarctica's only hotel, where visiting researchers and a few hardy tourists stay. They all come to see the island's spectacular wildlife which ranges from gentoo, chinstrap, and Adelie penguins to petrels and blue-eyed shags to fur, elephant, and leopard seals and humpback whales. On the 70-foot skeleton of a blue whale, hunted to extinction in Antarctica early in this century, skuas perch, waiting to scavenge a meal from unwary nesting penguins. A poignant lesson on life in the food chain.
The Lemaire Channel
- The Lemaire Channel is a spectacular sight with enormous sheer cliffs falling straight into the sea. It's a narrow channel flanked by the Antarctic Peninsula on one side and Booth Island on the other. So photogenic is the channel that it's nicknamed 'Kodak Gap', and it's only once you're well within it that a way through is visible. Unfortunately, ice can sometimes obscure the path and ships need to retreat and sail around Booth Island. At the northern end of Lemaire Channel are a pair of tall, rounded and often snow-capped peaks known as Una's Tits that are also popular with holiday snappers. The channel was first navigated by Belgian explorer de Gerlache during his 1898 expedition aboard Belgica, and, curiously, named it after the Belgian explorer Charles Lemaire, who explored parts of the Congo.
Livingston Island
South Shetland Islands - Antarctica
Livingston Island contains huge colonies of chinstrap, gentoo, and macaroni penguins, as well as large flocks of skuas, southern giant petrels, sheathbills, and nesting kemp gulls. The waters teem with humpback whales, southern elephant seals, leopard seals, and Weddell seals. Weddell seals are the world's best divers, reaching depths of 1,500 feet and staying submerged for over one hour. On the shores, lichens, mosses, a few grasses and higher plants peek out of crevices in the cliffs. The land-based vegetation of Antarctica is the most dimunitive on earth. The greatest numbers of plants are the microalgae which migrate through capillaries in the ice. Antarctica has only a handful of hardy insects, and one species of spider.
New Island
West Falkland Islands
Writer/artist Ian Strange has restored most of his former sheep grazing acreage along the dramatic windward cliffs to native tussock grass, providing the perfect haven for nesting birds. Black-browed albatross, petrels, rockhopper gentroo, and Magellanic penguins and other seabirds can be seen by the thousands.
Paradise Harbor
Paradise Harbor, on the Antarctic Peninsula, is one of Antarctica's most visited areas and 'zodiac cruising' (aboard small inflatables) among the icebergs that calve off the glacier at the harbour's head has become very popular. No landings are made on these cruises, but the glaciers and mountains reflect beautifully in the water and the serene scene is a highlight for many visitors.
Paulet Island Antarctica
At Paulet Island, where thousands of Adelie penguins call home, see the remains of the stone hut where members of the stranded crew from the sunken Swedish ship Antarctic spent a terrible winter until their rescue in 1903. The story of the Antarctic is an epic of Polar exploration and an eerie precursor to Shackleton's voyage. The Antarctic was the ship of a Swedish expedition directed by Otto Nordenskjold. After dropping off Nordenskjold at Snow Hill Island, where he had established a winter headquarters, the ship sailed to Hope Bay where three men disembarked to establish a temporary camp. The ship was scheduled to pick up both parties before winter, but had to be abandonded after being crushed by pack ice. Twenty men found refuge on Paulet Island where they built a stone hut. From here, Captain Anton Larsen had to row a whaleboat nearly 100 miles across open sea and ice floes in the aptly name Erebus and Terror Gulf to find Nordenskjold and rescue him at Snow Island. Meanwhile, the three men stranded at Hope Bay survived the winter in an even tinier stone hut. They then set out on skis across Erebus and Terror Gulf to Vega Island, where, in a stroke of pure luck, they met up with Nordenskjold, who brought them back to safety at his Snow Hill Island headquarters.
Paradise Bay & Almirante Brown
Antarctica
Almirante Brown, like so many of the transient attempts at "colonizing" Antarctica, is now gone, a burned out ruin torched by a gone-mad "comandante" who apparently had succumbed to paranoia. Today, the former Argentine research station on the tip of the Antarctic continent has been rebuilt as a summer station but is inhabited during winter months only by nesting penguins. In contrast, Paradise Bay is a pristine ice wilderness, very much alive with life. The almost land-locked harbor is sheltered from Antarctica's fierce katabatic winds. The bay's enchanting ice castles in shades of violet, green, and blue shimmer and glow in the light, casting a spell on those who enter. Calving glaciers echo all around with a thunderous roar. When the air is still again, you hear the breathy sound of surfacing humpback, minke, and killer whales, who come to feed in the krill-rich waters.
Port Stanley Falkland Islands
Located about 480 miles northeast of Cape Horn, the Falklands Islands (also known by the Spanish name of Islas Malvinas) are the most easily accessible sub-Antarctic islands. Their off-the-beaten-track location and intriguing history make for a unique destination. The Englishman Strong arrived in the islands in 1690 and named the Falkland Sound for a British peer. Later this name was applied to the entire group. Seventeenth century seafarers from St. Malo gave the islands their French appellation, Iles Malouines, which in turn became the Spanish Islas Malvinas. In 1764 France established a small colony, which it sold two years later to Spain. The Spanish established a military garrison and a penal colony. When the British built an outpost at Port Egmont and the Spanish expelled their occupants, it brought Spain and England to the brink of war. Although the British were reinstated in 1771, they withdrew from the islands a few years later. In 1806, at the start of the South American wars of independence, the Spanish abandoned what is now Port Louis. Then the United Provinces of the River Plate (later part of Argentina) raised their flag here in 1820. This prompted the arrival of British warships in 1833 that expelled a token Buenos Aires force. Years of stability followed, lasting until April 1982 when Argentina invaded and occupied the islands. Britain mounted a counter-invasion and recaptured the Falklands by June of that year. There may be some additional vehicles available for private tours to Gypsy Cove. A rough stone road has been built most of the way there now. Visits to Cape Pembroke Lighthouse or to some of the battlefield sites may also be possible. Please remember that these require off-road driving and can be quite bumpy and arduous.
South Georgia Island Antarctica
Dominated by 9,000 foot Mt. Paget, 106-mile long South Georgia Island is a tangle of mountain ranges, glacier fields, and ravines, first seen by Captain Cook in 1775. The great Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, is buried in the Norwegian cemetary in Grytviken. The wild crags and glaciers of South Georgia were the site of Shackleton's greatest exploit. After his expedition ship Endurance was crushed by ice, and having left his stranded crew on Elephant Island, he and five men sailed 800 miles to South Georgia Island and hiked 29 miles through uncharted, ice-covered mountains to find help at the Stromness Whaling Station. It seems miraculous that Shackleton was able to accomplish this feat with the aid of a single ice adze and a rudimentary map. His cave at Cape Rosa is an eerie reminder of the hardships they endured. The Norwegian whaling stations which once clung to the shoreline of South Georgia Island lie in ruins, now occupied by lumbering elephant seals and flocks of penguins. South Georgia is a mecca for penguin watchers. 200,000 king penguins, six million macaroni penguins, and uncounted gentoos at 30-odd nesting sites make this one of the most densely penguin populated islands on earth. Additionally, the archipelago hosts a million fur seals, 360,000 elephant seals, thousands of black-browed, gray-headed, royal, light sooty-headed, and wandering albatrosses, and at least a million petrels.
South Shetlands
Antarctica
The South Shetland Islands are the closest destinations of Antarctica to the southern tip of South America. King George and Livingston are the main islands of the group. King George Island, near Arctowski Station, is the site of a large Gentoo penguin colony, and it is fascinating to watch as these noisy creatures feed their young. It is also possible to spot elephant seals, fur seals and a wide variety of birds here including Arctic terns. The scenery of this island is unique, with the rocky cliffs dotted with yellow, orange and red lichens. The only grass in all of Antarctica, known as Deschampsia, can be found here in the summer as well. Livingston is covered with glacial mountains. It is common to spot blue whales and humpbacks in this area as well as skuas, who nest on the land. Due to the nature of the ever-changing environment of Antarctica, no two journeys to this great land are ever the same. There is no telling what you will see, only that you will be mesmerized by the beauty of the land and the animals who thrive in this harsh environment.
Zavodovski Island
There are about two million chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island in the South Sandwich Islands, making it one of the largest penguin colonies in the world. Since 1982, tourists have been going there to behold this extraordinary ornithological sight. The chinstraps look like white dots against the black volcanic earth, covering every conceivable patch of dry land and disappearing up the mountain into the mist.
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