Highlights of the Antarctic Peninsula

Included travel arrangements prior to embarkation

The date of Day 1 for each voyage reflects the date you will be scheduled to fly down to Antarctica and embark on your ship, weather conditions permitting. However, the price of your trip also includes additional services for a hassle-free experience from start to finish, such as a pre-cruise stay in the capital city of Santiago.

On arrival in Santiago, make your own way to your included 5* city centre hotel, where you will spend the night.

The following day, you will be transferred to the airport for the included charter flight to Puerto Williams. Here you will embark on your ship and set sail.

Day 1: Puerto Williams

A Chilean town, located on the southern shores of the Beagle Channel, Puerto Williams is surrounded by magnificent scenery. Wild windswept mountains rise above the tree line and are regularly dusted with snow. The mountain range of “Dientes de Navarino” (literally “teeth of Navarino”), completes the dramatic backdrop. Originally used by the Yaghan people, a hunter-gatherer tribe, the area was abandoned by them upon the arrival of European settlers.

The current city was established as a naval base in 1953; its name honours the British-Chilean naval commander John Williams Wilson of the 16th century. Initially protecting territorial possessions and fishing rights in the area, as well as offering logistical support to Antarctic bases, it has now become a departure point for scientific and tourist trips to the Antarctic region. Puerto Williams charms the visitor with a small village feel, complete with rustic buildings and a homely smell of drifting wood smoke. 

Days 2 & 3: Drake Passage

Sailing the legendary Drake Passage is an experience that only a few are lucky to experience. Set sail and slowly drop off the bottom of the map on an expedition down into the icy underworld of Antarctica. If the journey across Drake Passage sounds daunting, don’t worry, you are never alone, even in rough seas; expect to be accompanied on this spine-tingling adventure by soaring albatrosses, perhaps a protective pod of humpbacks and a dolphin or two. Converging warm and cool ocean currents attract some spectacular animal life to the passage. Your arrival in Antarctica will see skyscraper sized icebergs salute you, in a land where penguins and whales roam undisturbed through snow and ice.

Day 4: Antarctic Sound

The Antarctic Sound will be one of your first encounters of this white kingdom, located at the northerly tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Sound is an assault on the senses with imposing iceberg slabs that have broken away from the disintegrating Larsen Ice Shelf. You will come face-to-face with the extraordinary birds that call this landscape their home. Gentoo penguins hop around, and cape petrels sweep overhead. Before departure, you’ll want to brush up on your photography skills to capture this magnificent continent in all of its unrestrained glory. 

Days 5 to 7: The Antarctic Peninsula

The Antarctic Peninsula lies a mere 620 miles from Tierra del Fuego and is a spectacular first taste of the snow-blanketed landscapes and colossal ice sculptures, which make up the White Continent. Unseen by humans until 1820, the peninsula offers the thrill of the truly unknown and extraordinary. It is sprinkled with research bases at the frontline of human scientific endeavour, their inhabitants dedicated to the study of a unique landscape, its exceptional wildlife, and the impact that humans are having on this pristine continent. Cathedral-sized icebergs will loom up close, blue-hued glaciers will slowly slip into view from imposing locations like Hope Bay and thousands of adorable Adelie penguin pairs are to be found thriving, undisturbed in this unique setting.

Day 8: South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands lie close to the northwestern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, separated by the Bransfield Strait. Several countries maintain research bases here and with plump elephant seals, and crowds of gentoo, chinstrap and Adelie Penguins also calling the islands home, it can sometimes feel a little crowded! King George Island is the largest and hosts the majority of the research stations, some of which are populated all-year-round by small yet hardy crews. These islands offer extraordinary adventure in one of the most remote locations on Earth. Towering over the archipelago are the triple peaks of Mount Foster and you’re bound to feel your heart pumping a little faster, as you sail into the centre of Deception Island’s magnificent collapsed volcano caldera. Elephant Island, meanwhile, is written deep into the annals of Antarctic legend as the site where Ernest Shackleton and the stricken crew of the Endurance miraculously survived a harsh Antarctic winter, in 1916.

Day 9: Drake Passage

Crossing back into the Drake Passage you will relive the chance to navigate those legendary seas with albatros, petrels and dolphins for company.

Day 10: Sailing around Cape Horn

No two words conjured up more fear to sailors of the past than Cape Horn. A reputation for ferocious storms and mountainous seas, the cape was a place where a seafarer garnered respect for bravery against the odds. Once an unavoidable physical gateway to adventure and commerce in the Pacific Ocean, Cape Horn nowadays has more of a spiritual attraction. It draws intrepid travellers who wish to pay homage to the brave sailors who once risked their lives to pass this wild and inhospitable headland.

When the weather is clear from the frequent icy squalls that batter the island’s shores, a 23 feet (7m) high steel monument can be seen standing about 1 mile (1.5km) away from the true cape, near the Chilean navy station. It is the silhouette of an albatross, the bird that is said to carry the souls of those sailors who perished “rounding the Horn”.

Day 11: Puerto Williams

Returning to Puerto Williams after your Antarctic adventure, it is time to disembark and say farewell to the crew, the expedition teams and your fellow travellers as you head towards your included charter flight back up to Santiago.