Category: Stories & Inspiration

All travel produces carbon emissions, whether you’re driving to the supermarket or flying to a holiday destination. As a travel company specialising in Antarctica, where the effects of climate change can be observed, we believe the industry has a special responsibility to reduce emissions. In 2022, members of the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators […]

For those of us living in the northern hemisphere, the approach of summer is all about taking things easy and relaxing into thoughts of a nice holiday – perhaps somewhere hot, with a beach. Down in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed, and Antarctica sleeps in the freezing darkness of the austral winter. Only […]

Nature documentaries showcasing Antarctica’s wildlife have often played a key role in inspiring people to fall in love with the White Continent. In recent years, few sequences have amazed viewers as much as the dramatic behaviour of pack ice killer whales, shown in the BBC’s Frozen Planet and Frozen Planet II series hunting seals by […]

Every April 24, we celebrate Antarctic Ambassadors Day, which is an opportunity to celebrate one of the most extraordinary places on our planet – as well as inspiring people to take steps towards protecting a destination where environmental changes can impact us all. To learn more, we spoke to Steve Jones, Chair of IAATO’s Antarctic […]

We’ve always known that going to Antarctica would be the trip of a lifetime, but for some of our travellers it’s even more special than that. At Swoop, we love helping people who want to get married in Antarctica, and recently, we helped Trevor and Madeleine from Colorado to make their dreams of a polar […]

It’s the most famous knock on the door in polar history. On 20 May 1916, Ernest Shackleton banged on the door of the Manager’s Villa in Stromness whaling station on South Georgia and announced to the surprised occupant that he had lost his ship.  Together with Frank Worsley and Tom Crean, he had just marched […]

If there’s one thing that can be agreed on about the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, it’s that he was a great inspirer of men. In the story of his ship Endurance, which sank at the start of his attempt to cross Antarctica, it can often feel like he saved his men from certain disaster […]

The big stories of Antarctic exploration tend to come in two main flavours: either a race to the South Pole, or a desperate survival story after a ship sinks after being in the ice. Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen, we’re looking at you. But no one has done more to change that popular perception in recent […]