Antarctica Travel Guide

The bottom of the earth, colored in various shimmering shades of icy blue, welcomes only a few teams of researchers and a plethora of hardy tourists each year, and has no permanent residents. The isolation is the draw, of course, though you’ll want to avoid the winter, when the whole continent is enveloped in gloomy darkness 24 hours a day and temperatures inland regularly fall to -70°C. In the summer, sun glances off the ice at a slight angle and the outdoor temperature can rise to a palatable 10°C, allowing tourists to frolic among the glaciers and photograph the arty landscape of a trul… read morey unique destination.

Most visitors arrive on the boat from Chile, landing on the Antarctic Peninsula, and some from New Zealand to the Ross Sea. On the journey you can watch whales frolic in the water below the bow, clunk your way through chunks of ice and eye swirling shoals of fish from the deck. On arrival, the brave take a dip in the sea (or cheat by taking advantage of the heat of the Antarctic hot springs), while some of the largest colonies of migratory penguins huddling and nesting along the shorelines provide a warmer form of entertainment.

If conditions suit, you can climb a number of active volcanoes, take part in some unique diving experiences or whale-watch from the deck of a huge-hulled icebreaker. If you’re looking to make the southern pole of inaccessibility (the world’s least accessible location), however, you’re going to need a huge budget and a gritty determination and fitness to match. On arrival you’ll find a golden bust of Lenin pointing to Moscow, alongside a long abandoned research station with it’s own golden guest book - spooky in its isolation, and well worth a flick through - tucked away inside.

It’s the untouched landscape, stunning wildlife and alien sensations that bring adventurous tourists to Antarctica, though, and with less than 25,000 people a year arriving on a land mass larger than Europe, it’s a very unique (and usually very pricey) travel experience.