Planning, Visa and Selecting Port of Sail (Chile vs Argentina)
Antarctica is the most remote continent in the world, therefore it needs lot of time and commitment to put in the planning. There are lot of restrictions on how many tourists can visit Antarctica per year and how many people can go ashore in given landing, so lot of expeditions and activities get sold well in advance, sometimes upto 2 years. Therefore if you like to plan your trip on your terms, aim to start planning at least 12-18 months in advance.
Antarctica is not country so good news is you don't need any visa to visit this 7th Continent. However in order to get on your expedition you need to go through either Argentina, Chile, South Africa or New Zealand. Closest countries from Antarctica is Argentina and Chile. Chile generally operates fly and sail expeditions (which can be very costly), while most of the expedition ships leave from port of Ushuaia which is southmost city of the world situated in Argentina. As Indian passport holder you need tourist visa to enter Argentina and you can only get it by in person visit at Argentina consulate nearby. (Though some of our friends got it via Skype interview with consular officer, so there might be some exceptions).
Choosing the tour operators and specific expedition
Expeditions to Antarctica can be divided into following itineraries -
1. Fly the Drake (You take flight out of Chille to Antarctic peninsula, though its short and sweet option, it costs a fortune)
2. South Georgia + Antarctic Peninsula (This gives you option to witness big colonies of King penguins on South Georgia and then visit Antarctica), but this will last 13-17 days and will cost more.
3. Antarctic Peninsula (10 days standard itinerary, gives you best of Antarctica)
4. Crossing the Antarctic circle
5. Chasing mighty Emperor penguins (Remember 'Happy Feet')
6. Visit South Pole.
All of these can cost anywhere from $5k to $25k per person based on whichever option you choose. These are all inclusive costs, except special activities. So these costs only include boarding, food and zodiac cruising and generally don’t include excursions such as Kayaking, Camping etc, they can easily add up to $1k-$2k. Alcoholic drinks are provided on the ship whole day, but they are not included in the cost. You can bring your own alcohol bottles on the ship as well.
We tried to do online search and quickly realized its not easy to find availability of what we are looking for, so we deferred this effort to amazing travel agency- Swoop travel to find best possible expedition for us. Our requirements were, Antarctic Continental Landing, lots of penguins, and one night camp in Antarctica. Also we preferred to go in late December so we can maximize our vacations.
Swoop found us cabin on Hondius ship operated by Oceanwide expeditions and we were all set to Sail to Antarctica on Dec 20th, 2019.
What to expect - Weather, Lodging and Boarding
Antarctic summer season is the only time when visitors are allowed, so weather wasn't going to be extremely cold. Antarctic summer temperatures range from -10C to 5C or 15F to 40F and the season lasts from October to February. Days gradually grow longer over this period and you will have 24 hour daylight around Christmas break. We did not expect it to be below -5C for any of the days, thus our regular winter gear for US winters was enough.
Although, it is usually pretty windy when its a clear day so wind jackets are must. Even the city of Ushuaia from where we set sail, is pretty windy and we need to spend at least half a day there before going and after return.
One thing to notice is summer months are mating season for penguins, so earlier in the season it will be cleaner snow and later in the season snow gets pinkish due to penguin waste on all Antarctic peninsula. But there is a possibility of seeing new born penguin chicks later in the season so thats a trade off.
Antarctic Expeditions are all inclusive cruises, so payment includes all lodging and boarding expenses like breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Packing essentials
For Antarctica, weather can change quickly from 50mph windy and cloudy day to clear sunny day in matter of hours, so key is to dress in layers. We used the following layering strategy while packing the clothing.
Layer 1 - For base layer, we took 2 sets of thermals - one regular warm and one extra warm. We got top and leggings of each and also had one turtle neck as backup. Both were pretty thin, so we could layer up comfortably during landings each day.
Layer 2 - Regular jeans and woolen sweater
Layer 3- Optional puffer jacket or vest.
Layer 4 - Snow pants and snow jackets
Accessories :
1. For shoes and socks, we used rain boots provided on board the ship and for socks we used knee length socks for regular days and for camping night we used thermal socks.
2. Two sets of of gloves were used - thin wool gloves for inside (try to get touch screen capable gloves to operate your device) and thick waterproof glove for outside.
3. Regular woolen beanie and one infinity scarf to cover all the way from neck to nose to avoid intermittent windy weather
4. Polarized sunglasses is a must to avoid intense sun reflections from snow and also good sunscreen. Sun is very intense in polar region so take all precautions to avoid burn.
5. For days on board at deck, we carried light vest, fleece or wind jacket.
One important thing we took was closed toe shoes to wear all day on the deck and water bottle to use all day long. There is provision of washing and quick drying of clothes on the ship in our own rooms so no need to overpack. There is also laundry service on ship, but usually its expensive.
For more details on packing check this link.
Photography essentials
1. If you have DSLR, definitely take telephoto lens (70-250 or 100-400) to capture amazing wildlife of Antarctica
2. New era smartphones are more than capable of taking stunning pictures. Wide angle lens and portrait mode on our iPhones came in handy and we absolutely loved the pictures that came out as much as our DSLR ones.
3. Use slo-mo mode (120 FPS) on your iPhone generously to capture precious little moments with wild life.
