Your adventure starts with an overnight stay in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo. This vibrant and welcoming city is a modern metropolis with a historical center.

Before you embark on MS Fram, you can learn more about Montevideo on a city tour or explore on your own. Enjoy a visit to the Ciudad Vieja (Old Town), the bustling Avenida 18 de Julio, or one of the white, sandy beaches surrounding the city.

Set course for the Falkland Islands, situated in the South Atlantic about 1,600 kilometers from Antarctica. Begin your lecture series with a focus on the history and diverse wildlife of the Falklands as you keep a watch for wandering albatross and dusky dolphins. Spend another relaxing, but exciting day at sea.

The Falklands Islands consist of two large islands and around 700 smaller ones with an estimated population of 3,000 persons. As you reach the westernmost settled outposts in the Falklands you can see remote farms that have been family-owned for six or seven generations. The sheep graze alongside immense colonies of albatross and rockhopper, king and macaroni penguins while predatory striated caracaras patrol overhead and upland geese forage at the water’s edge.

Stanley, the islands’ capital, makes a wonderful starting point for the various excursions offered in the area. The town is easy enough to discover in a day on foot as the museum, post-office, plenty of shops with locally made wool items, and perhaps most importantly, Stanley’s lively pubs are all centered on the port.

The Falklands are teeming with wonders of wildlife and nature. This is an unpolluted environment with fantastically clear blue skies, seamless horizons, vast open spaces, and stunning white sand beaches. The penguins come close to you, stop and take a glance, before continuing on their way in total disregard to your presence, giving you some great photo opportunities! 

Spend two days cruising southward to beautiful South Georgia. En route you can participate in a number of presentations about the area’s wildlife, as well as whaling and polar history. 

South Georgia’s rich history of exploration, whaling, and conflict is a formidable backdrop to its rugged scenery and bustling wildlife. The expedition team is well versed in every facet of South Georgia, from its geology and glaciology to the mating rituals of sooty albatross and the legends of the Norwegian whalers. One of the fascinating stories told is that of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the men of the ill-fated Endurance and how they were saved through astonishing feats of bravery and seamanship.

There is nowhere, in any latitude, quite like South Georgia. It offers magnificent mountain scenery with majestic glaciers and beaches teeming with wildlife. Its unique position inside the Antarctic ecosystem yet outside the limit of the yearly sea ice makes this 3,755-square-kilometer island home to millions of breeding penguins, seals, and seabirds. 

During your stay here, you can see Elephant seals lounge on the sand, fur seal pups race in and out of the water, albatross soar overhead, and king penguins by the thousands. Plan to visit some of South Georgia’s abandoned whaling stations, a whaling museum, the Norwegian seaman’s church, and the tiny graveyard where you can pay your respects to the great Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. 

In addition to spotting for the magnificent wandering albatross and other seabirds from deck, you can learn more about the wonders of the Deep South with an educational lecture series as you continue to Antarctica.

Antarctica is different from anywhere else you will ever experience! Once you have crossed the Antarctic Convergence start feeling the air getting crisper and colder. Begin to see Antarctic penguins in the water, and don’t forget to be on the lookout for the first iceberg. There are no permanent human inhabitants in Antarctica, but it is home to millions of penguins and the feeding area for thousands of whales. The penguins are fearless when encountering humans – although they might be just as curious about you as you are about them. Some of the highlights you experience while you are here include Deception Island and Half Moon Island, because of the resident colonies of chinstrap penguins. Enjoy beautiful vistas and the gentoo penguin colonies on Yankee Harbour, Cuverville Island, Neko Harbour, and Paradise Harbour. On Petermann Island see thousands of Adélie penguins.

The British base in Port Lockroy is one of the most popular sites in Antarctica, and offers a peek into life on an Antarctic base in the 1950s. The nesting gentoo penguins surrounding the main building have become accustomed to the frequent human visitors. The huge ice shelves of the Antarctic Sound are home to an estimated half million Adélie penguins as well as gentoo penguins, leopard seals, and killer whales. The best way to experience Adélie penguins at Brown Bluff is to sit quietly and watch nature’s cutest comedians at work. When opportunities arise, launch your kayaks, pitch tents ashore, and take unforgettable hikes to explore one the most beautiful, untouched places on the planet.

The Drake Passage is the stretch of ocean between the Antarctic Peninsula and the southern tip of Latin America. It was notorious among the early polar explorers and is a unique voyage which only a few have had the chance to experience. You can use these days at sea to recap your experiences, sort your photos, or simply relax on deck.

After a spectacular journey, make landfall at the world’s southernmost town. Join an optional excursion to Lake Escondido or extend your stay in Buenos Aires with an optional post program.