Antarctica - Whale watching - Aurora Australis + Long Hikes

Arrive in Ushuaia, Argentina, located at the southern tip of South America in Tierra del Fuego. Make your way to the designated port or embarkation point in the early afternoon. Board your expedition ship as instructed by your tour operator. Once aboard, prepare for departure and begin your voyage by sailing through the scenic Beagle Channel, officially starting your Antarctic journey.

Travel across the Drake Passage over two days. You encounter cool winds, steady swells, and may spot fin whales. After crossing the Antarctic Convergence—where cold Antarctic waters meet warmer sub-Antarctic seas—you enter the circum-Antarctic upwelling zone. Marine and bird life change noticeably. You observe seabirds such as wandering albatrosses, petrels, and fulmars as you continue toward the Antarctic continent.

Gray stone peaks sketched with snow, towers of broken blue-white ice, and dramatically different wildlife below and above. You first pass the snow-capped Melchior Islands and Schollaert Channel, sailing between Brabant and Anvers Islands.

Sites you may visit include: 

Danco Island – Activities here may focus on the gentoo penguins nesting on the island, in addition to the Weddell and crabeater seals that can be found nearby.
Neko Harbour – An epic landscape of mammoth glaciers and endless wind-carved snow, Neko Harbour offers opportunities for a Zodiac cruise and landing that afford the closest views of the surrounding alpine peaks.

Paradise Bay – You may be able to take a Zodiac cruise in these sprawling, ice-flecked waters, where there’s a good chance you’ll encounter humpback and minke whales.

Pleneau & Petermann Islands – If the ice allows it, you could sail through the Lemaire Channel in search of humpback and minke whales, as well as leopard seals.

Port Lockroy – After sailing through the Neumayer Channel, you may get a chance to visit the former British research station – now a museum and post office – of Port Lockroy on Goudier Island. You may also be able to partake in activities around Jougla Point, meeting gentoo penguins and blue-eyed shags. 

At the nearby sites, such as Damoy Point there may be the opportunity for snowshoeing to the old ski-way, this is also one of our favorite camping sites.

Wilhelmina Bay & Guvernoren  – This is a great place to spot humpback whales. You also may embark on a Zodiac cruise ending at the ghostly wreck of the Guvernøren, a whaling vessel that caught fire here in 1915. Around the Melchior Islands, amid a frozen landscape peopled with icebergs, you may encounter even more whales, leopard seals, and crabeater seals.

Charlotte Bay - We might encounter a variety of wildlife, including gentoo penguins, Weddell seals and possibly some migrating whale species such as humpback whales or minke whales.

Conditions on the Drake Passage determine the exact time of departure.

Your return voyage is far from lonely. While crossing the Drake, you’re again greeted by the vast array of seabirds remembered from the passage south. But they seem a little more familiar to you now, and you to them

Every adventure, no matter how grand, must eventually come to an end. It’s now time to disembark in Ushuaia, but with memories that will accompany you wherever your next adventure lies.