Going to Antarctica was never on my bucket list, and before going, I thought it’d be my coolest trip.
Ever since I knew going to Antarctica is possible, I never wanted to go because I didn’t want to pay thousands of dollars to sit for a week and a half and look at ice. That’s what I thought going meant, and after meeting a carpenter and a dishwasher who worked there before, I thought having a job would be the only way I’d ever visit the continent. I also don’t care about going to all seven continents or checking off places, as I travel for experiences and enjoyment, not for checking off lists — so that was never a motivation for me to go either.
When I was hanging out in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I met up with a couple who had just gone to Antarctica, and they mentioned walking on land, which I didn’t know you could do. That evening at the hostel I was staying at, a person told me about last-minute cruise deals — he got his for $5500, originally priced at $19k. I didn’t know that was possible either.
My perspective of visiting Antarctica was shifting. Being able to walk on land seemed more interesting, and there wasn’t a better time for me to look into last-minute deals. I have flexible time (even though I’m working, I have a ton of vacation days in the bank), I’m in the area, and I can look for these deals. I had heard whispers of going to Ushuaia (where the cruises depart) and looking around for cruise deals there, but the person at the hostel told me he contacted various agencies. So I figured this would likely be a good opportunity and low-key started searching online.
A few agencies got back to me with last-minute deals, and the ones that caught my eye were: a flyover (flying over the Drake passage, a notorious passing that causes heavy seasickness) cruise, a luxury cruise that had amazing-looking rooms and amenities that was originally $18k and I got quoted for less than $5k, and the cruise I went on that includes activities like mountaineering, kayaking, and camping, discounted about 23%. Other cruises either don’t have the activities or is hundreds of dollars to do on top of the cruise payment itself (most have kayaking for additional fees but not the other activities).
When I found out that I could do activities on Antarctica, I knew that’d likely be the one I take. The cruise was run by Oceanwide Expeditions, and the ship I boarded was the M/V Ortelius, 107 passengers, 58 crew (guides, housekeeping, cooks, servers, captain, etc). I booked it through Wayfinders, an agency that had excellent reviews, speedy and patient responses, and gave free items (beanie, buff, free waterproof pants and gloves rental, along with postcards, a bag, and a book about birds).
After I decided to go, I asked a bunch of friends and my parents if they wanted to come, because I figured two weeks without internet would be very long without people to talk to. Of course, I know there are people on the cruise to talk to, but in case I don’t click with anyone, it would be an extremely long two weeks. My mom and a friend ended up coming along with me, also last-minute; my mom booked hers about two weeks before the cruise. I’m glad my mom came because she brought a bunch of clothes from home for me, otherwise I likely would’ve needed to buy or rent clothes.
When my mom booked hers three days after I booked mine, the price had dropped $1700, so she got a discount of 38%. She kept trying to ask the agency whether I could get mine at a discount, but the cruise company said no. In the end, she successfully asked for a room upgrade and we got moved up from a twin porthole (a hole in the wall but not a window) to a twin window. The price difference between these two is usually $400, so it didn’t seem like a big deal to me. What we found out however is that the room we got is a lot bigger and has free movies, which wasn’t advertised. I’m very happy my mom got the upgrade!
I shouldn’t have been worried about having nobody to talk to, although I had guessed all of this before boarding. Since this cruise is a bit more adventurey with the activities included, it likely attracts people who are a bit more active, younger, and outdoorsy, compared to tours that don’t let passengers off or just do landings (walking around). I talked to so many people on the boat, a lot of long-term travelers, many solo travelers, and almost everyone already does a lot of outdoor activities back at home. This cruise certainly attracts a certain type of person, and the expedition leader (person who plans everything for the cruise) said this one I’m on in particular has a higher percentage of last-minute bookers than other cruises she has led for this company.
Also, because this ship has hostel-style rooms where there are 2, 3, or 4 beds in one room and a person can book just one bed, there were many solo travelers. Other cruises are designed for 2 people per room, so if you’re solo, you usually have to pay a single supplement that’s 1.5x or 1.7x the price of one person.
The people on this boat do a big variety of jobs as well, and even though I really don’t like talking or asking about work, others have and I’ve heard about people’s jobs. I didn’t meet another digital nomad nor another software engineer though, which is somewhat surprising to me (although to be fair, I didn’t ask everyone what their jobs are). Seeing people passionate about their jobs (mainly the crew) made me reflect on my own job more deeply, and maybe I’ll finally make a move, not sure.
I really appreciated the environment of talking to people, because nobody was on their phones (we were given 200 MB of free wifi which I didn’t know we would be getting). For the meals, you could sit at any table and chat, and this is how ordinary life should be. People focused on each other, on conversation, not on phones. It’s so refreshing, but it also sucks that it’s only for two weeks and people will get stuck back on their devices after getting back to reality.
As for the actual cruise, my experience was a good one; the dramatically enormous mountains and glaciers, abundance of penguins, seals, and whales, amazing staff and comfortable rooms on the cruise ship, constantly delicious meals, talks about various animals and glaciers and climate change, interesting and unique people as mentioned already, many long-term travelers.
The cruise was Mar 4–16, first day was embarkation in the afternoon and setting sail, and the last day was disembarkation in the morning right after breakfast. The two days right after embarkation and right before disembarkation were spent crossing the Drake passage, one of the most notoriously known passages to cross in the world. We were extremely lucky and had smooth sailing across both times, but I still took the medicine patch for seasickness prevention. Since we couldn’t leave the boat during these two days, there were many required safety briefings on the way there for the various activities as well as lectures on various topics on the way back. I was extremely worried before boarding the boat about being bored those days and hence downloaded a bunch of podcasts and books, but that was unnecessary; time flew by, I watched movies during the downtime (watched 6 in total!). I was pretty tired on the way there, a bit better on the way back.
The middle 7 days (Mar 7–13, inclusive) were spent in the Antarctic peninsula. In comparison to other cruises, this cruise spends a few extra days in the continent, which is beneficial because weather can change so quickly and what we’re able to do changes accordingly. I was wondering what we would do for 7 days but they all passed by eventfully, and being surrounded in this environment for longer is a different experience.
We made landings on the continent and islands on the western peninsula usually in the morning, looking at various seals and bushtail penguins: chinstraps, gentoos, and adeles, as well as historic sites like Damoy Hut (built for expeditioners back in the day where flights couldn’t reach further into Antarctica, so take a boat to the hut, stay in it to wait for good weather, and then fly the rest of the way), an old whaling station at Deception Island (where we could see the boilers, storage, hanger, and living quarters), and a shipwreck. Icebergs, glaciers, big mountains everywhere, and on the last day, we visited an active volcano and hiked along one of the calderas.
In most afternoons, we cruised around on zodiacs to look for animals, ranging from whales to seals to penguins. A particularly memorable (even for guides who have been doing this for many years) afternoon was a humpback whale floating right next to our zodiac, so close that we could touch it (but of course you’re not allowed to). There were four zodiacs around, and this humpback went to visit each zodiac, floating next to it. It was amazing, and it turned into a whale-watching session that cannot be beat.
After the afternoon activities, there would be a recap of the day, and various guides would talk about specific topics related to what we saw (a specific animal, glacier, etc). We would also be briefed on the next day’s plan and weather, although the plan was always subject to change based on weather conditions. A list of those doing activities the next day would also be posted.
For a long time in terms of activities, I was most excited about kayaking and on the fence about camping. The activities were split amongst everyone over the days we were in Antarctica, as we all signed up for what we wanted to do — a few mountaineers and kayakers per day, and a huge group of campers one night along with the rest another night.
I didn’t have any activities until mountaineering on day 3 of being in Antarctica (Mar 9), and during the mountaineering briefing on the first Drake passage day, we filled out forms on fitness level and whether we had hard shoes that could fit crampons. I was put into a group of people with high fitness levels but no mountaineering shoes, so we went in the muck boots (waterproof shoes) the cruise provided and attached snowshoes to them. We went up a hill for about an hour or an hour and a half, avoiding crevasses, tied to a rope. It was very enjoyable to go walk around outside for an extended period of time, uphill. The view at the top wasn’t a view I didn’t already have before, but it was peaceful to be away from people.
The day after, we did a polar plunge. I had heard about polar plunges on other cruises but I wasn’t sure if we were going to do it on this boat. We did, and it was extremely refreshing but cold. We changed on shore, then walked into the water from there. Other boats put you on a string and have you jump off from somewhere on the boat, but this boat isn’t built for that. Plus, this way is much more efficient, many people can go at once. I had so much energy the entire day afterward, it was great! I don’t know why this never in my mind was a question on whether I’d do it or not but camping was a big question mark.
I had camping in the second wave of campers, and I’m pretty glad for this because I got tips from the first wave — bring a pillow, be early so you can get a shovel and not need to wait, wear socks, and people weren’t cold. I was on the fence for a long time, but after hearing people’s experiences of not being cold, I was a bit more convinced to go do it. My only concern then was being scheduled for kayaking immediately after returning back from camping, but thankfully, that didn’t happen. We almost didn’t get to go camping due to wind, but the guides found a good spot out of the wind, a spot where not many people have likely camped.
Each person was given a bag with two mats, a sleeping bag suitable for -20 degrees Celsius, and a liner. Upon arrival, we dug a hole in which we would lay out our sleeping setup, and the night was quite peaceful. The sky wasn’t very clear so we couldn’t really see many stars like the first group, and the silence except for the ocean waves and breaking glaciers was deafening. I had a pretty good night’s sleep although it took me a while to fall asleep each time I woke up. Before I knew it, the guide was telling us to get up, and one of the first thoughts I had was: I would do this again (contrary to a lot of other people), which then led me to think that I probably can try normal camping because it can’t be worse than this.
Kayaking was my last activity, and due to weather, it was canceled the morning I was scheduled. We were then rescheduled to that afternoon, even though the waves were a bit rough. We took a zodiac out to where we were going to kayak, and we made it to the calm waters. Unfortunately, the zodiac engine decided to fail at that time and we ended up floating there for a while, trying to avoid the icebergs coming our way. Eventually, another zodiac came out to help fix ours, and by the time it was fixed, the guide had decided we’ll go another day. So we went the next day, which had beautiful weather. I was glad that ours got postponed because the water was so much calmer without the high winds. We saw a shipwreck, some seals, and some penguins, and the kayaks were really easy to navigate. It was so peaceful out there.
In the end, I think mountaineering was my favorite activity, and it was the first time I’ve ever snowshoed. Being away from people and doing a longer, steep-ish walk was a pleasant break from the other walks we’ve been doing. A close second was the polar plunge because I was super energized from it, and I would happily do it again!
Between the landings, activities, and zodiac cruises, we had amazing food, 3 meals a day. Breakfast and lunch were always buffet, dinner was plated and the crew would come around during lunch to take our dinner order. Breakfast was usually eggs, meat, ramen, oatmeal, bread, pastries, various spreads like nutella and jam. Lunch would include a vegetarian dish and a meat dish, along with fresh lettuce and two cold mixed salads. Dinner always had a starter, a main (picking from vegetarian, a meat dish, or a fish one), and a dessert (usually some cake or fruit salad as choices). Food was generally very tasty and well made, and catering for 38 different nationalities cannot be an easy task.
All in all, I had a great experience. Except for the Drake passage days, I didn’t feel like I had a lot of downtime at all (just the way I like my life), and time started out slowly in the beginning but sped up at the end. About halfway through the entire journey, I started thinking about whether I would recommend people to come to Antarctica, and I wondered whether it should have been on my bucket list.
My conclusion was that unless one is super passionate about wildlife, extreme sports, or earth formations (like glaciers) that can only be found in Antarctica, the amount of money and time it takes to do this is not worth it. It costs thousands of dollars, and if one is short on time (lack of paid holidays from work) or money, this is not worth spending it on. That money is much more well-spent traveling for half a year (more or less, depending on one’s travel style), seeing a variety of places, and if one really wanted to, they could still go mountaineering, kayaking, and camping in similar conditions elsewhere in the world. The mountains and glaciers might not be as dramatic, but a few thousand dollars to see that or to check off a bucketlist item is not worth it.
Am I glad I went? Of course. Would I make the decision to go knowing what I know now? Not sure. I also don’t think this is one of the coolest trips I’ve had. Unique, yes, but coolest? Definitely the coldest, but not sure on coolest in the other sense of the word.
A common question people floated around the last days was if they’d do it again, and I won’t for the reasons I said above. Surprisingly, the expedition leader said usually, there’s 20–30% repeat Antarctica visitors on cruises, and in the seven years she has been doing this job, she has never encountered a boat like ours with only two people who have gone before.
My trip to Antarctica was definitely unique — unique compared to other adventures I’ve been on, unique in terms of the types of Antarctica cruises I could’ve chosen from; unique in that despite the late season which typically has bad weather, we got amazing weather and everyone got to do the activities they wanted to do; unique mix of people on board (a higher percentage of last-minute long-term travelers booking); unique experience generally speaking with the combination of wildlife and scenery. I’m grateful I met the people I did that got me onto this cruise, that I was in a position to take the opportunity to somewhat randomly go, and that I got to go. Now that I’m back on land and back to reality, I’m ready for the next adventure, although I’ll slightly miss not needing to constantly plan, make decisions, and figure out what to eat. But, hello warm weather and t-shirts!
PS Here are my photos if you want to see more — I consciously didn’t continuously snap photos so I’m very happy to say I only have ~200 photos from the trip. Here is a day-by-day account of my Antarctica trip (I wrote it daily while on the trip), and here is the trip log provided by the cruise staff.
(This article is shortlinked at tinyurl.com/tripantarctica)
