Antarctica · 13 Days
Your Bucket List Era
This is THE bucket list trip—the one you'll tell stories about forever. Set sail for the last untouched wilderness on Earth aboard the award-winning Swan Hellenic expedition ship. From Buenos Aires' glamour to Antarctica's pristine ice cathedrals and massive penguin colonies, this expedition is the ultimate flex. Our standard rooms include private balconies, and you'll enjoy all-inclusive luxury as you cross the legendary Drake Passage. Join an exclusive club of humans who've touched the bottom of the world. If you're dreaming big, this is as big as it gets.
Dates
Private Trip
Duration
13 Days
Where
Buenos Aires, Ushuaia & Antarctic Peninsula
Travel with
Your own crew, privately
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Watch Film
Sound on.
The route
3 stops · 13 days
Buenos AiresUshuaiaAntarctic PeninsulaAccommodations
One night in Recoleta before the continent. The Alvear Art sits in Recoleta with contemporary art through every floor, and it is the correct way to spend the last night in a city before ten days of ice.
Ten nights aboard SH Minerva, Swan Hellenic's small luxury expedition ship: a balcony cabin, all meals and drinks included, a spa, and a team of naturalists, historians and photographers who make the difference between seeing Antarctica and understanding it. Zodiacs go ashore twice most days, weather permitting, and the weather decides.
The last night, and deliberately not in a hurry. Arakur sits in a nature reserve above Ushuaia with the Beagle Channel below, floor to ceiling glass, indoor and outdoor thermal pools, and a dining room with one of the great views in South America.
The Ship
A Sample Journey
This is a private trip, planned around your dates and your people, so every day below is a starting point rather than a schedule. Book a call and we will make it yours.
You are met at the airport and driven to the Alvear in Recoleta, where the afternoon is yours. This evening begins properly: a welcome cocktail reception, then a multi-course dinner paired with premium Argentine wines. Buenos Aires is the last warm night for a while, and the city knows how to give one.
A private guided tour of Buenos Aires this morning, through Recoleta and San Telmo and the neighbourhoods that made the city what it is. Then the charter flight south to Ushuaia, the last town before the continent, and embarkation. Your cabin has a balcony. The first night aboard is spent watching the Beagle Channel slide past.
The Drake Passage is the price of admission and it is worth paying. Six hundred miles of open water where the Atlantic and Pacific meet, and where the albatross begin. The enrichment programme starts today: naturalists, historians and photographers who will spend the crossing teaching you what you are about to see.
The water changes colour before the ice appears. Somewhere in the night you cross the Antarctic Convergence, where cold water meets warm and the whole ecosystem changes with it. Briefings, a fitting for expedition gear, and the growing sense that you are somewhere very far from anywhere.
Landfall. The South Shetland Islands are the doorstep of the peninsula, and the first Zodiac ashore is a moment people remember for the rest of their lives. Chinstrap and gentoo colonies, volcanic black sand, and a silence so complete it is disorienting.
Two landings today, chosen by the expedition leader that morning, because Antarctica decides the itinerary and not the other way around. This is the part nobody can plan and everybody remembers.
It was named by whalers, which tells you something, because they were not sentimental men. Glaciers come down to the water on three sides and the reflections are so still that the horizon disappears. Humpbacks feed here through the season.
Seven miles long and barely a mile wide, with cliffs rising straight from the water on both sides. Photographers call it Kodak Gap and they are not joking. The ship goes through slowly, and everyone is on deck, and nobody talks much.
A visit to a working research station, where scientists winter over in the dark for months at a time. They are generally delighted to see you. An afternoon landing follows, and an evening hosted by the Caviar in the Air team aboard.
One more landing, and the expedition team will have saved something for it. Take the morning slowly. Most people find they stop photographing on the final day and simply look, which is the right instinct.
The Drake in reverse, and it feels different going home. The enrichment programme finishes, the photographers help you sort what you shot, and the captain hosts a farewell dinner. Somewhere today the birds come back.
Disembark at the end of the world and climb to the Arakur, set above the town with the Beagle Channel laid out below. A gourmet lunch with curated wine pairings, an afternoon in the spa or the thermal pools, and a proper bed that does not move.
A final breakfast, a transfer to the airport, and the long way home. You will spend the flight trying to explain the light to someone, and you will not manage it. Nobody does.
The Details
Pricing
Private trip · quoted for your group
Join the waitlist and we will be in touch to plan it around your dates and your group.
Make it yours
Love what you see but the dates don't work? Want to bring your own crew and make it a private affair? Say less. We'll recreate this entire experience tailored to YOUR timeline, YOUR people, YOUR vibe. Same incredible moments, completely customized for you.
Waitlist for a Group TripPlan a Private TripDownload the brochureWords From Our Travelers
"What an Epic Expedition! This was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I left with an open mind anxious to learn about Antarctica and returned with an entire Antarctica Family whom I keep in touch with daily. Pictures do this expedition no justice. It's hard to explain this winter wonderland, you must experience it for yourself."
Karlton Kork Williams
Antarctica
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