Antarctica: Earth's final frontier

Spend a couple of relaxing days at sea before it’s land ahoy again, this time among the glaciated peaks and legendary exploration history of South Georgia. This is an island packed with otherworldly wildlife encounters you’ll get to experience, like a giant colony of king penguins stretching as far as the eye can see. For the more adventurous, you can leave the Zodiac behind you and kayak the frozen waters instead. If the Falklands and South Georgia were just appetisers, then it’s time for the main course: Antarctica itself. See some of its most legendary locations for yourself, starting with Elephant Island, where Ernest Shackleton and his men sought salvation during their expedition in 1916.

Your journey carries on south to the Antarctic Sound, where you’ll glide past huge tabular icebergs and Cape petrels soaring overhead and disembark to go hiking and kayaking in the real Antarctica you’ve dreamed about. You’ll wind back towards South America via the Antarctic Peninsula and its scientific research bases, cathedral-sized icebergs and cyan-tinted glaciers, with the opportunity to see them all close-up in a Zodiac or on foot. Spy more research stations and wildlife on the South Shetland Islands – the north-western tip of the Antarctic Peninsula – before fording the fabled waters of the Drake Passage as you head back to Ushuaia, satisfied with your all-encompassing immersion in the Seventh Continent.