Antarctica
- Two ways in: by air, or by sea through the Drake Passage
Travel to Antarctica is at an all-time high, but the crowded Antarctic Peninsula—reachable from Argentina in two days—is no longer the only option. East Antarctica, accessed from Australia or New Zealand, offers something closer to what the heroic-age explorers found: fewer ships, towering tabular icebergs, and the best chance to see emperor penguins. Aurora Expeditions’ purpose-built Douglas Mawson made its maiden voyage in December 2025, departing Hobart on itineraries that retrace Sir Douglas Mawson’s 1911 expedition; Scenic Tours’ Ross Sea voyage in January 2026 brings polar explorer Robert Swan aboard as lecturer. The journey takes about a week each way—hardly uneventful, moving from open ocean to pack ice and the 160-foot walls of the Ross Ice Shelf rising from cobalt depths. Shore excursions include Cape Adare, home to 330,000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins, and the preserved huts of Shackleton, Scott, and Mawson, now open-air museums. For those who’d rather skip the Drake altogether, White Desert flies guests from Cape Town to a private blue-ice runway in Queen Maud Land, where three camps—Whichaway, Echo, and Wolf’s Fang—accommodate just 12 guests each. Rates start around $70,000 for eight days, including South Pole flights, ice climbing and champagne in a glacier bar. Fewer than 500 people visit the Pole annually; this is how they do it.