Special Savings:
- 30% Off on Oct 22 2025 departure
Photographic Special:
This voyage encompasses some of the most spectacular, wildlife-rich places in the world with magnificent scenery, making it the ultimate photographic adventure. Antarctica and South Georgia are truly other-worldly places that every photographer with a keen interest in wildlife, landscapes and adventure should visit at least once in a lifetime.
This voyage is deliberately timed to be early in the season to ensure pristine snowscapes, soft light and greater chances of breath-taking sunrises and sunsets. Nonetheless, you can expect the weather to be unpredictable and fast changing, but this can result in the most dramatic images if used to your advantage.
In terms of wildlife, we hope to encounter displaying albatrosses, courting and nesting penguins in their several thousands, beaches covered in jostling seals and an array of different whales and dolphins. You may even be lucky enough to see some of the enormous Southern Elephant Seal beachmasters duelling for supremacy in South Georgia. One thing is for sure, the photographic opportunities will be endless.
Days will be long with extended landing times, giving photographers ample time to create their master pieces whilst maximising the best photographic light at either end of the day.
The team will be carefully hand-picked to ensure we have the most competent Zodiac drivers who understand photographers’ requirements, whilst being on hand to give photographic guidance at crucial moments.
During our days at sea, there will be photographic tutorials, image review and editing sessions, alongside the regular programmes of wildlife, geographical and historical lectures to ensure the most rounded insight into these incredible destinations.
This truly is an expedition like no other, perfect for the avid photographer or wildlife enthusiast alike.
Day 1: Sandy Argentine beaches
You embark from Puerto Madryn in the afternoon, your prow aimed for the Falkland Islands.
Day 2 – 3: Sea life, sea birds
Day 4: Finding the Falklands
The Falkland Islands offer an abundance of wildlife that is easily approachable. During this segment of the voyage, you may visit the following sites:
Steeple Jason – Home to the world’s largest black-browed albatross colony (roughly 113,000), Steeple Jason is a wild and rarely visited island buffeted by wind and waves.
Carcass Island – Despite its name, this island is pleasantly rodent-free and hence bounteous with birdlife and many endemic species. Anything from breeding Magellanic penguins and gentoos to numerous waders and passerine birds (including Cobb’s wrens and tussock-birds) live here.
Saunders Island – On Saunders Island you can see the black-browed albatross and its sometimes-clumsy landings, along with breeding imperial shags and rockhopper penguins. King penguins, Magellanic penguins, and gentoos are also found here.
Day 5: The seat of Falklands culture
The capital of the Falklands and center of its culture, Port Stanley has some Victorian-era charm: colorful houses, well-tended gardens, and English-style pubs are all to be found here.
Day 6 – 7: Once more to the sea
En route to South Georgia, you now cross the Antarctic Convergence.
Day 8 – 11: South Georgia journey
Today you arrive at the first South Georgia activity site. Please keep in mind that weather conditions in this area can be challenging, largely dictating the program.
Sites you might visit include:
Salisbury Plain, St. Andrews Bay, Gold Harbour – These sites not only house the three largest king penguin colonies in South Georgia, they’re also three of the world’s largest breeding beaches for southern elephant seals. Only during this time of year do they peak in their breeding cycle. Watch the four-ton bulls keep a constant vigil (and occasionally fight) over territories where dozens of females have just given birth or are about to deliver. You can also see a substantial number of Antarctic fur seals here during the breeding season (December – January).
Fortuna Bay – A beautiful outwash plain from Fortuna Glacier is home to a large number of king penguins and seals. Here you may also have the chance to follow the final leg of Shackleton’s route to the abandoned whaling village of Stromness.
Grytviken – In this abandoned whaling station, king penguins walk the streets and elephant seals lie around like they own the place – because they basically do.
Day 12: Southward bound
Day 13: The scenic vistas of South Orkney
Depending on the conditions, you might visit Orcadas Base, an Argentine scientific station on Laurie Island in the South Orkney archipelago. The personnel here will happily show you their facility, where you can enjoy expansive views of the surrounding glaciers. If a visit isn’t possible, you may instead land at Signy Island’s Shingle Cove.
Day 14 - 15: Entering the Antarctic
Enormous icebergs and a fair chance of fin whale sightings ensure there’s never a dull moment on this last sea voyage south.
Day 16 – 18: Awe-inspiring Antarctica
If the ice conditions permit, you now sail into the Weddell Sea. Here colossal tabular icebergs herald your arrival to the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Paulet Island, with its large population of Adélie penguins, is a possible stop. You might also visit Brown Bluff, located in the ice-clogged Antarctic Sound, where you could get the chance to set foot on the Antarctic Continent itself.
If conditions aren’t favorable to enter the Weddell Sea from the east, the ship will set course for Elephant Island and head into the Bransfield Strait, between the South Shetland Island's and the Antarctic Peninsula.
The volcanic islands of the South Shetlands are windswept and often cloaked in mist, but they nonetheless offer many subtle pleasures.
On Half Moon Island, Chinstrap penguins and Weddell seals often haul out onto the beach near Cámara Base, an Argentine scientific research station.
On Deception Island, the ship plunges through Neptune’s Bellows and into the flooded caldera. Here you can find an abandoned whaling station, and thousands of cape petrels. A number of kelp gulls, brown skuas, south polar skuas, and Antarctic terns can be spotted too. Wilson’s storm petrels and black-bellied storm petrels also nest in the ruins of the whaling station in Whalers Bay. As an alternative, you can take part in activities near Telefon Bay, further inside the caldera.
Day 19 – 20: Familiar seas, familiar friends
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.
Day 21: Earth’s southernmost city
You arrive and disembark in Ushuaia, commonly held to be the world’s most southern city.
