Antarctic cruises

Antarctic Peninsula

Ushuaia - Ushuaia

Aboard the Plancius.

The Antarctic Peninsula offers you the most dramatic scenery and biggest variety of wildlife in Antarctica. In the southern summer large ice-free areas provide breeding grounds for very large numbers of seabirds and seals. After exploring Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, we sail out along the Beagle Channel and across the Drake Passage.

Icebergs become a familiar sight as the ship approaches Antarctica. The South Shetland Islands were discovered in 1819 and lie parallel to the Antarctic Peninsula, separated by the deep-water Bransfield Strait. From King George Island and Penguin Island we will sail down to the beautiful Paradise Bay, where you can go ashore on the Antarctic mainland.

Sailing on south we hope to pass through the narrow and spectacular Lemaire Channel, surrounded by mountains and glaciers and a popular passage for several species of whales travelling up and down the sheltered waterways of the Antarctic Peninsula. Here Minke Whales, the smallest of the rorqual whales, and ferocious-looking Leopard Seals are common.

Returning to Ushuaia across the Drake Passage, a multitude of seabirds follow the ship, including several species of albatross and petrel.