Classic Antarctica 10 days (season 2025/2026/2027)

Board the ship in the afternoon and meet with your expedition team and lecturers. Once you've settled into your cabins, we'll set sail along the famous Beagle Channel and scenic Mackinlay Passage. 

Named after the great explorer Sir Francis Drake, who sailed these waters in 1578, Drake Passage is also the site of the Antarctic Convergence, a biological barrier where cold polar waters sink beneath warm northern waters. This creates a powerful upward movement of nutrients that supports the region's biodiversity. The Drake Passage is also the northern limit for many Antarctic seabirds. As we sail through the strait, lecturers will be with you on deck to assist in identifying the amazing variety of seabirds, including the many albatrosses that follow us. The ship's "open bridge" policy allows you to join our officers on the bridge, learn navigation, whale watch and enjoy the view. A program of lectures will be offered additionally.

The first sights of icebergs and snow-capped mountains indicate that we have reached the South Shetland Islands, a group of twenty islands and islets first discovered in February 1819 by Captain William Smith of the Williams. If conditions in the Drake Passage are favorable, our lecturers and naturalists will take you to land where you will meet penguins and seals on the third day.

The South Shetland Islands are a true haven for wildlife, with vast penguin nesting grounds and beaches where Antarctic fur seals and southern elephant seals reign supreme. Swimming through the narrow passage into the flooded caldera of Deception Island is breathtaking. The largest of the South Shetland Islands, King George Island, is home to Gentoo and Chinstrap penguin breeding grounds, kelp gulls, Antarctic terns, and southern giant petrels. It also hosts scientific bases from different countries. Look out for Weddell and Gentoo penguins, as well as elephant seals on Livingston Island.

The history of the Antarctic Peninsula is filled with events that add excitement to your journey, mirroring the experiences of the first explorers. You'll have plenty of time to explore the amazing landscape — an unspoiled wilderness of snow, ice, mountains, and waterways — and an incredible diversity of wildlife. Alongside penguins and seabirds, you're likely to see Weddell, crabeater, and leopard seals, as well as orcas, killer whales, and humpback whales.

We hope to navigate some of the most beautiful waterways (ice conditions permitting): the Gerlache Strait, the Neumayer Channel, and the Lemaire Channel, all narrow passages between towering rock faces and stunning glaciers. We plan to make at least two landings per day, with potential landing sites including Paradise Bay, where we plan a continental landing. After sailing through iceberg-strewn waters, we hope to visit bustling colonies of Adelie penguins (over 100,000 breeding pairs) and blue-eyed cormorants on Paulet Island. The Nordenskiöld expedition built a stone survival hut here in 1903; today, its ruins are occupied by nesting penguins.

Further exploration may take you to Melchior Island, Cuverville Island, Pléneau Island, and other islands if ice conditions permit, and to Petermann Island to visit the southernmost colony of Gentoo penguins.

We leave Antarctica and head north through the Drake Passage. Join our lecturers and naturalists on deck as we look for seabirds and whales, and attend our final lectures. Take the opportunity to relax and reflect on the exciting adventures of the past days as we sail back to Ushuaia.

Returning to Ushuaia.

We arrive at the port of Ushuaia early in the morning and disembark from the “USHUAIA” ship after breakfast.

This information is intended to answer your questions about the ship and life on board.