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Antarctica Cruise Watch-Outs. 8 Things Brochures Don't Warn You About
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Jan 28, 2025
Discover 8 important watch-outs and things you need to know about doing a cruise to Antarctica. It is on many traveller’s bucket lists, and it is a magnificent experience. However, there are at least 8 things that the brochures and websites encouraging and advertising Antartica cruises do not always talk about or make clear to potential cruisers. I share the 8 things that I think you really need to know about Antarctica cruising. It is a very costly travel experience and before you spend at least $10,000 per traveller to go you need to know these Note: I travelled as a regular are-paying traveller whilst making this video Check out cruising merchandise like T-shirts at my store at https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/store Support the channel by booking your next cruise and for the best deals on CRUISEDIRECT.COM: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/CruiseDirectYT Follow Tips For Travellers on: - Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge #Antarctica #AntarcticaCruise #AntarcticaTravel
View Video Transcript
0:00
you're about to discover eight really
0:02
big watch outs if you're dreaming of
0:05
considering or planning going on and
0:07
Arctica cruise hi I'm Gary beverage and
0:10
this is another of my tips for travelers
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I'm going to give you eight big watch
0:13
outs that I really wish I had known a
0:15
lot about before I went on this amazing
0:17
experience the first thing you need to
0:20
know is that don't tenant arctica is
0:22
going to cost you a lot of money expect
0:25
to spend ten thousand dollars and
0:27
upwards to go to Antarctica and you
0:30
could be spending twenty thirty forty
0:32
thousand dollars if you really want to
0:33
go in luxury and at peak times and
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there's a number of key costs to that
0:38
the first is the cruise itself and even
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the cheapest that you're likely to find
0:42
is around about six thousand five
0:45
hundred US dollars secondly you're going
0:48
to have to get to shire in the southern
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tip of Argentina ninety percent of
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people who go to Antarctica will leave
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from you shia so most of the cruisers
0:57
will depart from here now normally
0:59
people can either go to boris aires then
1:01
come down to a shire or what a lot of
1:03
the cruise companies will do is they you
1:06
fly to santiago and they have a charter
1:07
flight from santiago chile to a shire
1:09
because that's one of the closest hub
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airports that there are thirdly you're
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going to have to buy or rent very
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specific equipment so you're going to
1:18
need various layers boots
1:20
you're gonna need gloves hats whole
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bunch of equipment that you're going to
1:24
need to go to Antarctica now there could
1:26
be some other costs so for example on
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silver sea they include kayaking as part
1:32
of your fare however most other
1:34
expedition cruises if you want to do
1:36
things like kayaking there's an
1:37
additional charge and of course then you
1:39
have other expenses on board like the
1:42
laundry Wi-Fi but assume as a starting
1:45
point that it's going to cost you at
1:47
least ten thousand US dollars to go to
1:50
the Antarctic per person the second key
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thing is there is a very limited amount
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of time of the year that you can
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actually visit Antarctica
1:58
so the Corps season really is December
2:01
January and February now some cruises
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will start going towards the end of
2:05
October and start up during November but
2:07
there is hour of ice till then the
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season really ends for most companies
2:12
at the first week of March some will go
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a little bit later December Gerry is the
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peak time it's when it's that's warmest
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so between five to minus five degrees
2:20
Celsius long days 20 hours of daylight
2:23
this is when prices are the highest and
2:25
you need to book way in advance if you
2:27
want to go at this time the third thing
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you need to understand is when people
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talk about cruising - Antarctica's is
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very specific part that you go to now
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there's a number of different
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itineraries the classic Antarctica
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cruise goes from a shy across a straight
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passage spend some time in the south
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shetland islands then moves across to
2:44
the peninsula that's where most of those
2:46
cruises go to so you'll have two days
2:49
crossing Drake's passage five or so days
2:52
on the South Shetland Islands and the
2:54
anti-dependence sure and then two days
2:56
back so it's normally around about ten
2:58
deta the second most popular trip is the
3:01
one which includes South Georgia and the
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Falklands these tend to be up to two
3:06
weeks or longer and it's a much broader
3:08
and more diverse itinerary but of course
3:11
it's longer and it will cost you much
3:13
more money my next big watcher is be
3:17
extremely cautious and careful about
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what size ship and watch cruise line you
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go with now there's basically three key
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ways that you can see Antarctica one is
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on research ships which are very small
3:29
and pretty rough and ready kind of
3:32
experience you then have your expedition
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ships and these tend to be quite a wide
3:37
range of ships but they will be quite
3:39
small around 200 passengers or less then
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the third way of doing it is on much
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bigger ships which could have 500 or
3:45
more passengers and they tend to be the
3:47
much more classic cruise ships and they
3:50
will tend to be more classic cruise
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ships so the expedition ships and
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research ships will be
3:54
ice-class ships designed to deal with
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the sea ice now very importantly in my
4:00
view you have not visited Antarctica
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unless you go on an expedition ship or a
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research ship if you go on a bigger ship
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you will not do any landings the
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regulations in Antarctica say that early
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ships of around 200 guests can actually
4:14
do landings only 100 people can be on a
4:17
landing site at any one time so the big
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ships will come down to Antarctica and
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they will do some scenic cruising but
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if you really want to content article
4:26
you need to go on a smaller ship they
4:29
will also have the capacity to go much
4:31
deeper down into the peninsula where
4:33
there are more icebergs ice and sea ice
4:35
and you can very importantly do the
4:37
landings don't just come turned arctica
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in my view are a big ship so you can
4:41
tick the box saying you've seen it
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because seeing Antarctica and stepping
4:45
on land and going and moving amongst the
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wildlife is very different to just
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sailing by and having a look at the
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incredible scenery also very importantly
4:54
not only because of the cost but also
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because some of the restrictions is it's
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really as an adult activity most
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companies will not let kids under the
5:03
age of 8 or 6 onto the zodiacs which
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means that they will then spend the
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whole time on the ship with no kids
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facilities it is very much an adult
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experience so if you do have kids that
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you want to take to Antarctica you I
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recommend you really wait until they're
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in their teens or even older before you
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actually go with them to Antarctica
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probably the biggest watch out about
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going to Antarctica is the getting there
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and the getting back you have to spend
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up to two days on Drake Passage crossing
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from a shire to the South Shetland
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Islands to start exploring Drake's
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passage has some of the roughest if not
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the roughest seas in the world it
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doesn't matter what time of the year you
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go there's not a time of the year where
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it's better or worse and it can be very
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very rough so what you need to do is
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assume that for two days there's a
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strong chance that you're going to have
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rough seas now you couldn't be lucky and
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have what's known as Drake Lake but most
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of the times you're likely to have Drake
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shake we were very lucky are not
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crossing both there and coming back we
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had pretty good crossing we had swells
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of 4 to 5 metres but it can be much
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higher than that they do build in at
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least two full days now if you have good
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weather you'll actually find your time
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in Antarctica to be slightly longer
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because they can get there little bit
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quicker but getting there
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assume that the sea is going to be rough
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make sure that you've taken all the
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precautions make sure that you're well
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prepared the key watch out is you need
6:27
to have very specific gear first of all
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you're going to need layers layering is
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absolutely key to dealing with the cold
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in Antarctica also because you can layer
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up and layer down if things get warmer
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like you're hiking
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a big mountain first of all you have a
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base layer which is sort of like long
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johns and equivalent to top you then
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have a sort of insulation layer which
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could be as simple as a pair of jeans
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some sort of sweatshirt then on top of
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that you then need a waterproof less you
6:55
need waterproof trousers and you need a
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waterproof parka jacket now many of the
6:59
cruise companies will actually provide a
7:01
parka because they want it to be a
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bright red color so when you go on
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landings they're able to spot you very
7:07
easily on land you're also going to need
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very thick socks you're going to need
7:11
very specific boots and there need to be
7:13
high boots which come up to almost your
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knee level because a lot of the landings
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that you do will be into water you're
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also going to need what I recommend some
7:21
inner gloves and thin inner gloves and
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then a couple of sets of waterproof big
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chunky gloves also some sort of neck
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gaiter not a scarf it's better have a
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neck gaiter because also you can pull it
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up you need a good hat which covers your
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ears you ears get really cold good pair
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of sunglasses it's very bright bear in
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mind you do need to bring this gear
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yourself because the ship will not have
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it for you you won't be able to get it
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on board another really important watch
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art is nothing is guaranteed and you
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need to be very flexible and open
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antarctica weather and conditions change
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very rapidly the ice moves very rapidly
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and weather does chop and change like
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crazy so nothing is guaranteed there is
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a rough plan of what you're going to do
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this goal of places you're going to go
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and see but it could constantly change
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so bear in mind there is always a risk
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that you're gonna spend a lot of money
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you're gonna head down to Antarctica and
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it just isn't going to work out and you
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just cannot get upset because they will
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do whatever they can to get you to
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places but obviously it's a wild part of
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the world but be prepared to be flexible
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and be prepared that things may just not
8:28
go at all to plan Antarctica is one of
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the most incredible places in the world
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I would strongly recommend that you put
8:35
it on your list and start saving to go
8:38
I'd love it if you watch many more of my
8:41
tips or traveler's videos they're
8:42
designed to help you make the most of
8:44
your very precious travel time and money
8:46
will it's on land it's on sea or it's on
8:49
the rivers of the world
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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