Antarctica

Trip Details

  • Total trip time: 14 days in February 2020

Itinerary

  • Day 1: Flight Detroit –> Atlanta –> Santiago
  • Day 2: Day in Santiago, Chile
  • Day 3: Flight to Usuaia, Argentina, board the ship
  • Day 4-5: At Sea
  • Day 5: Snow Island landing
  • Day 6: Mikklelson Harbor landing & Cierva Cove zodiac cruise
  • Day 7: Gonzales Videla Station landing & Paradise Bay kayaking
  • Day 8: Pleneau Island zodiac cruise, Polar Plunge, & Petterman Island landing
  • Day 9: Niko Harbor kayaking
  • Day 10: Half Moon Island landing & Yankee Harbor landing
  • Day 11: At sea
  • Day 12: Ushuaia, Argentina
  • Day 13-14: Fly Ushuaia –> Santiago –> Atlanta –> Detroit

Links:

The Cruise

  • Cruise line: Silversea Expeditions
  • Ship: Silver Cloud
  • Route: Charter flight Santiago–>Ushuaia–>9 days at sea–>Ushuaia–>Charter flight to Santiago

Pre/Post Cruise

  • Santiago, Chile
    • We had about 20 hours (10am-6am)in Santiago before being chartered to Ushuaia for the cruise
    • Hotel: Mandarine Oriental Hotel- Booked with the cruise
    • Parque Arauco- a mall within waking distance of the hotel where we ate lunch and walked around with all the high end designer stores as well as local low end shops
    • In the evening, we had a cruise welcome reception at the hotel and then ate dinner at the hotel restaurant
    • I would not recommend planning a tour or any activities in Santiago because you never know how long it will take to get through customs and check into the hotel/cruise (it took us over 4 hours from landing to get to our hotel room), and we had to wake up at 3:30am the next morning to leave
  • Ushuaia, Argentina
    • When we arrived, there was an arranged bus tour and local lunch (restaurant was Las Cotorras) arranged which the ship was preparing for us to embark – not much time spent here
    • On the way home, we got a bonus day here since our captain took us through the Drake Passage in half the time it usually takes
      • That day, I had bunch at a cute cafe in town called Tante Sara Pastelería & Restó, which was delicious
      • Ushuaia is super touristy so lots of shops for souvenirs
      • There were options to take a train ride to Tierra del Fuego National Park or hike a mountain, but the weather wasn’t great so I stayed and explored the local town
    • Tourist tip: The visitor center in Ushuaia will stamp your passport for free with a cute penguin stamp for The End of the World

Timing

  • Considering we were only on Antarctica for 5.5 days, it didn’t seem like it was that short and it was 100% worth it

Other Tips

  • The Drake Passage
    • The Drake Passage is historically the roughest waters in the world. I was really nervous because of that, but all of my research said that no matter how bad the water is, it is worth it
    • Bring lots of meds (Dramamine, Scopolamine patches, ginger, sea sickness bands, etc), but know that you could still get sick even taking ALL precautions
  • Make sure all of your cameras/phones have wrist or neck straps – these are super helpful and didn’t make me as nervous when I had to get in and out of the zodiacs over water or when kayaking
  • Money- Maybe a few Pesos for your time in Santiago and Ushuaia, but otherwise, if you go on an all inclusive ship, no cash is needed
  • Vaccines- none needed
  • Visa- none needed
  • Phone/wifi- No matter how good of wifi they tell you there is or that you can pay to upgrade to better connection, know that there is almost non-existent wifi while on the ship. Facetime and WhatsApp work okay for calling/video chat, but don’t plan on sending any messages, pictures, scrolling/posting on social media, or browsing the web

Blog

See all my Antarctica blog posts here!