The voyage begins in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Starting this afternoon, embark from Tierra del Fuego and sail the mountain-fringed Beagle Channel for the remainder of the evening. 

Over the next two days on the Drake Passage, enjoy some of the same experiences encountered by the great polar explorers who first charted these regions: cool salt breezes, rolling seas, and maybe even a fin whale spouting up sea spray. After passing the Antarctic Convergence – Antarctica’s natural boundary, formed when north-flowing cold waters collide with warmer sub-Antarctic seas – you are in the circum-Antarctic upwelling zone. Not only does the marine life change, the avian life changes too. Wandering albatrosses, grey-headed albatrosses, black-browed albatrosses, light-mantled sooty albatrosses, cape pigeons, southern fulmars, Wilson’s storm petrels, blue petrels, and Antarctic petrels are a few of the birds you might see.

Graystone peaks sketched with snow, towers of broken blue-white ice, and dramatically different wildlife below and above. You first pass the snow-capped Melchior Islands and Schollaert Channel, sailing between Brabant and Anvers Islands.

The intended route for this Antarctic adventure includes:

Danco Island– Activities here may focus on the gentoo penguins nesting on the island, in addition to the Weddell and crabeater seals that can be found nearby. 

Neko Harbour – An epic landscape of mammoth glaciers and endless wind-carved snow, Neko Harbour offers opportunities for a Zodiac cruise and landing that afford the closest views of the surrounding alpine peaks.

Paradise Bay – You could take a Zodiac cruise in these sprawling, ice-flecked waters, where there's a good chance to encounter humpback and minke whales. 

Pleneau & Petermann Islands - If the ice allows it, sail through the Lemaire Channel in search of Adelie penguins and blue-eyed shags. There is also a possibility to encounter humpback and minke whales, as well as leopard seals. 

Port Lockroy - After sailing through the Neumayer Channel, possibly get the chance to visit the former British research station- now a museum and post office- of Port Lockroy on Goudier Island. Also, be able to partake in activities around Jougla Point, meeting gentoo penguins and blue-eyed shags. There are great opportunities also for kayaking and camping here, and when conditions are right, even snowshoe around the shore. 

Wilhelmina Bay & Guvernoren - This is a great place to spot humpback whales. Also, embark on a zodiac cruise ending at the ghostly wreck on Guvernoren, a whaling vessel that caught fire here in 1915. Around the Melchoir Islands, amid a frozen landscape peopled with icebergs, encounter more whales, leopard seals and crabeater seals. 

Conditions on the Drake Passage determine the exact time of departure.

The return voyage is far from lonely. While crossing the Drake, be greeted again by the vast array of seabirds remembered from the passage south. But the animals seem a little more familiar to you now and you to them. 

Every adventure, no matter how grand, must eventually come to an end. It’s now time to disembark in Ushuaia, but with memories that will accompany you wherever your next adventure lies.