The white A bucket list travel experience or most of the year the ‘White Continent’ of Antarctica is too cold and inhospitable to visit, but for a few short months, at the height of the polar summer it softens its icy grip enabling a variety of expeditiongrade ships of varying luxury to make their way across the Drake Passage, leaving the southern port of Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina to explore the Antarctic Peninsula in a round trip that might also include visits to some of the remote islands of the South Atlantic like South Georgia, South Orkney and of course, The Falklands. The North-West portion of the Antarctic Peninsula is the most frequently visited by expedition cruises and is home to many of the most popular landing sites. The Gerlache Strait is renowned for the stunning scenery with the snow covered mountains, as if covered in icing sugar, with numerous glaciers tumbling down to the sea. Being the most northerly part of the whole continent, the Peninsula enjoys the mildest Antarctic conditions, with temperatures in winter averaging a balmy -20 degrees C (-4 degrees F)! In the summer, things warm up to an average of just above freezing. Large areas of this part of the peninsula are ice-free in the early season, being important breeding and feeding grounds for many iconic Antarctic species. It's here that many of the historic Antarctic expeditions began, and where early military and scientific bases were first established, some of which you will be able to visit if conditions allow. These remarkable artefacts have been left as F Cloaked in glacial ice and surrounded by blue seas bursting with life, Antarctica is the last truly wild place on Earth. 32
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