Antarctica tours with a flight over Drake Passage
in Antarctica
My reluctant traveler has revealed that he might like to visit Antarctica, but gets terribly sea-sick. I see there are tours out there that fly over the Drake Passage instead of cruising.
If you've been on one and enjoyed it, would you kindly PM me please. thanks.
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Haven't been, but I just saw this ad in a magazine. In case you're still looking. This isn't meant as an endorsement of any kind, just information. 😀
These type of tours have been available for a while. Still not worth it to me.
Silversea offers some, also. They are more expensive than a ship cruise. I think they offer a few where you use the ship one way and an aircraft the other way. There are probably other operators. I have done a trip to Antarctica with Silversea, but not the flights - just the ship. Silversea did a good job.
Here's a link where they describe it - https://www.silversea.com/lp-fly-to-antarctica.html
I’m not going to do someone else’s homework, but I looked at this option a couple years ago. You can avoid the Drakes Passage, but you cannot avoid the boat. The place where the airplane lands, and the place where you board the boat are not the same … there is no Uber. The trip I looked at required the guest to walk with their luggage for a mile or so after landing to get to the boat. Perhaps that is no longer the case, but it sounded pretty ‘sporty’ for an older person. It was also quite expensive. We had rougher seas near the Antarctic Peninsula than anything we experienced during the crossing of the Drake’s Passage, but we had an unusually smooth crossing. I would suggest that if seasickness is a serious problem, Antarctica might not be your trip. You might also consider that the only way you are getting off this ship is in a Zodiac boat … and then you will wade ashore.
No Uber in Antarctica?!
I do appreciate the suggestions! I had seen those tours and if we do go, Nat Geo is worth looking in to.
I mainly was asking if anyone had done one of these kinds of trips and enjoyed it.
Gentler seas such as Alaska cruises, which we've done, should not be a problem and we've done Zodiaks, but the Drake passage would be different.
We do have a "plan B" so all good.
Thanks everyone.
Wan- We are considering this type of trip as well. Send me a PM if you go and think the trip is worthwhile.
I wish I could remember the company I saw that was featured on a TV show. It flew to Antarctica missing the Drake Passage to King George Island and there was even a built in component whereby you arrived in South America several days before incase your planned schedule flight was canceled because of bad weather, so you could go another day and not miss your boat. Here is one company I found just now. https://www.aurora-expeditions.com/expedition/antarctic-peninsula-fly-the-drake/ ( I’m not sure we are supposed to post direct links)
SeaLord is joking about carrying your suitcases for a mile.
My feeling is that Tauck will eventually have a fly option.
If like me, Antarctica does not excite you for other reasons than the Drake Passage, then I recommend an extensive trip to Patagonia. We went with Tauck several years ago and loved it. We wanted to go again and recently returned after traveling with another company which visited many more places including Tierra Del Fuego, Martillo Island where we walked amongst two types of penguins ( with no snow and ice and no poop smell) and our day at the Perito Moreno glacier also included the boat ride right up to the glacier, Valparaiso…These being some of the highlights. The tour includes hikes, even up the sides of a volcano, so you have to be fit. PM me if you would like more details.
But like I said, I’m sure Tauck will offer a flight option someday. I suggest people call Tauck and express interest in this.
For me, going to Antarctica just because it completes a visit to all seven continents is not a good enough reason.
Here’s a timely article on Polar travel on the BBC this morning. One thing mentioned is selfies with animals. On Martillo Island, our naturalist said that if he saw anyone taking a selfie by a penguin, the tour would end immediately.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250314-visiting-antarctica-or-the-arctic-heres-how-to-minimise-your-impact
Look at Qwark Expeditions for the fly over options.
British beautiful pictures
My wife and I were on the Tauck Patagonia tour in October of 2024. Really a good tour! When we got home we decided to finally go to Antarctica. Like some here, I do not do well in heavy seas, so our research led us to Silversea. We'll be flying to King George Island and getting on the ship there. We do return over the Drake though! But my feeling is...ok, I get the full trip in before I have to deal with that, hah. This is not the place to post a review of Silversea, but when we've done the trip I'll drop a note on my drake crossing. We are not doing this until Feb 2027 though.
British you photos are amazing! Agree, Patagonia is amazing and deserves another in-depth look.
Yes, I had also seen Qwark. British had already tipped me off that the flyover tours were expensive, it looks like you pay at least $3-5,000 pp extra for this luxury.
Hopefully Tauck will offer a flyover of the Drake, but so many people love to cruise, and love boats, that I suspect we will age out before that happens.
Anyway, we are not heartbroken. Like a friend said, "You can't go everywhere". Which is true.
We recently returned from a SilverSeas Antarctica cruise including South Georgia Island. We returned via the Drake which was a bit rocky. Phenomenal trip with incredible wildlife and scenery. Highly recommend and enjoy the beauty of the seas.
JimFlorida, Nice photos. What was your camera and lens combo?
JimFlorida, did you fly over the Drake in one direction then? How was that, including landing and getting to the boat?
It's Quark Expeditions. Their ship, the Ultramarine, is beautiful, very comfortable and built specifically for polar expeditions. Quark's expedition that crosses the Antarctic Circle still ranks #2 of all the trips I've taken.
This trip is on our BucketList and MIL (from these forums) told me about Quark Expeditions - we are looking into them for when we do this trip in a few yrs (prob after we retire). Glad to see a good review of Quark here.
Ben, I use a low end Nikon D3400 with 200 mm and standard lense.