Getting ready to tour Antartica in January 2026
Hi Friends,
I have been looking up some of the discussions regarding clothing for the trip. Several of you have stated that waterproof pants are necessary. I was wondering if by waterproof pants, are you referring to ski pants? I am a north east skier and figured those were the pants I was going to pack. Thoughts?
Regina
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Yep, ski pants are what you want to keep you both warm and dry.
Yes, ‘waterproof’ ski pants. Almost everything I brought for the Antarctica part of the trip came out of my ski bag. Bare in mind that it is summer in Argentina, so you need the opposite clothing … summer wear. The ship will issue you the boots as a loan, and a parka that you get to keep. All of the landings are ‘wet’ landings, the water will be near the top of the boots. I used boot liners, but my wife did not like them. She just used a couple pair of socks. Good gloves, hat, and sunscreen. Sun glasses. Also recommend a ‘gator’. We had great weather overall for our January trip, but some days were really really cold.
Thank you so very much for your quick and helpful response.
Could you explain the 100 person rotation on and off land? We are not the only persons on the boat and so how do they rotate people keeping in mind the regulations of Antarctica landings.
For Antarctica the ship is limited to 200 passengers, a little less than full capacity. Passengers are divided into two groups of 100. The first group is taken to the landing on zodiacs. An hour or so later, zodiacs make another trip to the landing, bringing the first group back to the ship and taking the second group to the landing. Usually this happens once in the morning and once in the afternoon, so everyone has two landings on a typical day.
I cannot remember the exact size of the tour groups, but it is relatively small. No where near a hundred … maybe fifteen to thirty. Definitely smaller on the Zodiac trip which were maybe fifteen people. You never saw a hundred people in one place. Another by the way, if you have ‘any’ walking problems bring a walking stick. The terrain can be difficult. In places you will be walking on rocks … worse than cobblestones.
My mom and I are going on the trip that starts on Jan 5. For taking a camera over to Antartica, will a water resistant camera bag (weather sealed camera) be sufficient or do I need to have it in a dry bag?
@AlanSmith When I went to Anarctica with a digital camera, I used a big Zip-Lock bag with a slide close. Sometimes when you are returning in the Zodiac the seas can be rough and you'll get salt spray into the Zodiac, especially in the front.
The Zip-lock worked fine for me.
You can see some of our Antarctica trip at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2021-2Antarctica-02.htm
[We were there in COVID time so you'll see a lot of masking. Some prep stuff (like clothing) is at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2021-2Antarctica-01.htm
If you're interested in the Shackleton Expedition, I cover that at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2021-2Antarctica-06.htm I thought the Shackelton expedition was pretty interesting.
We also went to the Falkland Islands and I do a very short discussion of the Falkland War at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2021-2Antarctica-07.htm ]
I was reading another forum recently and the ziplock bag aka plastic bag is a big No no! It can fly away and they have to go fetch it!
I suppose you just need to hold on to it. I didn't have any problems and the bag never even appeared to be ready to fly away. There were no objections by the staff to my using it.
Of course, if you don't think you can control the bag and it might fly away from you, you shouldn't use it.
I did not use any bag. I just kept it tucked under my parka. It was fine. If the weather was so rough that you would get water in the
zodiac, you were not going. That happened a couple times. But, it had to be pretty rough. My wife is little, and a couple times they. just threw her into the boat and the boat people caught her..
The single use plastic bag is actually is not welcome - https://iaato.org/system/files/2025-07/IAATO Reducing Waste Guidelines for Visitors A3 Poster.en_.pdf
A Zip-Lock is not a single use plastic bag, especially if you use it to protect your camera. At least I use Zip-Lock bags multiple times - I guess I'm cheap.
If you only plan to use a plastic bag one time, maybe you shouldn't bring it with you to Antarctica.
Hi All, Regina again. Glad someone brought up photography. I shoot with a Lumix G & Mirrorless camera and a telephoto lens of 100 to 300. I recently visited my camera shop and they reminded me to only change the lens with the camera pointing down and with the camera shut off. They suggested a size small rain sleeve from Opt Tech. So my question is, while on the zodiak did everyone always have their telephoto lens on?
On the trip I took, everyone had a telephoto (zoom) on their camera. The guide warned everyone to change lenses with the camera facing down.
Most of the time everything is fine on the Zodiac, but especially when heading back to the ship, you can get some serious spray over the front of the zodiac.
Sealord mentioned sticking the camera under your parka and some people did that. There are not too many times when you really have to protect your camera.
I'm going back to Antarctica soon and will try shooting with an iPhone 17. They claim they've made improvements in the telephoto. I'll test the iPhone before I go and decide whether to take my big camera.
[The Lumix G7 is a good camera. I used to shoot with a four-thirds camera but switched to an APS-C to get a slightly larger sensor.]
Are you going with Tauck this time Mike?
No, Silversea. Last time we did the short cruise. This time we're going to South Georgia island as well as Antarctica and the Falkland Islands.
I've had an interest in the Shackelton expedition and it will be nice to see where it started on the South Georgia Island. There's an excellent book about the Shackelton expedition - https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing-ebook/dp/B00IC8VF10/
@Regina D - you might be interested in seeing some comments I got about gear over on dpreview:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/68126831
I’ve read that book Mike
On our trip during the pandemic, they did not want people to even wear masks when going ashore. They were not prohibited, but not encouraged. They did not want anything going ashore that might end up on the ground. We did have to wear masks in the public areas of the ship. We all tested negative just before boarding the ship, but ten people got covid during the trip. One woman was allowed to continue the trip after her husband had tested positive enroute. That was probably a bad idea. The ship’s cruise director, and one of our tour directors were among the ten who got covid.
I did the trip in December 2021 and there were a multiple COVID tests - before and then during. Luckily, no one tested positive.
We were a month behind you. Ponant ended up parking a ship in Ushuaia that was used as the covid holding area for all the pax who tested positive on the various trips. It is my understanding that they all stayed on deck six where there was a restaurant and a lounge, and some said they had a pretty good time. They even had entertainment.