In January 2020 I went on a Expedition Cruise to King George Island in Antarctica. In my 20 plus years of travelling off and on, had already been to other 6 continents and this was a trip of a life time.
Planning - Started planning for my Antarctica trip in 2018, looked at several different companies, there are few good one, I went with Adventure Life, its based out the USA, there are several tour operators offering tours to Antarctica in Europe and Australia, I just didn't want to deal with a company overseas in case of any issues. There are other Tour operators in the USA, the price Adventure Life had to offer was within my budget and had enough time to save and pay for it.
Dealing with an overseas tour operator have not had issues with day tours or train tickets, though twice buying Air Plane tickets turned out to be a bad experience.
Costs - flew from Texas to Buenos Aires, Argentina depending on where you are flying from you Airfare is your first cost, My flight was delayed 24 hours due to bad weather, I had given myself 2 days in Buenos Aires before taking a flight to Ushuaia and had I rushed it, that would not been good for me, so add to the flight costs 2 night hotel, food and Taxi costs in Buenos Aires and 1 night in Ushuaia.
Ushuaia Argentina is where most ships to Antarctica will leave from, you will also need to get Health Insurance coverage, the company used for my Health Insurance was World Nomads.
The Expedition Cruise cost was around Five thousand USD, that included a flight back from King George Island to Punta Arenas Chile and a night hotel stay in Punta Arenas Chile.
From Punta Arenas Chile I had to pay for my way home to Texas, of course since I was already in South America I spent another 10 days in Chile and Bolivia before returning home.
When all said and done, my cost was eight thousand plus U$D.
One can also find tourist agencies selling last minute tours to Antarctica in Ushuaia's San Martin Avenue which is the main street, now Ushuaia is not a cheap destination so basically my suggestion is to plan ahead.
Tips - Most Ships will provide you with rubber boots for zodiac excursions, some tour companies will even provide a Water Proof Parks, check with your tour operator
You will need water proof Pants or coverings as you will get wet when going on the zodiac boats, the ones I took with me were Frogg Toggs that I bought on Amazon
Antarctica has no dock ports you will need to take boats to go ashore, be the first one to get on the boats and spend more time on land
Motion Sickness Pills, take some with you.
Informative Website
Happy Travels!
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