Antarctica

If you thought romance was long dead, you’ve yet to experience Buenos Aires. The sophisticated yet down-to-earth Argentine capital thrives on its strong traditions: proud football fans, cultured theatre scene and seductive tango. You’ll be spending one night at a hotel in the city. Depending on when you arrive, you might have some time to explore a little of this lively capital. During the day, wander past French and Italianate buildings in Recoleta, finding shade from the summer sun in the resplendent plazas and parks of Palermo where fleets of parrots and songbirds roost. At night, feast on steak in San Telmo before heading to a local bar, club or confitería on Avenida Corrientes for a late-night milonga fuelled by traditional tango dancing.

By adding a few days to your vacation, you can also join an optional Pre-Programme to explore wild Patagonia.

To get you to your ship as soon as possible, your plane leaves Buenos Aires early in the morning, taking you to the southern port city of Ushuaia on the shores of the Beagle Channel. From the plane, you might be granted views over Lago Fagnano and of snow-capped Monte Darwin in Alberto de Agostini National Park to the west.

Hybrid-powered expedition ship MS Fridtjof Nansen will be here waiting to start your adventure together. You’ll get to know the ship well over the next few weeks and fondly see it as your comfortable home away from home. After boarding, you’ll attend a meeting with the Expedition Team who will take you through some key health and safety principles. Enjoy a welcome dinner, your first of many delicious meals on board, before finishing the day with a stroll on deck looking for stars up above.

Spending two days sailing the Drake Passage may seem like a test of your patience but believe us when we say the time will fly by. Not only are there albatross, petrels, humpback, and fin whales to watch for, but our expert Expedition Team will also do what they do best: prepare you for the adventures ahead.

You’ll attend lectures from the Expedition Team to learn about the history, environments and challenges of the places we plan to visit. You will learn what it takes to be an Antarctic ambassador and how to explore the frozen habitats safely and sustainably while observing IAATO regulations. Our special rubber boots for landings are just one of the precautions we take. The Expedition Team will also introduce Citizen Science programmes which will help you understand more about intricate ecosystems while contributing to current scientific research. Meanwhile, our onboard photographer may be sharing some useful tips on how to take the best pictures.

If your brain feels like it’s ready to burst, joining some included activities like art classes can be a great way to relax. Or maybe you want to blow off some steam in the sauna. Keep fit in the indoor gym and put on your running shoes to test the 150-metre-long outdoor running track. Say goodbye to any lingering stress with therapies in the Wellness Area or maybe enjoy a healthy snack in one of our three onboard restaurants.

Welcome to Antarctica. This vast continent is almost entirely ice and snow. Ice shelves are the size of countries and icebergs tower over our ship as big as buildings. Glaciers cascade down through the mountains, crumpling towards the shoreline where they crumble ice into the water. When we arrive here, summer is coming to an end, and you can look forward to seeing these landscapes beautifully illuminated by breathtaking sunsets. This is also the best time of year to see penguins in their final stage of moulting and to spot different species of whales as they gorge on krill.

During your five days here, we plan to visit several possible sites in the South Shetlands and on the Antarctic Peninsula, based on when and where conditions are at their best. But this is no passive sail-by. The Expedition Team has big plans for you, as they will take you on ice-cruises and on landings ashore, bringing you to historic and scenic sites and to penguin colonies at a respectful distance. You may even get the chance to go kayaking with them among the icebergs, in an optional activity. They will also continue their lecture programme and you’ll likely also be busy cataloguing the various wildlife you spot as part of a Citizen Science project.

The thing about expedition cruising is that the itinerary is not set in stone, allowing us to be flexible and adaptable, doing whatever is best at each specific point in the voyage. Having sailed these waters for so many years, we know all the possible landing sites and when we should go to maximise the experience for everyone.

Join the Expedition Team as they continue their lecture programme covering topics such as the history of the great explorers, marine biology, wildlife, oceanography and climate change. You might also get to spend time examining seawater samples taken in Antarctica, allowing you to study another kind of wildlife at the cellular level. Scout for wildlife from deck, relax in the Explorer Lounge & Bar or just watch the scenery glide by from the outdoor hot tubs or heated infinity pool. As we get closer to the Falklands, the ship is usually followed by different bird species, such as gulls, fulmars, petrels and even albatross.

With green grass, white sands and farms, the Falklands are a world away from the barren white wilderness of Antarctica. Similar to Antarctica though, we will spend our three days exploring the islands with no exact itinerary, allowing the Captain and Expedition Team to pick out the best spots for each day based on the conditions at the time.

This is a paradise for birds, like ducks, geese, albatrosses, caracaras and wrens, not to mention the four different species of penguins found here – king, rockhopper, Magellanic and gentoo. The latter normally hang out in large colonies around the islands, which you might be able to spot from the ship or even visit during one of our landings.

Stanley, the capital of the archipelago, is on the island of East Falkland and easy for the ship to access. Small enough to be explored on foot, it comes complete with familiar English red buses, inviting restaurants and pubs full of friendly locals.

As we set out for another day at sea, there are new lectures and presentations from the Expedition Team to listen in on. Maybe you want to spend some time going through your pictures from Antarctica and the Falklands, or exchange experiences with your fellow travellers. And if you haven’t already, looking at the scenery and watching for wildlife from the scenic sauna isn’t a bad way to spend the day. Not bad at all…

Puerto Madryn was founded by Welsh immigrants in 1865, and late summer temperatures might make you want to visit the inviting beaches in the area. Puerto Madryn is also the gateway to dramatic Valdes Peninsula, and we hope to invite you on an optional excursion here to explore a stunning nature reserve that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here, you will get the chance to see marine mammals like fur seals, elephant seals, sea lions, and whales like the Southern right whale, baleen whale and orcas. There are also at least 180 species of birds living on the peninsula, so get those binoculars out and start looking for new favourite birds. If birds aren’t really your cup of tea, this is also a nice place to walking around, eat and shop for local arts and crafts.

Your adventurous expedition cruise is coming to an end, and you can tick Antarctica, the Falklands and Puerto Madryn off your bucket list. You will feel the temperature rise as we make our way north, so head out onto the outer decks and enjoy some sun by the infinity pool or in the outdoor gym.

Take the opportunity to spend time with your new friends in the Expedition Team too. They are never short of fascinating facts and interesting stories with which to regale you with. Enjoy a farewell dinner on the last evening and watch the stars mirrored in the water beneath the ship one last time before going to bed.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and the same goes for your expedition cruise. It has been 19 days since the last time you were in Buenos Aires, but having experienced so much during that time, it will probably feel like it’s been much longer. This is your second chance to get a feel for the exotic Latin city which seems to pulsate to the rhythm of tango. If you don’t feel like dancing, you can also enjoy an optional post-programme to the famous Iguazu Falls, one of the largest and most impressive waterfalls in the world.

Whether you are carrying on your adventure or headed for home, we bid you farewell and wish you many more adventures in the years to come. Who knows, maybe we’ll see you on one of our expeditions to other destinations we explore, or perhaps Antarctica will tempt you back one more time…