One of the largest questions we’ve gotten is about how we travelled to Antarctica so I figured I’d as nicely present you the total journey we took from London (our house metropolis) to Antarctica. Plus, it takes me proper to the very begin of this journey so it’s a great way to begin this story, I suppose. 😁😁😁😁
Right so from London we booked a direct flight to Buenos Aires in Argentina. There are oblique flight choices which join in different cities on the best way to Buenos Aires however even a direct flight is like 14 hours so we determined to simply restrict journey instances by going direct.
Also, on the time after we travelled should you check constructive for you realize what, you may’t board the ship to Antarctica so we determined to restrict our publicity to folks and figured ready round in a connection airport most likely wasn’t the perfect concept for this journey.
So yeah, we booked British Airways flight direct to Buenos Aires for the January the 2nd however that flight truly acquired cancelled by British Airways and our reserving acquired moved to New Year’s day as an alternative.
Thing is, we’d initially booked the journey on the 2nd of January as a result of we had been planning on nursing a New Year’s Eve hangover on the New Year’s day however because of our resolution to isolate earlier than travelling we truly ended up doing nothing for New Year’s Eve anyway.
To be trustworthy, we’d already began isolating even earlier than Christmas. We’d been planning this journey for years and it had truly been postponed just a few instances already so now that we had confirmed plans in place, we wished to do our absolute best from our finish to strive to not check constructive.
Oh, and we’d additionally made plans to reach in Argentina just a few days early to discover the cities we’d be in earlier than boarding the ship to Antarctica however we’d completely forgotten that resulting from isolation, we wouldn’t be exploring these metropolis earlier than our journey both.
Anyway, so quick ahead – we arrived in Buenos Aires on the first light and went over to our resort – The Alvear Palace resort.
Thankfully, regardless that it will usually be too early to verify in, we had been allowed to verify in and with out skipping a beat, we promptly fell asleep for the subsequent 9 hours.
The remainder of the time in Buenos Aires was fairly chilled. Evening drinks on the bar downstairs – extremely socially distanced, I’d add.
Dinner of Argentine steaks and Malbec at an unbelievable restaurant subsequent door known as Fervor, which we had been advised by our resort concierge that the Prince of Belgium completely loved earlier that week. She did like to call drop a bit.
There was one exception although. So, native flights in Argentina have a weight restrict of 15kg per suitcase (that’s 33 kilos should you’re not used to Kilograms). That might be prolonged to 23kg or 50 kilos however you do should pay further for that.
We nevertheless arrived in Argentina with 1 suitcase every, each of which weighed at the least 30kg every.
Oh and I virtually forgot to say, in case your suitcase is any larger than 23kg, it needs to be despatched by cargo which suggests it’ll arrive many days after you arrive at your vacation spot.
So we determined we had to purchase further suitcases and cut up our baggage between our previous and new suitcases. To purchase a brand new suitcase although we would have liked to get some money out.
Turns out you may’t simply take money out in Argentina simply. That’s an entire story for one more day however after hours of making an attempt we managed to get simply £7/$10 out of a money machine, however that value is a £7/$10 cost for the withdrawal that means taking £7 out truly value us £14 in whole.
So, we had been introduced with another choice – sending money to ourselves by way of Western Union cash switch. The fee is definitely good – you get twice the quantity of native forex in alternate should you try this.
But to do the Western Union switch, we would have liked to have a neighborhood cellphone quantity. So, we went out to search for a neighborhood sim automobile however that meant we would have liked money to get one and so this cycle of continually searching for one thing new simply continued.
Eventually, because of the £7 from earlier, we finally acquired SIM playing cards however they wanted to get activated. The course of is an entire dance during which we needed to ship messages on Facebook or Twitter, sending passports over, then take images of ourselves with our passports and extra.
After all of that, the SIM playing cards then didn’t work and finally, whereas making our approach by city in seek for suitcases, we made it to a cell phone store which is the place we had been advised that it will take at the least 4 days for the SIM playing cards to be lively so there was no level in anticipating that we’d be capable to use them at any level that day for the Western Union switch.
It was an entire ridiculous dance and that is genuinely how we spent the higher a part of a day in Buenos Aires. Moral of the story – arrive in Buenos Aires with money.
And no, not Pounds, that gained’t be a lot use, Euros are barely higher however American {dollars} is essential! Take {dollars} with you. If you alternate money, you will get that unbelievable double alternate fee I discussed earlier that means your cash is actually price twice as a lot as should you’d paid with a card.
The subsequent leg of the journey concerned a flight to Ushuaia, the southernmost metropolis on this planet… and the inspiration for the identify of one of the well-known golf equipment in Ibiza. Again, in Ushuaia, we determined to maintain very low key and follow our resort (aside from a stint on the town to buy sea illness tablets).
For dinner and drinks, we caught to our resort, the Wyndham Garden Ushuaia Hotel del Glaciar, which to be honest, had a reasonably respectable wine listing… which we proceeded to work our approach by.
From Ushuaia, we’d then should cross essentially the most highly effective sea convergence on this planet and essentially the most treacherous sea voyage on this planet – the Drakes passage. This is the place the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean and the waves right here might be as much as 12 metres / 40 ft excessive. And that’s earlier than winds of as much as 50 knots. (I don’t truly know what that actually means however I’m advised it’s loads).
Or you may have a fairly calm crossing – all of which is completely depending on the climate.
For that crossing, and the important thing motive why we got here to Argentina to start with, we acquired on board the Ocean Victory ship by Albatros Expeditions.
Ocean Victory is a model new luxurious ship and completely defies the expectations you may have of going to Antarctica. Years in the past after we began planning our journey, we had been anticipating to should do it in a tough core expedition sort vessel with restricted facilities.
We weren’t anticipating a ship with a spa, health club, pool, unbelievable eating room, beautiful social areas and delightful bedrooms. Suffice to say, the second we discovered about Ocean Victory, it was such a straightforward sure.
I’ll present you all about what that’s like within the subsequent episode however yeah, that’s how we acquired to Antarctica.
Once you’re performed with the Drakes Passage, the subsequent cease is Antarctica – the place your cruise ship can be your own home for nevertheless many days you’re selecting to spend there, with numerous alternatives to get off the boat and go cruising or go on land to fulfill the locals of Antarctica.
Catch you within the subsequent submit for all of that.
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