Seabourn Venture - Antarctica, South Georgia & Falklands

Where this cruise calls, day by day

13 ports and 6 sea days over 18 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Ushuaia

   ArgentinaDepart

   Ushuaia sits on the Beagle Channel below the Martial range and bills itself as the world's southernmost city, which is mostly true and entirely commercial. It is the main embarkation port for Antarctic expedition ships, so the waterfront is a mix of outfitters, king crab restaurants and gangways. Passengers on round-South-America itineraries usually get a half day for the national park or a channel boat trip.

   • Tierra del Fuego National Park and Lapataia Bay
   • Beagle Channel catamaran trip to Les Eclaireurs lighthouse and the sea lion islets
   • End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo)
   • Museo del Presidio, the old prison that built the town

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth at the Muelle Comercial, a short walk from Avenida San Martin.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3 · At sea

4. Day 4

   Half Moon Island (South Shetlands)

   AntarcticaPort

   A crescent of rock and shingle about a mile across, tucked into the eastern side of Livingston Island, and for many ships it is the first Antarctic landing of the trip. The chinstrap colonies are spread over rocky outcrops behind the beach, and Argentina's Camara Base sits at one end, usually shuttered. Across the water the glaciated Burgas mountains of Livingston fill the horizon.

   • Chinstrap penguin colonies on the rock outcrops
   • Argentina's Camara Base
   • Weddell seals hauled out on the shingle
   • Views across to Livingston Island's icefields

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac landing on a shingle beach, weather permitting.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar (Antarctic season)

5. Day 5

   Cuverville Island

   AntarcticaPort

   Cuverville sits in the Errera Channel and holds one of the largest gentoo colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula — several thousand pairs spread up the scree behind a cobble beach. The channel around it usually collects grounded icebergs, so the zodiac cruise is often as good as the landing. Expect noise, smell and pink guano-stained snow highways where the penguins commute to the water.

   • Large gentoo penguin rookery on the island's lower slopes
   • Grounded icebergs in the Errera Channel
   • Kelp gulls, snowy sheathbills and skuas working the colony edges
   • Leopard seals patrolling offshore

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac landing plus a zodiac cruise among the bergs; no facilities ashore.

   Best months

   Dec-Feb (chicks from late December)

6. Day 6

   Paradise Bay

   AntarcticaPort

   Whalers named this bay, and for once the name holds up — it is a sheltered basin of glacier fronts and floating brash on the peninsula's west coast. Two research stations sit on its shores, Argentina's Almirante Brown and Chile's Gonzalez Videla at Waterboat Point, and one of them is usually the excuse for a landing. Most of the time here is spent in zodiacs, drifting under ice cliffs and watching for calving.

   • Almirante Brown Station and the hill climb behind it
   • Gonzalez Videla Station at Waterboat Point, with gentoos nesting between the buildings
   • Skontorp Cove's ice cliffs and blue-eyed shag colony
   • Zodiac cruising among grounded bergs

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac landing or zodiac cruise depending on ice and swell; there is no pier.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar (Antarctic season)

7. Day 7

   Lemaire Channel (Scenic Cruising)

   AntarcticaPort

   A seven-mile slot between Booth Island and the Graham Land mainland, barely a mile wide at its narrowest, with cliffs going straight up on both sides. Photographers nicknamed it Kodak Gap for good reason: on a still day the water mirrors the walls and everyone is on deck. Ice frequently blocks the southern end, in which case the captain reverses out and nobody gets the picture.

   • The twin spires of Cape Renard at the northern entrance
   • Booth Island's ridgeline rising directly off the port rail
   • Crabeater seals hauled out on drifting floes
   • Reflections in the channel on a windless morning

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising only — no landing, and the transit is abandoned if pack ice fills the channel.

   Best months

   Dec-Feb (ice usually clears later in the season)

8. Day 8

   Neko Harbour

   AntarcticaPort

   Neko Harbour is one of the few places where passengers set foot on the Antarctic mainland rather than an offshore island, which is why expedition leaders push hard to make it happen. There is a gentoo colony on the rocks, an Argentine refuge hut, and a hill behind the beach that gives a view over Andvord Bay. The glacier at the head of the harbour calves regularly, and staff keep everyone well up the beach because the wave that follows is not theoretical.

   • Continental landing on the Antarctic mainland
   • Gentoo penguin colony above the landing beach
   • The viewpoint climb over Andvord Bay
   • Calving face of the Neko glacier

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac landing, weather and ice permitting; landings are cancelled often.

   Best months

   Dec-Feb (chicks visible from late December)

9. Day 9

   Antarctic Sound (Scenic Cruising)

   AntarcticaPort

   Listed as scenic cruising, this is a slow ship transit of the strait between the peninsula tip and Joinville Island, with no landing planned. The point is the ice: tabular bergs pushed out of the Weddell Sea, some flat-topped and a mile long, drifting north through the sound. Adelie penguins porpoise between the floes and the flanks of Brown Bluff and Hope Bay pass to port or starboard depending on direction.

   • Weddell Sea tabular icebergs
   • Brown Bluff's 745-metre volcanic cliff seen from the water
   • Hope Bay and Esperanza Base from offshore
   • Adelie penguins and Weddell seals on the floes

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising only; ice conditions frequently force the ship to turn back.

   Best months

   Jan-Mar

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11 · At sea

12. Day 12

    South Georgia

    South GeorgiaPort

    South Georgia is a 100-mile spine of glaciated mountains in the Southern Ocean, closer to Antarctica in feel than to the Falklands, and it holds the densest concentration of wildlife on any cruise itinerary. Beaches are covered in king penguins and elephant seals to the point where finding a landing spot is the problem. It is also Shackleton country — the whaling station at Grytviken is where his grave is, and where most ships raise a toast.

    • Grytviken whaling station, the museum and Shackleton's grave
    • King penguin colonies at Salisbury Plain and St Andrews Bay
    • Fur seals in the tussac, aggressive and everywhere in December
    • Wandering albatross on Prion Island (access restricted and seasonal)

    Getting ashore

    Zodiac landings only, preceded by a strict biosecurity inspection of boots and outerwear.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (Oct-Nov for elephant seals, Dec-Jan for chicks)

13. Day 13

    South Georgia

    South GeorgiaPort

    South Georgia is a 100-mile spine of glaciated mountains in the Southern Ocean, closer to Antarctica in feel than to the Falklands, and it holds the densest concentration of wildlife on any cruise itinerary. Beaches are covered in king penguins and elephant seals to the point where finding a landing spot is the problem. It is also Shackleton country — the whaling station at Grytviken is where his grave is, and where most ships raise a toast.

    • Grytviken whaling station, the museum and Shackleton's grave
    • King penguin colonies at Salisbury Plain and St Andrews Bay
    • Fur seals in the tussac, aggressive and everywhere in December
    • Wandering albatross on Prion Island (access restricted and seasonal)

    Getting ashore

    Zodiac landings only, preceded by a strict biosecurity inspection of boots and outerwear.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (Oct-Nov for elephant seals, Dec-Jan for chicks)

14. Day 14

    Gold Harbour, South Georgia

    South GeorgiaPort

    Gold Harbour is a short beach on South Georgia's southeast coast backed by the hanging ice of the Bertrab Glacier, and it is packed. Tens of thousands of king penguins hold the flat ground while southern elephant seals lie in heaps along the tideline, the young males sparring. Ships often schedule it for very early morning to get the low light on the glacier.

    • King penguin colony numbering in the tens of thousands
    • Southern elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals on the beach
    • The Bertrab Glacier hanging above the amphitheatre
    • Light-mantled sooty albatross on the cliffs behind

    Getting ashore

    Zodiac landing on an open beach; surf frequently makes it impossible.

    Best months

    Nov-Jan (elephant seal pups early, penguin chicks later)

15. Day 15 · At sea

16. Day 16

    Stanley

    Falkland IslandsPort

    Stanley is a few streets of brightly painted metal-roofed houses on a hillside above a natural harbour, home to most of the Falklands' population. It reads as very British — pubs, a cathedral, red phone boxes — with 1982 war memorials threaded through it. The real draw is out of town: penguin colonies on white-sand beaches an hour or more away over rough tracks.

    • Christ Church Cathedral and the whalebone arch
    • Volunteer Point king penguin colony (long 4x4 trip)
    • Bluff Cove Lagoon gentoos and its small museum
    • Gypsy Cove Magellanic penguins, walkable-ish from town

    Getting ashore

    Ships anchor in Port William or Stanley Harbour and tender in; strong winds cancel calls fairly regularly.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar

17. Day 17

    West Point Island

    Falkland IslandsPort

    West Point is a private sheep farm on a small island in the northwest Falklands, and calls here are a mix of wildlife and farmhouse tea. From the landing it is a couple of kilometres across the island — on foot or by Land Rover — to the Devil's Nose, a sandstone headland where black-browed albatross nest in the tussac alongside rockhopper penguins, close enough to sit and watch without disturbing them.

    • Black-browed albatross colony at the Devil's Nose
    • Southern rockhopper penguins nesting among the albatross
    • Striated caracaras patrolling the cliffs
    • Tea and cake at the settlement house, a long-standing tradition

    Getting ashore

    Zodiac or tender landing at the settlement jetty; wind cancels calls here regularly.

    Best months

    Nov-Feb (albatross and rockhoppers ashore for breeding)

18. Day 18 · At sea

19. Day 19

    Ushuaia

    ArgentinaArrive

    Ushuaia sits on the Beagle Channel below the Martial range and bills itself as the world's southernmost city, which is mostly true and entirely commercial. It is the main embarkation port for Antarctic expedition ships, so the waterfront is a mix of outfitters, king crab restaurants and gangways. Passengers on round-South-America itineraries usually get a half day for the national park or a channel boat trip.

    • Tierra del Fuego National Park and Lapataia Bay
    • Beagle Channel catamaran trip to Les Eclaireurs lighthouse and the sea lion islets
    • End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo)
    • Museo del Presidio, the old prison that built the town

    Getting ashore

    Ships berth at the Muelle Comercial, a short walk from Avenida San Martin.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar