Seabourn Venture - The Great White Continent

Where this cruise calls, day by day

7 ports and 4 sea days over 10 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

   Antarctic Sound

   AntarcticaPort

   The Antarctic Sound separates the tip of the peninsula from the Joinville island group and funnels tabular icebergs out of the Weddell Sea — hence the nickname Iceberg Alley. Some of them are the size of city blocks with vertical white walls. Ships that get in here usually pair the transit with a landing at Brown Bluff or a visit to Hope Bay, where Argentina's Esperanza Base sits beside an Adelie colony.

   • Tabular icebergs calved from the Weddell Sea ice shelves
   • Hope Bay and Argentina's Esperanza Base
   • Brown Bluff's rust-coloured volcanic cliff
   • Adelie penguins, the sound's signature species

   Getting ashore

   Ship transit with zodiac landings attempted at Brown Bluff or Hope Bay; heavy ice regularly closes the sound entirely.

   Best months

   Jan-Mar (best chance the ice has cleared)

5. Day 5

   Gerlache Strait (Scenic Cruising)

   AntarcticaPort

   The Gerlache runs between the Palmer Archipelago and the peninsula mainland and functions as the main highway of Antarctic cruising — most ships transit it more than once. It is wide, deep and often surprisingly calm, with mountains on both sides and brash ice slapping the hull. It is also prime feeding water for humpbacks in late season, and ships will stop engines and drift when a pod is working krill nearby.

   • Humpback and minke whales, best from late January
   • Anvers Island and the Osterrieth Range to the west
   • Brash ice and growlers in a flat-calm channel
   • Access point for Wilhelmina Bay, Cuverville and the Errera Channel

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising; landings happen at sites off the strait rather than in it.

   Best months

   Jan-Mar for whales; Nov-Mar overall

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

   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)

8. Day 8

   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)

9. Day 9 · At sea

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11

    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