Antarctica was never really a trip we planned to take. Like a lot of people, we’d seen the infamous Drake Passage videos online and assumed the journey would be rough, especially since I’m prone to seasickness. But on our cruise the year before from Abu Dhabi to Australia, almost every veteran cruiser on board couldn't stop raving about Antarctica. We figured that if we were going to cross off all seven continents, we would eventually have to brave the Drake Passage, and decided to go for it. We booked a Viking cruise, a luxury ship with only a few hundred passengers, and began researching seasickness cures.
We traveled to Buenos Aires a few days before embarkation, which ended up being the perfect way to ease into the trip. We remembered the city as one of our favorites from years ago — it feels almost like Europe meets Latin America with elegant architecture, late dinners, café culture, and purple flowering Jacaranda trees lining wide avenues. After a couple of days there, we flew south to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, where we boarded the Viking Polaris for our expedition to Antarctica.
Crossing the Drake Passage turned out to be smoother than expected — our captain said it had been one of his top five crossings all year, thankfully — and once we reached Antarctica, any anxiety about the journey disappeared almost instantly. Our days settled into a pleasant rhythm: breakfast and coffee, suit up in the cruise-provided arctic jacket, waterproof pants, and oversized rubber boots, then head down to the staging area for our daily adventure. We did kayaking (in dry suits in case you fell in 😅), boat landings to walk among thousands of penguins, whale watching where we saw dozens of humpbacks up close, and a handful of glacier cruises. We skipped the underwater submarine, and everyone we talked to said we didn't miss much... apparently you just descend into the dark and look at small creatures on the ocean floor. Still cool, but we had seen so much epic wildlife already that we felt like we'd been transplanted to another peaceful, silent, crystal-blue planet.
The Polaris itself is a great ship. The spa was excellent — they have hot tubs, cold plunges, a steam room, and even a snow grotto — and we used the gym, various lounges, and restaurants in the afternoons and evenings after our daily adventures. The average age on board had to be at least 65, so none of the adventures were strenuous, and the whole trip felt more like an unusually well-organized expedition cruise than anything rugged. The food and the staff were both genuinely top-notch.
The flights, drives (and boat rides) to and from are long but worth it. We're now firmly in the camp of people who tell everyone they have to go to Antarctica at least once. If you do, book Viking — the ship is modern and safe, the crew was phenomenal, and the seasickness was a non-issue. And if you've never been to South America, tack on a few extra days, because getting all the way down there is a trip on its own and you might as well make it count.