Polar Regions

Antarctica is the world’s last great wilderness — a continent larger than Europe and Australia combined, of which 98% is covered in ice. It is one of the few places on earth where nature operates entirely on its own terms, completely undisturbed by human habitation or infrastructure. A voyage to Antarctica — typically by expedition ship departing from Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina across the Drake Passage — is a life-changing journey into a landscape of extraordinary power and beauty.

The Antarctic Peninsula is the most accessible part of the continent and the most visited by expedition ships. Landings by zodiac on the peninsula’s shores bring passengers face-to-face with penguin rookeries (gentoo, chinstrap and Adelie penguins are common), elephant seals lounging on beaches, leopard seals patrolling the ice and humpback whales surface-feeding in the bays. The scale of the glaciers, the silence of the ice fields and the quality of light in the ‘bottom’ of the world are unlike anything experienced elsewhere.

The Arctic offers a different but equally extraordinary experience. Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, is accessible by flight to Longyearbyen and by expedition ship around the archipelago. Polar bears, arctic foxes, walrus, bearded seals and the ‘midnight sun’ in summer (or Northern Lights in winter) define the Svalbard experience. Greenland’s vast ice sheet, fjords and Inuit culture, and the Canadian Arctic’s vast tundra and wildlife-rich seas add further dimensions to Arctic exploration.

Both polar regions are accessible from Ireland via connecting flights and are offered by specialist expedition cruise companies using ice-strengthened ships with expert naturalist guides. Antarctica is best visited November to March; the Arctic June to September for wildlife, or October to March for the Northern Lights.