Trips of a Lifetime: Polar Voyages

To experience the many wonders of our incredible planet in all its glory – from the sometimes searing heat of the tropics to the freezing temperatures of the poles – and to enjoy it at a pace that really enables you to soak up lifelong impressions is truly enriching. We have increasingly found that people are wanting to take that ‘once in a lifetime’ holiday, the trip they have been thinking about doing for many years but never felt the time was quite right … and now it is.

For me, there are three places on earth that I would put into the ‘once in a lifetime’ category – though in reality, there are many more! – and they are all at the planet’s extremes. To begin with, there really is nowhere more incredible than South Georgia. Deep in the South Atlantic, and three days sailing from the Falklands, it’s about as inaccessible as anywhere on earth. It’s a place of wonder and delight, a place where king penguins live in their hundreds of thousands – probably millions. It feels as though a beach landing is only possible if the kings make space, and if they do, they have to inspect all the visitors as they disembark to ensure they are worthy. Here 5-metre-long elephant seals do battle on the beach and where wandering albatrosses with a 3.5 metre wingspan nest before heading out into the oceans for a life of travel themselves. In South Georgia, it’s the wildlife that rules.

Antarctica, which can easily be combined with South Georgia, is high up on the list too. Towering glaciers; Adélie, gentoo, rockhopper, king and (in some places) emperor penguin colonies; leopard, crab-eater and elephant seals, and of course, fabulous whale watching. You can be in a canoe listening to the sound of minke whales breathing nearby, in a Zodiac in awe of the feeding humpbacks, or watching from the ship’s deck as a pod of orcas goes by. These days you can spend a night camping on Antarctica’s ice or hike some of the icy hills, and for those who’d rather not travel across the infamous Drake Passage by ship, you can now fly into Antarctica and board your vessel in the calm sheltered waters.

If the joy of seeing a polar bear is a lure, then the Arctic is calling you. In Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic, with luck in addition to polar bear you will also see beluga, humpback, minke and possibly even blue whales, as well as spectacular seabird colonies on gigantic cliffs and huge ‘haul outs’ of ringed seals and walruses. Join us on the trip of a lifetime!

To begin planning your holiday of a lifetime, speak to a member of our team or view all our holidays to South Georgia, Antarctica or the Arctic.