Polar Regions > Polar Regions

One for the real adventurers, a trip to the Polar Regions offers an experience like no other. Prepare yourself for some of nature’s harshest but most stunning frozen landscapes on an unimaginable scale. The Artic (the Northern polar region) is slightly more forgiving than the southern Antarctic, which can only be accessed during the height of summer (between November and March) as pack ice blocks access for boats and weather conditions don’t allow for consistent charter flights.

 

A trip to the Polar Regions offers you access to some of the world’s great unspoilt habitats and rarest species. See whales, dolphins and rare marine birds in their natural environment, while breathing the world’s cleanest air. Some 200 million birds of 44 species amass in the Antarctic each summer, with albatrosses, shearwaters, terns, skuas, petrels and penguins being the most conspicuous in the Antarctic area.

 

A trip to the Polar Regions offers the perfect opportunity to see landscape and animals you would normally only see in magazines or on the television.

• Search for albatross, whales, dolphins and penguins on a polar expedition cruise ship and visit the most isolated museum in the world, the former British Scientific Station on the Antarctic Peninsula
• Voyage to the Svalbard Archipelago, just 600 miles from the North Pole, home to arctic foxes, reindeer and the majestic polar bears
• Follow in Shackleton’s footsteps from Ushuaia to South Georgia and visit the fur seal colony
• Brave the cold and dive with the incredible king penguins in South Georgia, or dive among ice plates and snorkel with seals in the Arctic
• Learn the art of ‘mushing’ huskies on an adventure husky safari in Lapland and sleep on ice as you stay in the incredible Jukkasjarvi Ice Hotel 

Be prepared for seriously cold and, in the Antarctic, unpredictable weather conditions. Summer months offer the best time to visit the regions: these are December and January in the South and between June and September in the North. The Artic north is more hospitable than the Antarctic and can be reached more easily, for instance through Scandinavia.