Antarctica Travel From India

Travel to Antarctica from India via South America is easier and more affordable than to the east via Australia / New Zealand, despite the fact that India is somewhat closer to Australia and New Zealand than it is to South America.

There are many more trips that visit the Peninsula with a greater variety of itineraries, ships and duration than there are to Eastern Antarctica. It is also possible to fly from South America to join a cruise ship already in Antarctic waters.

There is a wide range of ships and accommodations on those ships available, cabins may have a simple a porthole or two and then range up to luxurious staterooms with a private balcony.

Flights from India to ports in Australia or New Zealand to visit Eastern Antarctica cost somewhat less than those to Ushuaia, Argentina at the tip of South America for the Peninsula region. The journey to the East is by ship only, it is not possible for tourists to fly to that side of Antarctica meaning a longer part of the journey will be spent at sea (6-7 days in each direction) than when journeying to the Peninsula with subsequently increased costs.

Fig 1.

        1 - Delhi, India    2 - Ushuaia, Argentina
        3 - Antarctic Peninsula   4 - Hobart, Australia
        5 - Invercargill, New Zealand   6 - McMurdo
        7 - Commonwealth Bay

Fig 3. Trips to the Antarctic Peninsula. The majority of tourist trips visit the Peninsula 6 and nearby islands such as the South Shetlands 5. Longer trips may also take in the Falkland Islands 3 and / or the especially wildlife-rich South Georgia 4.

Ships almost always cruise along the western side of the Peninsula, the eastern side and Weddell Sea frequently have much heavier potentially problematic sea ice.

        1 - Ushuaia, Argentina    2 - Punta Arenas, Chile
        3 - Falkland Islands / Islas Malvinas
        4 - South Georgia
        5 - South Shetland Islands    6 - Antarctic Peninsula

Fig 4. Trips to the more remote and less visited Eastern side of Antarctica usually depart from Australia or New Zealand, Hobart, Australia 1, Invercargill / Port of Bluff in New Zealand 2, Invercargill has the airport, Bluff, 30km away by road has a deep-water port. Less commonly trips may leave / return from or other ports in New Zealand such as Dunedin or Lyttleton. These trips take 26-30 days, there are no shorter voyages.

Trips may depart and return to the same port though often leave from one and return to another in either direction. It takes about seven days sailing to reach Antarctica in this part of the world, the journey there and back is broken up with visits to the wildlife rich Macquarie Island 3 and other island groups such as Snares, Auckland and Campbell that lie between Macquarie and New Zealand.

Once in Antarctica trips spend their time either in the Commonwealth Bay area 4 or the Ross Sea region between Cape Adare 5 and McMurdo 6 with possibly a short trip along the front of the Ross Ice Shelf R

        R - Ross Ice Shelf     1 - Hobart - Australia
        2 - Invercargill / Port of Bluff - New Zealand
        3 - Macquarie Island    4 - Commonwealth Bay
        5 - Cape Adare    6 - McMurdo / Scott bases
       

• Remoteness - You will see few if any other ships and get a greater feeling of isolation and being at the end of the world, this is a little visited part of the planet. You are going where the world's biggest icebergs are and the most extreme weather conditions.
  
  
• Greater chance of rough seas due to longer spent crossing the open ocean which can take 6-7 days in each direction, no flights available.
  
  
• See Emperor Penguins, the birds of the deep south that rear their young in the depths of the Antarctic winter, the largest of all penguin species.
  
  
• See Mount Erebus, the world's southernmost active volcano and the Ross Ice Shelf, a 600km long wall of ice between 15m and 50m high.
  
  
• Visit the huts of Scott, Shackleton, Mawson and other Heroic Age explorers depending on where your cruise goes. This is the area where much of the early exploratory history of Antarctica was played out and where historical remains still stand.
  
  
• Exclusivity - of the people who go to Antarctica, only a small proportion visit regions other than the Peninsula, there are relatively few trips here and they are often fully booked up well in advance.
  
  
• Trip length of 26-30 days, sometimes there may be the possibility of a semi-circumnavigation over a similar time period from the Ross Sea to the Peninsula.

• It takes 2 days to cross the Drake Passage to reach the Antarctic Peninsula, rough seas are possible though short-lived, you can also fly across it in 2 hours on a fly-cruise trip.
  
  
• Varied mountainous scenery with glaciers and icebergs, some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.
  
  
• The most wildlife rich area, with huge penguin colonies, and many other breeding birds, seals are common and whales may be seen. The sub-Antarctic islands you may visit en route are particularly wildlife rich, especially South Georgia.
  
  
• Historic preserved British Base, now a working Post Office at Port Lockroy, you may also visit other currently active research bases and historic sites.
  
  
• Easier to reach, The closeness of the peninsula to the tip of South America  means that travel time to reach Antarctica here is much less than in the East. It also means that a greater portion of the trip is spent in Antarctica rather than travelling there and back.
  
  
• A larger number and variety of trips available, duration from 6-24 days, a wide range of ships and choice of travel dates and itineraries.