The Ultimate South Georgia, Falklands & Antarctic Peninsula Cruise

Arrive at Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city surrounded by the wilds of southern Patagonia and framed by the jagged peaks of the Martial Mountains, this end-of-the-world outdoor playground is also the gateway to Heritage Expeditions Ultimate South Georgia, Falklands & Antarctic Peninsula Cruise. Make your way to your hotel where you will spend the first night of the expedition. This evening meet your fellow voyagers and some of our expedition guides over dinner at the hotel.

Enjoy breakfast in the hotel restaurant and have the morning free to explore Ushuaia before returning to the hotel and departing for the Ushuaia Cruise Port to embark Heritage Discoverer. The captain and expedition team will welcome you on board and you will have time to settle into your accommodations and familiarise yourself with the ship. You are invited to join the expedition team in the Observation Lounge as we set our course for the Falkland Islands and our adventure begins.

Learn more about the biology and history of the Falkland Islands through a series of lectures and presentations and ease into ship life as we cross the South Atlantic Ocean. Scan the sky for Black-browed Albatross, countless Prions and Shearwaters, and look for Orca and Sei Whales during our day at sea.

We have two days to explore the pristine wilderness of the Falkland Islands as we navigate East and West Falkland Islands and their remote satellite islands. This stunning landscape spanning more than 700 islands, quiet villages, white sandy beaches, spectacular towering cliffs and grassy fields of wildflowers is a birder’s paradise and home to five species of penguin - Gentoo, Southern Rockhopper, Magellanic, King and Macaroni – and the world’s largest Black-browed Albatross colony. We will also look be looking for the endemic flightless Falkland Steamer Duck and, if lucky, the elusive Cobb’s Wren among Black-Crowned Night Herons, Long-Tailed Meadowlarks, Two-Banded Plovers, and Upland and Kelp Geese.

Our adventures may see us stretching our legs on Carcass Island where Southern Sea Lions, South American Fur Seals and Southern Elephant Seals can be found lazing on the beaches and among the tussac grass. If weather conditions are favourable, we hope to explore Steeple Jason where some 200,000-plus breeding pairs of Black-browed Albatross, 70% of the world’s population, are joined by Rockhopper and Gentoo Penguins, and attract the largest numbers of predatory Striated Caracara and Falkland Skua in the region.

The flora also punches above its weight here with some 417 different plant species found across the Falkland Islands including the Dog Orchid and Vanilla Daisy.

History buffs will look forward to exploring colourful British outpost and Falklands capital the ‘city’ of Stanley where nature preserves meet maritime exploration, hilltop memorials to the 1982 Falklands War, the Jubilee Villas and the opportunity to enjoy a pint with the friendly locals.

At sea en route to South Georgia, there’s time to unwind after the adventures of the Falkland Islands. Look for cetaceans, Wandering and Southern Royal Albatross, Sooty Shearwater, Antarctic Prion and Soft Plumaged Petrel, join a lecture or catch up on your photos and journaling.

On the afternoon of Day 7 we plan to ship cruise the 150-million-year-old Shag Rocks. Despite their inhospitable appearance, this collection of six, wind and wave carved jagged islets rising up to 75 metres (246ft) out of the Southern Ocean, are an important seabird breeding site, in particular the South Georgia Shag after which the rocks are named. These nutrient rich waters filled with krill, fish and squid, located near the Antarctic Convergence where the cold Antarctic waters meet warmer Subantarctic currents, also makes Shag Rocks perfect for cetacean spotting.

We have 4 days and a flexible itinerary to explore the astounding wildlife sanctuary that is South Georgia, also known as the ‘Serengeti of the Southern Ocean’ – for reasons which will quickly become apparent. Here, among the rugged, unrestrained beauty of towering, ice-capped mountains, glaciers, endless beaches, grasses and the clear emerald water of this British Overseas Territory resides one of the world’s wildlife hot spots.

Our voyage is timed to coincide with the start of breeding season, when it is believed South Georgia has more wildlife per square metre than anywhere else on Earth.

The sheer spectacle and numbers are mind-boggling: more than 60 million seabirds (including White-chinned Petrel, Diving Petrel and 50 million Antarctic Prion), 1 million King Penguins (the world’s largest population), 3.5 million Antarctic Fur Seals (more than 95% of the world’s population) and 400,00-plus Southern Elephant Seals (half the worlds’ population). Other wildlife to look out for with our guides include Macaroni, and Gentoo Penguins; Wandering, Black-browed, Grey-headed and Light-mantled Sooty Albatross; South Georgia Shag, South Georgia Pipit, Pintail Duck, Weddell Seals and, occasionally, Leopard Seals. While Humpback, Blue and Southern Right Whales are also known to visit these waters. High on our agenda are visits to Salisbury Plain, St Andrews Bay and Gold Harbour, where the chaos of thousands of King Penguins blanketing these shores offers some of the world’s best birding. Despite the abundance of wildlife, Antarctic Fur Seals were once hunted to almost extinction for their fur in the early 19th Century, and the settlement of Grytviken was once a productive whaling centre. Although the historic whaling station is still a feature, Grytviken’s legacy is now the final resting place of heroic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, where we plan to pay our respects. Like the Subantarctic Islands below New Zealand and Australia, South Georgia was also an important stopover during heroic-era Antarctic expeditions, and we look forward to sharing this history with you.

Soaring albatross and petrels circle the vessel as we steam southward through the cetacean-filled Scotia Sea. Our lectures will now concentrate on Antarctica and there is some good whale watching to be enjoyed. Look out for our first iceberg, these otherworldly frozen cathedrals will become part of our daily adventures, each one a unique natural sculpture as we enter the realm of more than 20-hours daylight. Relax in the ship’s bar, catch up with some reading in the library or download and edit photos to free up space on your memory card.

Early season Antarctica is an especially magical time pairing long clear days with an abundance of wildlife and spectacular lighting. Even the most novice photographer can’t help but take exceptional photos with the low hanging sun creating epic sunrises and sunsets, washing icebergs, ice, sea and sky in vivid colours.

Our voyage is timed to coincide with the arrival of the breeding season, when Antarctica’s wildlife converges in full force and mating behaviours at chaotic penguin cities can be observed. Icebergs, frequently clad with Chinstrap and Adélie Penguins, are also at their most captivating. Landings here are frequent, maximising the long daylight hours and the opportunities they present, eventful, occasionally unexpected and always exciting.

We have 5 days, each with more than 20-hours of daylight, to explore multiple historic and wildlife rich landing sites, hidden bays, quiet coves and walk on the ice and snow of the Seventh Continent. Prepare to be dwarfed by nature as we discover alien landscapes and elaborate icescapes of unimaginable beauty carved by wind and waves. Look for, and walk among Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adélie Penguins; Weddell, Leopard and Crabeater Seals; in the water Humpback and Minke Whales fill these important feeding grounds along with Orca. Birders can gaze skywards for Cape, Storm and Snow Petrels, our constant companions while in Antarctica, along with predatory Antarctic Skua and the curious, ground-dwelling Snowy Sheathbill – the only bird in Antarctica without webbed feet.

While specific landings cannot be guaranteed, they could include the following, and many other exciting opportunities:

Elephant Island

It’s hard to believe this hostile environment of mostly vertical rock and ice cliffs sustained 22 crew from Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition/Endurance Expedition for four-and-a-half months after their ship Endurance sank in the Weddell Sea. Elephant Island, part of the South Shetland archipelago, is also the starting point of Shackleton’s legendary rescue mission which would see him, and five of his crew, sailing the small lifeboat James Caird to South Georgia followed by a 36-hour hike to Stromness.

Brown Bluff

This scenic setting in the Antarctic Sound marries sheer stone walls, fallen boulders and ice-capped peaks is the location of a large, bustling Adélie Penguin rookery, where Gentoo Penguins and Snow Petrels can also be observed. Brown Bluff also offers exceptional views of the pink-tinged Madder Cliffs in Kinnes Cove.

Whalers Bay, Deception Island

Taking its name from a prolific whaling history and the island’s ‘hidden’ entrance, Whalers Bay is a designated Historic Site tucked away in a small natural harbour used by sealers and then whalers from the 1820s. The buildings, structures and artefacts linked to these activities represent the most significant whaling remains in the Antarctic. It’s also the location of a ‘heated lagoon’ and fascinating microclimate courtesy of volcanic activity with Antarctic Tern, Cape Petrel, Kelp Gull, Skua and Wilson’s Storm Petrel all breeding here.

Cierva Cove

A visit to Cierva Cove is sure to be a highlight as you weave through this magnificent body of water navigating astounding calved icebergs and ice sculptures set to the soundtrack of pops and crackles as air bubbles trapped for millennia escape the brash ice surrounding your Zodiac. Cutting deep into the spine of the Antarctic Peninsula, if we are lucky, we may see huge slabs of ice sliding down the 1,300-metre mountain chain. Ten species of bird breed here including a Chinstrap Penguin colony, Humpback Whales are regular visitors and the plant life includes mosses (Drepanocladus uncinatus), turf (Polytrichum alpestre) and Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia Antarctica). Argentine research station Base Primavera is also located here.

Petermann Island

Petermann Island might be small, at just 1-kilometre long, but this volcanic outpost boasts some incredible features. More than half the island is covered by a permanent icecap and the island is both Antarctica’s northernmost Adélie Penguin colony, and southernmost Gentoo colony. It’s also the wintering site of renowned French Explorer Captain Jean-Baptiste Charcot’s second French Antarctic Expedition (1908–1910) aboard his aptly named ship Pourquoi-Pas? (Why Not?). Anchoring in a cove he named Port Circumcision, Charcot carried out extensive scientific, cartographic, and biological research and left behind a number of artifacts still visible today including the letters ‘PP’ engraved in stone. An Argentine refuge hut and commemorative cross signifying the deaths of three members of the British Antarctic Survey in 1982 can also be found on the island.

Port Lockroy, Goudier Island

Location of the famed Penguin Post Office, the world’s southernmost post office, Port Lockroy’s safe harbour in the Palmer Archipelago has attracted explorers, whalers, scientists, and sailors for more than a century. Featuring a young-ish (mid-80s established) Gentoo Colony, and historic sites and museum including Britain’s Base A, part of a wartime mission code-named Operation Tabarin, all set among a backdrop of snowy mountain ranges and ice caps, a visit to the time capsule that is Port Lockroy never disappoints.

Paradise Bay

Once the anchorage site for whalers’ floating factory ships, Paradise Bay is now considered one of Antarctic Peninsula’s most stunning locations delivering the ultimate, unrestrained, iconic and pristine Antarctic wilderness experiences just north of the legendary Lemaire Channel. Going beyond otherworldly to other planetary, expect towering mountain peaks, ancient glaciers jutting out of steely blue water and shimmering icebergs the size of buildings floating on water so millpond calm (weather permitting) it perfectly mirrors this incredible scene. Whales, Gentoo Penguins and Crabeater Seals are all known to frequent these waters and both Argentina’s Almirante Brown and Chile’s González Videla research stations are located here.

Cuverville Island

Cuverville Island combines a stunning, ice-capped landscape where steep cliffs and a boulder-strewn beach meet Antarctic Peninsula’s largest Gentoo Penguin population (home to some 14,000 birds), while its shallow bay features astounding monolithic grounded icebergs perfect for Zodiac exploration. With two-thirds of the island covered by a huge, pointed dome icecap and mostly steep surrounds, there is just one landing site where whaling artefacts, including whale bones and a whalers’ dam, can still be found. There is also the opportunity to stretch your legs where a moderately challenging uphill hike rewards with a new perspective and jaw-slackening panoramic views over the Errera Channel and the surrounding glaciers.

En route to Ushuaia we cross the legendary Drake Passage and experience one of the world’s great ocean crossings. Take time to rest after the adventures of Antarctica, look for whales and enjoy shipboard life.

Early this morning we will arrive in the Ushuaia Cruise Port. After a final breakfast, we bid farewell to our fellow voyagers and take a complimentary coach transfer to Ushuaia International Airport. In case of unexpected delays due to weather and/or port operations we ask you not to book any onward travel until after 12 noon.

During our voyage, circumstances may make it necessary or desirable to deviate from the proposed itinerary. This can include poor weather and opportunities for making unplanned excursions. Your Expedition Leader will keep you fully informed. This tour offers a variety of activities and excursions. Your personal interests will determine which of these you wish to join. Please note that some activities and excursions will run at similar times, and it will not be possible to participate in both. Accordingly, refunds for excursions and missed landings are not available. Voyages are planned and scheduled pending final regulatory approval.