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Antarctica: The New Travel Frontier
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Submitted by by
Kim Kinrade
1 year(s) ago
(via
travelmills.com
) |
One of the largest undisturbed land-masses on earth is Antarctica with a size of over 14 million square miles. Although it has no indigenous people in the summer its population swells to over 35,000 people including 5,000 scientists and almost 30,000 tourists. So why would anyone want to see a place with absolutely no trees or sustainable vegetation of any kind?
The sheer beauty of Antarctica and its animal inhabitants are the stuff of vivid documentaries but nothing takes the place of seeing a colony of Emperor penguins up close. Nor can the sight of huge ice formations and the nights near the South Pole be duplicated on film. It must be seen.
There are many Antartica cruises that take tourists into the Antarctic Ocean waters and most trips last from 10 days to 3 weeks. These tours take pace within the ice-free coastal zones during the Antarctic summer, a five-month window from November to March where, in mid-summer, there can be over twenty hours of daylight. Cruise ships could get in before or after that time but there is a lways a danger of ice closing in. In this situation either the itinerary gets cut short or the ship could be in peril from the ice. So many tour companies will not chance it.
The cost for one of these cruises begins at $5,000 for a double-occupancy cabin and, of course, you will pay more for better accommodations. Add to this the cost of airfare to the beginning destination, which could be Christchurch, New Zealand or Hobart, Australia, for tours of the Eastern Antarctic, or Ushuaia, Argentina, for the Peninsula region.
Unlike most cruise ships the schedule on an Antarctic voyage relies less on entertainment as it does on knowledge-based programs. This means that instead of magicians or jugglers you will find well-informed guides who give regular lectures on Antarctic chronological history as well as natural history. On the smaller ships the passengers can socialize with these people as well as the captain and crew.
There are no visa requirements for Antartica (except for normal country-of-departure rules) but there are rules set up by the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) that oversee such items as the size of the ship allowed to enter Antarctic waters and those that dictate protocol while ashore. Although a voluntary organization, IAATO rules are strictly adhered to by its members for the preservation of Antarctica.
One of these rules is that only 100 passengers at any one time can set foot on any one landing spot in Antarctica. Now, if a tourist is on a small ship of only up to 100 passengers then he or she will get the chance to go ashore every time. However, if the ship is larger then landings may be limited.
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