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Why a Luxury Cruise is the Best Way to See Antarctica

Surrounded by the Southern Ocean and situated at the ends of the Earth, the Antarctic continent is a deep, narrow shelf made almost entirely of ice. Harboring 5.5 million square miles of ice below its surface, the continent covers a wilderness on land and sea where thousands of penguins walk its jagged mountain ranges and whales and leopard seals swim throughout its bobbing icebergs. While Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent on Earth—a landmass larger than Europe and one-and-a-half times the size of the United States—it nearly doubles in size by winter, when sea ice freezes and the continent’s size is only bested by Asia and Africa.
 
Known as “the world’s last frontier,” the continent was only discovered in 1820. And though explorers and travelers alike are vying to visit this great white landscape, it's vital to go during the Antarctic summer when the weather is at its best. Most travelers to the region begin their voyages by boarding ships in Chile or Argentina to make the chilling voyage across the Drake Passage, a confluence of water where the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans clash in a blending of sub-polar and polar waters. 
 
When you travel on an A2A Safaris® itinerary, you will arrive in Santiago, Chile, and either brave the Drake Passage like a true explorer of yesteryear on a luxury cruise charter from Ushuaia or opt to skip the crossing and fly directly to King George Island in the South Shetland Islands on a fly-and-sail luxury cruise. Either way, you will be privy to the continent’s most impressive scenery and wildlife while sailing along ice-filled fjords and among spectacular icebergs. Whether you’re enjoying the company of sea birds, penguins, seals, or whales, each day aboard the ship offers plenty of Zodiac excursions to the continent with polar experts as your guides.