Antarctic Peninsula Expedition Micro Cruise by Air & Sea

Embarkation day. The expedition team will collect your checked luggage from your hotel during the morning and transfer it directly to your cabin on board Aureum. Embarkation is between 16:00 and 17:00. Walk to the pier using the credentials provided by Secret Atlas; the team will meet you at the entrance. Mandatory safety briefings before departure. Then a welcome cocktail and dinner as Aureum sails the Beagle Channel : the first evening of the expedition, with the Drake Passage ahead.

The Drake is where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet with nothing to slow them. Aureum's fin stabilisers hold the crossing steady; the programme on board holds your attention: polar science lectures, photography workshops, personal accounts from the expedition team. Weather permitting, time on deck to watch wandering albatrosses trace the swell. The birds are large enough to be genuinely surprising at close range, and the guides know their species on sight. The Antarctic Peninsula appears on the horizon toward the end of day three.

Four full days on the Peninsula. Where we go is shaped by conditions and opportunity: We often sail into the heart of the Antarctic Peninsula through the scenic Gerlache Strait , flanked by jagged peaks. With the aim to explore Wilhelmina Bay , Cuverville Island , Paradise Bay , Lemaire Channel , Deception Island , and the sites between them. Leopard seals on ice floes. Gentoo and Chinstrap penguin colonies. Humpback whales surfacing in the channels. Glaciers calving into water that carries no traffic. And the moment that defines your voyage: landing on the continent and setting foot on Antarctica. Possible locations: Cierva Cove, Trinity Island, Mikkelsen Harbour, Hydrurga Rocks, Hughes Bay, Wilhelmina Bay, Cuverville Island, Errera Channel, Neko Harbour, Paradise Bay, Almirante Brown Station, Dallman Bay, Melchior Islands, Neumayer Channel, Port Lockroy, Lemaire Channel, Half Moon Island, Yankee Harbour, Whalers Bay, Baily Head, Deception Island.

If the flight window shifts, the expedition continues in Antarctica. There is no shortage of Peninsula to explore, and every additional day is unplanned time in one of the most extraordinary places on earth. The final night is at Weskar Lodge in Puerto Natales: farewell dinner, the expedition settling, Torres del Paine in the distance. Aircraft: BAE 146-200 / RJ-85 / RJ-100. Luggage allowance: 25kg checked, 5kg carry-on within standard size limitations.

Checkout and onward travel, weather permitting. The itinerary includes a buffer of up to three additional nights at Weskar Lodge on a bed-and-breakfast basis, at no extra cost; there to absorb any delay to the return flight. If the flight departs on schedule, this is your time in Patagonia to use as you wish. Torres del Paine National Park is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve: glaciers, granite towers, turquoise lakes, wildlife that answers to no one. Activities and excursions bookable separately. Puerto Natales rewards the time. A frontier town with genuine character, exceptional local seafood, and a pace that is entirely its own. After days at the edge of the world, it is the right place to arrive.

Charter flight to King George Island, weather permitting. If the window shifts, departure holds at Weskar Lodge until conditions clear. On arrival, transfer to Aureum. Mandatory safety briefings, then a welcome cocktail and dinner as Aureum sails into the Antarctic Peninsula : four full days ahead, the Drake Passage still to come on the way home. Aircraft: BAE 146-200 / RJ-85 / RJ-100. Luggage allowance: 25kg checked, 5kg carry-on within standard size limitations.

Four full days on the Peninsula. Where we go is shaped by conditions and opportunity: We often sail into the heart of the Antarctic Peninsula through the scenic Gerlache Strait , flanked by jagged peaks. With the aim to explore Wilhelmina Bay , Cuverville Island , Paradise Bay , Lemaire Channel , Deception Island , and the sites between them. Leopard seals on ice floes. Gentoo and Chinstrap penguin colonies. Humpback whales surfacing in the channels. Glaciers calving into water that carries no traffic. And the moment that defines your voyage: landing on the continent and setting foot on Antarctica. Possible locations: Cierva Cove, Trinity Island, Mikkelsen Harbour, Hydrurga Rocks, Hughes Bay, Wilhelmina Bay, Cuverville Island, Errera Channel, Neko Harbour, Paradise Bay, Almirante Brown Station, Dallman Bay, Melchior Islands, Neumayer Channel, Port Lockroy, Lemaire Channel, Half Moon Island, Yankee Harbour, Whalers Bay, Baily Head, Deception Island.

The Drake is where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet with nothing to slow them. Aureum's fin stabilisers hold the crossing steady; the programme on board holds your attention: polar science lectures, photography workshops, personal accounts from the expedition team. Weather permitting, time on deck to watch wandering albatrosses trace the swell. The birds are large enough to be genuinely surprising at close range, and the guides know their species on sight. Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel appear on the horizon toward the end of the crossing.