Antarctica Unlocked

1,000 departures across 14 operators and 39 ships

Cruises visiting Deception Island

79 upcoming Antarctic expeditions with Deception Island on the route, from $7,300 per person.

Deception Island is a flooded volcanic caldera you sail straight into, through a gap in the crater wall called Neptune's Bellows. Inside: black-sand beaches that steam at low tide, the rusting remains of a whaling station, and an eerie, amphitheatre calm.

It is one of Antarctica's most surreal landings — and a favourite spot for the polar plunge, warmed (slightly) by geothermal sand.

Wildlife you can spot here

Wildlife

Gentoo Penguin

A stocky, orange-billed penguin of the genus Pygoscelis, closest kin to the Adélie and Chinstrap. Its loud, trumpeting call, delivered with head thrown back, carries across the shoreline colonies where expedition landings are made.

Wildlife

Chinstrap Penguin

Named for the thin black band under its chin, the chinstrap penguin looks as if it is wearing a helmet. Listen for it before you see it: it has one of the loudest, harshest calls of any penguin.

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