You Are Invited: The Mammalwatching Antarctica Cruise, January 2027
A trip to Antarctica has been at the top of my bucket list for the past 20 years and so I’m very excited to be heading there in January 2027 along with others from the mammalwatching community.
Inspired by the success of a cruise around Svalbard in June – which was made more successful (and much more fun) because there were 10+ mammalwatchers on board – I have been looking into Antarctic options for the past few months. And I’ve been sharing my thinking with the group who expressed interest when I first floated the idea in August.
Thanks to their advice we chose this cruise in January 2027 organised by Naturetrek, the UK-based wildlife tour company.
The trip summary is linked here. It stood out from other options for several reasons:
- Naturetrek have chartered this trip so – beyond our mammalwatching.com contingent – the other passengers on board should be serious wildlife watchers, which is obviously not the case for most Antarctic cruises. This is going to maximise our chances to find things and to persuade the captain to change plans when we do. Imagine if we saw a Leopard Seal hauled out on the ice but were not able to jump in a zodiac because breakfast was about to start….
- The Naturetrek guides are excellent and have a great record on these trips. They saw a Spectacled Porpoise for example on their trip last year (I can dream) among 22 marine mammals.
- We are on the MV Plancius. This is a smaller ship (108 passengers) but stable and ice strengthened, and has enough zodiacs for everyone to leave the ship at the same time.
- It is a 19 day cruise (so a day longer than most of the ‘long’ itineraries) and includes 4 days on South Georgia, plus the Falklands and of course the Antarctic Peninsula.
What about the price? For many of us this will be a once in a lifetime trip. The price for this one starts at just over 16,000 GBP. Not the cheapest trip on the market but very far from being the most expensive. Given the itinerary length it offers good value.
Now throw in the chance to spend 19 days surrounded by the world’s friendliest and coolest wildlife community … well some might say this cruise is a bargain. At any other moment I would say my daughter Katy will disagree at the idea anything I do being ‘cool’… but she is coming on this trip so I suspect she may be quiet. For once.
The ship is set to depart Ushuaia on January 20 and return February 8 2027. I think everyone who has booked so far has chosen the ‘land only’ option and we are planning to add a few days at the start and/or end to look for other mammals in Argentina. I am still thinking about this but one target will include Franciscana (La Plata River Dolphins) so when you book please let me know if you are interested in joining any pre or post tour. Argentina is a wonderful country and if you have even more time to spend there I can offer ideas and connect you to an excellent local mammal guide.
Full details of cabin types and the itinerary are attached. If you book with Naturetrek please let them know you are with the mammalwatching group and let me know too so I can keep track. And if you are looking to share a cabin then I can look to put you in touch with others looking for a cabin mate so you can see if you are a good match. 19 days is quite a commitment…
Ten of us have booked already and with at least another 8 people set to sign up soon. So this is already on course to be the world’s biggest mammalwatching convention. I can think of no better place to celebrate mammalwatching.com’s 21st birthday!
Jon
Antarctica Cruise
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