Antarctica is one of the least visited places on Earth, not only because it’s really cold and unpredictable, but also because being cold and unpredictable makes it really expensive! I have seen Antarctic cruises priced at upwards of ,000, but who really has that kind of money in their 20s? Maybe some do, but not me! So when I started looking for a cruise to Antarctica, I was looking for a deal!
I started with a few criteria in mind: the cruise and airfare had to be under ,000 total, and the cruise had to have the maximum amount of available shore excursions. That’s how I found the Basecamp Adventure with Oceanwide Expeditions!
The Basecamp Adventure boasted a solid five days of kayaking, mountaineering, camping, and frolicking with the penguins. That sure fit the second criteria, but when it came to expenses, I would be cutting it close. Oceanwide Expeditions was charging almost $8,000 for a quad dormitory-style berth on board, and the first time I looked at airfare, I was looking at $1,500 for a roundtrip fare from Los Angeles to Ushuaia!
While that was within my budget, I am a very cost effective beaver, and I did some shopping around the internet. There are a lot of different booking companies that match people (and beavers) with potential cruises, and that’s how I found Swoop Antarctica! Swoop is a British-based company that books adventures in Antarctica and Patagonia. They had a listing for the Basecamp Adventure but for $6,000, rather than $8,000! Wow!
The Swoop team was really helpful at answering my questions about Antarctica, and I had a couple of great Skype chats with Luke, Swoop’s Managing Director, all the way across the Atlantic. After a few chats, I still wasn’t sure if I would be able to afford the trip, but Luke was happy to reserve a spot for me for a few weeks while I decided.
That’s when I found my airfare deal! American Airlines and LAN had flights from Los Angeles to Ushuaia for $875 roundtrip! That was about half of what I thought I would need to pay! That settled it for me. About six months ahead of the departure date, I booked my trip south!
So at the end of the day, booking with Swoop saved me close to $2,000, and the cheap airfare gave me extra money for travel insurance and my Argentinean reciprocity fee! The price I finally paid gave me roundtrip passage to Ushuaia, a comfortable bed with nice roommates, three delicious meals a day, and 3* solid days of going ashore on Antarctica for adventures!
So if the White Continent is on your bucket list, be a smart shopper! There are lots of ways to book the same cruise. If you take the time to compare and contrast, you are bound to find a deal that works for your budget!
*Should have been 5, but we got pushed back by a storm crossing the Drake Passage.