HIGHLIGHTS
- Be
among the few people on earth who have approached two islands beyond
the Antarctic Polar Circle.
- Outings
and shore visits in Zodiac® inflatables.
- Lectures
and information sessions hosted by our naturalist-guides.
- Hiking
opportunity.
- Wildlife:
humpback whales, gentoo penguins, Weddell seals.
DATES / RATES
Rates are listed per person in USD
|
| Start Date | End Date | Prestige Stateroom Deck 6 | Prestige Stateroom Deck 7 | Prestige Stateroom Deck 8 | Privilege Stateroom Deck 6 | Privilege Stateroom Deck 7 | Privilege Stateroom Deck 8 | Prestige Suite Deck 7 | Prestige Suite Deck 8 | Privilege Suite Deck 6 | Privilege Suite Deck 8 | Suite Duplex | Owner's Suite |
|---|
Mandatory Transfer Package Details:Overnight in Santiago + flight
Santiago/Ushuaia + transfers + flight Ushuaia/Santiago
For
your serenity, PONANT has organised the following included programme
for you, which starts the day prior to embarkation.
The day before
embarkation – Santiago
Transfer from airport to PONANT selected hotel.
In order to organise your transfer, please inform your travel agent, 60
days before departure, your flight number as well as your arrival time
and day.
Meet and greet at the hotel by our local representative. Check-in from
late morning.
Lunch on your own and time at leisure in the afternoon.
Dinner.
Overnight at the hotel.
Embarkation Day
– Santiago/Ushuaia
A light morning breakfast will be served before leaving for the airport
for your Santiago/Ushuaia flight.
Transfer to the airport.
Flight Santiago/Ushuaia selected by PONANT in economy class.
Seats in business class may be available, please contact your travel
agent.
Approximate flight duration: 3 hours
Meet and greet at Ushuaia airport (English-speaking assistance).
Transfer to Le Commandant-Charcot.
Embarkation.
– Cruise on
board your ship –
Disembarkation Day
– Ushuaia/Santiago
Disembarkation.
Meet and greet at the port (English-speaking assistance).
Transfer to the airport in time for check-in of the flight
Ushuaia/Santiago selected by PONANT in economy class.
Approximate flight duration: 3 hours
Seats in business class may be available, please contact your travel
agent.
It is highly recommended to have an international inbound flight the
day after PONANT selected flight.
Rates are listed per person in USD
|
| Start Date | End Date | (Starting from)
Prestige Stateroom Deck 6 | (Mid-range)
Prestige Suite Deck 7 | (High-end)
Owner's Suite |
|---|
Mandatory Transfer Package Details:Overnight in Santiago + flight
Santiago/Ushuaia + transfers + flight Ushuaia/Santiago
For
your serenity, PONANT has organised the following included programme
for you, which starts the day prior to embarkation.
The day before
embarkation – Santiago
Transfer from airport to PONANT selected hotel.
In order to organise your transfer, please inform your travel agent, 60
days before departure, your flight number as well as your arrival time
and day.
Meet and greet at the hotel by our local representative. Check-in from
late morning.
Lunch on your own and time at leisure in the afternoon.
Dinner.
Overnight at the hotel.
Embarkation Day
– Santiago/Ushuaia
A light morning breakfast will be served before leaving for the airport
for your Santiago/Ushuaia flight.
Transfer to the airport.
Flight Santiago/Ushuaia selected by PONANT in economy class.
Seats in business class may be available, please contact your travel
agent.
Approximate flight duration: 3 hours
Meet and greet at Ushuaia airport (English-speaking assistance).
Transfer to Le Commandant-Charcot.
Embarkation.
– Cruise on
board your ship –
Disembarkation Day
– Ushuaia/Santiago
Disembarkation.
Meet and greet at the port (English-speaking assistance).
Transfer to the airport in time for check-in of the flight
Ushuaia/Santiago selected by PONANT in economy class.
Approximate flight duration: 3 hours
Seats in business class may be available, please contact your travel
agent.
It is highly recommended to have an international inbound flight the
day after PONANT selected flight.
ITINERARY
Day
1: Ushuaia, Argentina
Capital
of Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province, Ushuaia is considered the
gateway to the White Continent and the South Pole. Nicknamed
“El fin del mundo” by the Argentinian people, this
city at the end of the world nestles in the shelter of mountains
surrounded by fertile plains that the wildlife seem to have chosen as
the ultimate sanctuary. With its exceptional site, where the Andes
plunge straight into the sea, Ushuaia is one of the most fascinating
places on earth, its very name evocative of journeys to the unlikely
and the inaccessible…
Days
2-3: Crossing the Drake Passage
Use
your days spent in the Drake Passage to familiarise yourself with your
ship and deepen your knowledge of the Antarctic. The Expedition Leader
will first present the IAATO rules of conduct that must be observed
during landings in the region and will explain everything you need to
know about the Zodiac® outings. Lectures about the history and
wildlife of the Antarctic will be an opportunity for you to learn more
about this magical region, where every cruise is a unique experience.
From the ship’s bridge, you will experience exceptional
sailing moments before joining the naturalist-guides on your
ship’s exterior decks to look out for albatrosses, cape
petrels, and other seabirds flying over the Drake Passage.
Day
4: Crossing the Antarctic Circle
Weather
permitting, we'll cross the mythic line of the Antarctic Polar Circle,
located along 66°33’ south of the Equator. This
iconic area demarcates the point from which it is possible to view the
midnight sun during the December solstice. Within this circle, the sun
remains above the horizon for 24 consecutive hours at least once a
year. Crossing this line, an experience known to few people, is sure to
be an unforgettable highlight of your cruise through the polar regions.
Detaille
Island
Detaille
Island is a small island situated off the Loubet Coast in the Crystal
Sound, a magnificent region surrounded by snow-covered peaks. A British
research station was set up there in 1956, ahead of the International
Geophysical Year 1957-58. Like the International Polar Years, organised
for the first time in 1882-83, the purpose of this event was to take a
coordinated approach to the geophysical research conducted by the
different nations. With the island difficult to access, this station
was shut down in 1959. The vestiges of the buildings and sledge dog
pens that made it possible to map more than 4,000 miles around the
island are now maintained by the United Kingdom Heritage Trust.
Day
5: The Gullet
The
sumptuous landscapes of this narrow channel between Adelaide Island and
Graham Land attract all visitors sailing towards Marguerite Bay. It is
like an ice palace, its immaculate white walls reflected in the frozen
mirror formed by the waters of the Southern Ocean, scattered with
icebergs and gleaming blocks of ice. This passage was explored for the
first time by the Jean-Baptiste Charcot expedition in 1909, which
sketched its position. It was then surveyed in 1936 by the British
expedition under John Rymill. It is here in this magical setting that
some of the first subaquatic images of the Antarctic were shot during
Philippe Cousteau’s four-month expedition to Antarctica
between 1972 and 1973.
Pourquoi
Pas Island
Le
Commandant Charcot will land on the coast of Pourquoi Pas Island, so
named in the 1930s by John Riddoch Rymill in honour of Jean-Baptiste
Charcot, who discovered it from aboard his ship Le Pourquoi Pas ?
during his second expedition to Antarctica between 1908 and 1910. This
mountainous island, situated in the north of Marguerite Bay between
Graham Land and Adelaide Island, is 28 km long and 14 km large. It is
scattered with narrow fjords and snow-covered mountains. You will go to
shore in a Zodiac® dinghy with your expedition team and you
could get the chance to observe Adelie penguins going about their
business on the island’s rocky shores.
Day
6: Marguerite Bay
The
icebergs are each more majestic than the next and scattered around the
deep and intense blue waters of Marguerite Bay, one of the most
beautiful regions in the Antarctic. It is delimited in the north by the
mountainous Adelaide Island, in the south by George VI Sound and
Alexander Island, and in the east by the Fallières Coast.
Charcot named it after his wife during his second expedition to the
Antarctic between 1908 and 1910. In 1909, in the southern summer when
the skies are at their clearest, he led an important scientific mission
to map and study this region. The bay is home to a number of cetaceans
and you may get the chance to observe leopard seals or Adelie penguins.
Days
7-8: Expedition to Charcot Island
When
he discovered this island surrounded by sea ice in 1910 from aboard the
Pourquoi Pas ? as he mapped Alexander Island, Jean-Baptiste Charcot had
not be able to get less than 40 miles away from it. Situated in a zone
that experiences frequent low-pressure systems and regular cloud cover,
the island remains in many ways an enigma. It is entirely covered in
ice and sheer cliffs, with the exception of the rocky outcrops
extending over a dozen kilometres in the far north-west. The ice in the
narrowest part of Wilkins Sound has been cracking in recent times, thus
officially detaching this island from its neighbour, Alexander Island,
lying 50 km away. Very few people have landed on this largely untouched
island, whose waters attract numerous seabirds, such as petrels,
Antarctic terns and skuas.
Days
9-10: Peter I Island
You
will then head for the legendary Peter I Island. Located 450 km away
from the Atlantic coast, it was discovered in 1821 by the Russian
explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named it in honour of
the Russian tsar Peter the Great. In 1909, Captain Charcot sighted it
for the first time from aboard the Pourquoi Pas ?, but was unable to
land there: “In the parting mists, one or two miles away, an
enormous black mass shrouded in clouds appears suddenly before us: it
is Peter I Island.” Surrounded by pack ice and with about 95%
of its surface covered by ice, this volcanic island, whose highest peak
reaches 1,640 metres, is protected by ice cliffs some 40 metres tall,
making any approach difficult.
Day
11: At sea aboard Le Commandant-Charcot
Spend
exceptional moments sailing aboard Le Commandant-Charcot, the
world’s first luxury polar exploration vessel and the first
PC2-class polar cruise ship capable of sailing into the very heart of
the ice, on seas and oceans which the frozen conditions render
inaccessible to ordinary ships. Le Commandant-Charcot is fitted with
oceanographic and scientific equipment selected by a committee of
experts. Take advantage of the on-board lectures and opportunities for
discussion with these specialists to learn more about the poles.
Participate in furthering scientific research with PONANT and let us
discover together what these fascinating destinations have yet to
reveal to us.
Day
12: The Gullet
The
sumptuous landscapes of this narrow channel between Adelaide Island and
Graham Land attract all visitors sailing towards Marguerite Bay. It is
like an ice palace, its immaculate white walls reflected in the frozen
mirror formed by the waters of the Southern Ocean, scattered with
icebergs and gleaming blocks of ice. This passage was explored for the
first time by the Jean-Baptiste Charcot expedition in 1909, which
sketched its position. It was then surveyed in 1936 by the British
expedition under John Rymill. It is here in this magical setting that
some of the first subaquatic images of the Antarctic were shot during
Philippe Cousteau’s four-month expedition to Antarctica
between 1972 and 1973.
Days
13-14: Crossing the Drake Passage
If
there is one place, one sea, one waterway dreaded by tourists,
researchers and hardened seafarers alike, it is undoubtedly Drake
Passage. Situated at the latitude of the infamous Furious Fifties
winds, between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands, it is the
shortest route to connect Antarctica to South America. Seasoned
navigators will tell you that you must earn your visit to the White
Continent! As the Antarctic convergence zone where cold currents rising
up from the South Pole meet warmer equatorial water masses, Drake
Passage harbours a very diverse marine fauna. Don't forget to look to
the sky to catch a glimpse of elegant albatross and Cape petrels,
playfully floating about in the wind around your ship.
Day
15: Disembarkation at Ushuaia, Argentina
(Click image to view Ship details)
WHAT'S INCLUDED
- Transfer
from airport upon flight arrival.
- 1-night
accommodation in a 5* hotel the night before embarkation.
- Your
hotel will be confirmed few weeks before your cruise.
- Early
check-in available from late morning.
- Hospitality
desk at the hotel in Santiago.
- Return
flight Santiago/Ushuaia/Santiago selected by PONANT, in economy class.
- Seats
in business class may be available, please contact your travel agent.
- Meals
as mentioned in the programme and beverage package.
- Transfers
as mentioned in the programme.
Your
programme does not include:
- Tips
for the local guide.
- Personal
expenses.
- Other
meals and services not mentioned in the programme.
Please
note:
The
local currency is the Chilean Peso. You will be able to make most of
your purchases in USD (in small denominations) or by credit card,
accepted in most hotels, shopping centres and boutiques. You will also
be able to retrieve Pesos from the ATM’s.
Summer
season in Santiago: temperatures may be very hot, but often between 68
°F (20 °C) and 95 °F (35 °C).
Summer
season in Ushuaia: temperatures vary between 41 °F (5
°C) and 65 °F (15 °C)
We
recommend you wear warm clothing and comfortable walking shoes.
If
case PONANT has not received your full flight details, services start
at the hotel in time for check-in.
OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES
ADVENTURE OPTIONS - Participative Science
- Hovercraft
- Helium Balloon
- Kayaking
- Snowmobiles
- Polar Diving
- Hiking
- Outings And Shore Visits In Zodiac Inflatables
