Ninety degrees south
A flight of 2,400 kilometres into the interior to the geographic South Pole, which fewer than 500 people visit each year, and a passport stamp.
The South Pole and Emperor Penguins
From Cape Town to an emperor colony and the Pole, in one week.
- Seven nights
- Three stays
- Antarctica
- Expedition, polar, wildlife, private flights
A flight of about five and a half hours from Cape Town to a blue-ice runway, and a camp on the ice. From there, a day among emperor penguins at Atka Bay and a flight of 2,400 kilometres across the continent to stand at 90 degrees south, where fewer than 500 people arrive in a year, with a night under canvas on the polar plateau on the way back.
- Length
- Seven nights
- Pace
- Three stays
- Style
- Expedition, polar, wildlife, private flights
- Route
- The coastal camp to The South Pole
- The coastal campThree nights
- The South PoleOne night
- The coastal campThree nights
01
Days 1 to 4 · three nights
The coastal camp
Landing on the blue-ice runway, with a welcome drink chilled with 10,000-year-old Antarctic ice. A two and a half hour flight to Atka Bay, then on by PistenBully to walk among emperor penguins at a respectful distance; by December the chicks are losing their down, and they often come close. A hike above the ice sheet to a lookout over untouched peaks, with a champagne picnic.
Where you stay
White Desert, Echo
Echo Base was conceived with the astronaut Buzz Aldrin and sits alone on a wide glacier, its pods shaped by the look of the space age. Each heated pod has floor-to-ceiling one-way glass and its own shower, and the camp has a sauna, ice plunge, massages and a yoga dome.
02
Days 4 to 5 · one night
The South Pole
A ski-equipped Basler aircraft over the mountain ranges, refuelling at Dixie's Camp at 83 degrees south, then on to the geographic South Pole, 3,000 metres up on the High Polar Plateau, for a passport stamp. Back to Dixie's to sleep under canvas, as the polar pioneers did.
Where you stay
White Desert, Dixie's Camp
Dixie's Camp lies at 83 degrees south on the high polar plateau, the refuelling stop on the 2,400 kilometre flight from the coast to the Pole. Guests sleep here under canvas on the way back, in silence and an unbroken horizon, before breakfast and the flight back to Echo.
03
Days 5 to 8 · three nights
The coastal camp
Breakfast on the plateau and the flight back, with a celebratory dinner. Then a day of hikes, abseiling, a nunatak climb and talks from the camp's explorer team on lesser-known Antarctic history and record-breaking expeditions, and a cliffside trail with IFMGA mountain guides. A last drink in the ice bar by the runway, among sculptures carved from ice, before the flight to Cape Town.
Where you stay
White Desert, Echo
Echo's floor-to-ceiling windows look across the glacier and the midnight sun, and fresh ingredients are flown in each week for the camp's chefs. Days run from glacier hikes and nunatak climbs to ice caves, fat biking and cross-country skiing, and a photographer records the whole stay.
Arranged on request
A night at 83 degrees south
On the way back from the Pole, a night under canvas at Dixie's Camp on the High Polar Plateau, in silence and an unbroken horizon.
Emperor penguins at Atka Bay
A short flight and a PistenBully to the colony; by December the chicks are moulting into juvenile feathers, and by late January the colonies disperse to the sea.
Antarctica told by explorers
Evenings with the camp's explorer team on the lesser-known history of the continent and its record-breaking journeys.
The cliffside trail
A demanding hike along a cliff edge above the ice, led by IFMGA mountain guides.
Subject to availability.
Ways to make it yours
- Two nights in Cape Town before the flight south.
- The Cape Winelands after the return.
- Nights at Whichaway, White Desert's original camp, among rare exposed rock and freshwater lakes.
This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.
Made around you
Most travel is bought. This is designed.
Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.
The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.
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