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Aurora Expeditions · 10 Days
Sail the Drake Passage in one direction and fly over it in the other. Antarctic Explorer gives you the classic sea crossing, days of landings on the Antarctic Peninsula and a short charter flight between King George Island and Punta Arenas.
The Voyage
Antarctic Explorer is what Aurora call a sail and fly voyage. You cross the Drake Passage by ship in one direction and fly over it in the other. On the itinerary below you sail south from Ushuaia, spend four days on the Antarctic Peninsula and in the South Shetland Islands, then fly from King George Island to Punta Arenas in Chile, a hop of about an hour and forty five minutes. You still get the old fashioned arrival by sea, with albatrosses following the ship and the first icebergs looming out of the mist, but the return crossing is swapped for a flight of under two hours.
The direction depends on the date. The 20 January 2027 and 15 January 2028 departures run the other way round: you start in Punta Arenas, fly to King George Island to join the ship, and sail back across the Drake to Ushuaia. Departures also differ in length, from 9 to 12 days, so check the dates table and ask us for the day by day of the sailing you have in mind.
King George Island is the largest of the South Shetlands and home to research stations run by several nations under the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, among them Chile’s Frei Base, whose airstrip makes these flights possible. Punta Arenas has its own place in polar history. It was from here in August 1916 that Ernest Shackleton finally reached Elephant Island aboard the Chilean tug Yelcho and brought home the men he had left there. A clear sky is needed for the flight, so delays can happen, and if the plane cannot go you stay on board until it can.
Every open departure sails on the Douglas Mawson, the newest ship in the fleet of Aurora Expeditions (also known as AE Expeditions), built in 2025 with the Ulstein X-BOW and taking 130 guests on expedition. The 31 January 2028 sailing is a New Scientist edition, run with New Scientist Discovery Tours, which adds expert science talks, workshops and hands on activities, a reading list before you go, an onboard book club and a 12 month digital subscription to the magazine. A Through the Lens photography departure on the Sylvia Earle in January 2027, led by Aurora’s photography guides and guest photographers, is already sold out.
Day by Day
On arrival in Ushuaia you are met and transferred with your fellow travellers to Las Hayas Ushuaia Resort for your included night before the voyage. Check in is from 3pm, and the Aurora hospitality desk in the lobby is open from 3pm to 7pm with your luggage tags and answers to any questions about tomorrow. If you land after 7pm, a welcome pack will be waiting and the desk opens again from 8am to 10am. Dinner tonight is your own. Ushuaia sits on the Beagle Channel with the last peaks of the Andes behind it, and is the busiest gateway to Antarctica by some distance. See our gateway cities page for what to do with a spare afternoon.
Have breakfast, check out and leave your tagged cabin luggage at reception, and it will be taken to the port and placed in your cabin for you. Keep valuables with you. You have a late check out and a hospitality room at the hotel, so there is time for a trek, a wander along the waterfront or a look round the town’s museums before you meet at the hotel lobby or the pier car park at the time Aurora’s ground staff give you. Once on board you settle in and attend the mandatory briefings, then head out on deck as the ship leaves port, with Ushuaia and the mountains of Tierra del Fuego falling away behind. A welcome dinner rounds off the day.
The crossing of the Drake Passage is a chance to settle into life on board. Lectures begin on the history, wildlife and environment of Antarctica, and the Expedition Team take you through the wildlife guidelines and biosecurity checks needed before anyone steps ashore. Albatrosses and giant petrels glide alongside, and between talks there is the gym, the wellness centre or simply a seat in the observation lounge. Sailors rounding Cape Horn dreaded these waters for centuries, and the X-BOW makes the ride far kinder than anything they knew. Somewhere on the crossing you pass the Antarctic Convergence and the sea turns colder, and by the afternoon of day four the first icebergs appear as you near the South Shetland Islands. If time and weather allow, the first landing may come that evening.
Four days on the western Antarctic Peninsula and in the South Shetland Islands, with the Expedition Team choosing each day’s sites according to weather, ice and wildlife. Expect two landings or Zodiac cruises on most days. Out in the Zodiacs you drift past ice cliffs and grounded bergs looking for whales, seals and penguins; ashore there are rookeries to visit, historic huts to find and snowy ridges to climb for the view. In January the penguin colonies are full of chicks, and leopard seals patrol the edges. Optional activities go ahead whenever conditions allow, and keen swimmers can take the polar plunge. The ship may also cruise narrow channels or wait in a quiet bay while whales feed, and the bridge is often open for the best view of all. Daylight lasts up to 20 hours in midsummer.
The ship approaches Frei Base on King George Island and it is time to say goodbye to Antarctica. You leave the ship and board the charter flight north, about an hour and forty five minutes to Punta Arenas, where a transfer takes you to the group hotel for the night. King George Island is one of the most remote airfields on Earth and a clear sky with good visibility is needed for take off and landing, so delays can happen. If the flight cannot go, you stay on board until it can. Leaving the ice in the morning and sleeping in Patagonia the same night is a strange and rather lovely way to end an expedition.
After breakfast at the hotel you say farewell to your fellow travellers and transfer to the airport, both included in the fare. Punta Arenas stands on the Strait of Magellan, which Ferdinand Magellan sailed through in 1520, and the grand mansions around its main square were built on the wealth of sheep farming and the shipping that came this way before the Panama Canal opened. If you can stay on, the city is the gateway to Chilean Patagonia, and Aurora’s five day Patagonia Eco Camp extension starts and ends here. Our gateway cities guide has more.
Every Antarctic itinerary depends on the ice, the weather and the wildlife. The Captain and Expedition Leader choose each day’s landings and Zodiac cruises on the spot, so the order of the days and the places visited can change.
Watch
Antarctic Explorer sails on the Douglas Mawson, Aurora’s newest ship. This short film shows her decks, lounges and cabins.
Video: Discover with the Douglas Mawson, from Aurora Expeditions on YouTube.
2026/27 to 2027/28 Seasons
Antarctic Explorer sails in January and early February, the height of the austral summer, with four departures on sale in 2027 and 2028. This is when penguin chicks are hatching and growing fast, the days are longest and the weather at its mildest. The open departures are all on the Douglas Mawson and start in either Ushuaia or Punta Arenas, running from 9 to 12 days. The 31 January 2028 sailing is the New Scientist edition, while the Through the Lens photography voyage of 25 January 2027 on the Sylvia Earle is sold out. Fares start from £13,510 per person, two sharing, with savings of up to 10% on some dates. Our when to go guide compares the months.
Two departures in the 2026/27 season, on the Douglas Mawson and the Sylvia Earle. One of them is already sold out.
| Departs | Ship | Aurora Stateroom from | Balcony Stateroom from | Suites from | Solo from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jan 202712 days, Punta Arenas to UshuaiaSave up to 10% | Douglas Mawson | £15,380was £17,089 | £16,628was £18,475Limited | Sold out | £16,166Limited |
| 25 Jan 202712 days, Punta Arenas to UshuaiaThrough the Lens photography edition | Sylvia Earle | Sold out | Sold out | Sold out | Sold out |
Three departures in the 2027/28 season, on the Douglas Mawson.
| Departs | Ship | Aurora Stateroom from | Balcony Stateroom from | Suites from | Solo from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan 202810 days, Ushuaia to Punta ArenasSave up to 10% | Douglas Mawson | £13,510was £15,011 | £13,856was £15,396 | £20,370was £22,633Limited | £14,164Limited |
| 15 Jan 20289 days, Punta Arenas to Ushuaia | Douglas Mawson | £14,087 | £14,472 | £21,247 | £13,317Limited |
| 31 Jan 202810 days, Ushuaia to Punta ArenasNew Scientist editionSave up to 10% | Douglas Mawson | £13,510was £15,011 | £14,549was £16,166 | £20,370was £22,633 | £14,164Limited |
Prices are per person in pounds, two sharing, and include Aurora’s current savings. The Solo column is the price for a cabin to yourself. They are taken from Aurora Expeditions’ UK fares on 3 November 2026. The fare includes the charter flight shown in the itinerary, but not your flights from the UK to South America. Aurora adjust fares and offers often, so prices and availability can change daily. Call us on 0333 405 0194 for today’s fare and the full range of staterooms on your chosen date.
Your Fare
Aurora’s fares cover more than many people expect, including drinks, landings and your polar jacket. On this voyage the price includes:
Not included: flights to and from South America unless shown above, travel insurance (which must include at least US$250,000 of medical, repatriation and evacuation cover), optional add-on activities, visas and personal spending. A crew gratuity of US$20 per person per day is added to your onboard account, and you can adjust or remove it when you settle up. For suite guests the gratuity is already included. Our Aurora what’s included page has more detail.
Make More of It
Three optional activities are offered on every open departure: sea kayaking, paddling and snorkelling. Paddling is a gentle way to explore from the water, sea kayaking takes you quietly among the brash ice and icebergs, and snorkelling gives you a look at the world beneath the surface. Places are limited, so book them early. See our activities guide for more.
For Ushuaia departures you can add a two day Ushuaia City Stay before the voyage. Aurora’s other extension tours are a Taste of Santiago (4 days), the Santiago and Valparaiso Explorer (6 days), a Taste of Buenos Aires (4 days), the Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls Explorer (6 days), the Patagonia Eco Camp from Punta Arenas (5 days) and an Atacama Desert Adventure (4 days). We can help with flights and extra hotel nights at either end.
| Add-on activity | From, per person |
|---|---|
| Paddling | £269 |
| Snorkelling | £520 |
| Sea kayaking | £1,024 |
Activity prices vary by departure. Places are limited, they are booked with your voyage, and every activity depends on the weather and ice on the day. See our Aurora activities page for what each one involves.
Questions
You cross the Drake Passage by ship in one direction and fly over it in the other, on a charter flight of about an hour and forty five minutes between King George Island in the South Shetlands and Punta Arenas in Chile. On the ten day itinerary you sail from Ushuaia and fly back. Some departures reverse this, flying from Punta Arenas to join the ship and sailing back to Ushuaia.
It depends on the departure. The 3 January and 31 January 2028 sailings start in Ushuaia, Argentina, and finish in Punta Arenas, Chile. The 20 January 2027 and 15 January 2028 sailings start in Punta Arenas and finish in Ushuaia. As you begin and end in different countries, you will need an open jaw flight ticket, which we can arrange for you.
The flight needs a clear sky and good visibility to land and take off on King George Island, so weather delays are possible. If the flight from King George Island cannot leave, you stay on board the ship until it is safe to fly, so we suggest leaving some slack in your onward plans. Aurora’s booking conditions explain the contingency arrangements in full.
The itinerary shown is ten days, with a hotel night in Ushuaia, two days crossing the Drake Passage, four days on the Antarctic Peninsula and in the South Shetland Islands, then the flight and a hotel night in Punta Arenas. Other departures run from 9 to 12 days, and we can send you the exact day by day for your chosen date.
All the departures on sale are on the Douglas Mawson, built in 2025. She is the newest of Aurora’s three sister ships, with the Ulstein X-BOW, a heated outdoor pool, sauna, two Jacuzzis, a Citizen Science Centre and a lecture theatre, and she carries no more than 130 guests on expedition. The sold out Through the Lens departure is on the Sylvia Earle.
January is the heart of the penguin season, with gentoo, chinstrap and Adélie colonies full of newly hatched chicks. Leopard seals hunt around the colonies and crabeater and Weddell seals rest on the floes. Humpback and minke whales are feeding on krill, and on the Drake crossing you will see albatrosses and petrels. Our Antarctic wildlife guide has more on each species.
The 31 January 2028 departure is run with New Scientist Discovery Tours. Alongside the usual landings and lectures you get specialist New Scientist talks, including a series on how the ocean shapes life and a keynote on space exploration, plus workshops, hands on activities and citizen science. Before you go you receive curated reading and a 12 month digital subscription, and there is a science fiction book club on board.
Yes. Aurora keep up to 10 dedicated solo cabins on every sailing with no single supplement, and if those are taken you can book any available cabin with a 50% supplement. With 130 guests and open seating at meals, the Douglas Mawson is an easy ship to travel on alone, and solo travellers are a regular part of every expedition.
Other Voyages
If time is tight, Antarctic Explorer Express follows the same pattern in nine days, and Antarctic Peninsula: Fly the Drake flies both ways so you skip the crossing altogether. If you would rather sail both ways, Spirit of Antarctica is the classic round trip from Ushuaia. Or browse all our Antarctica cruises.