ANTARCTICA

[natty]

it is a long held dream of mine to go to Antarctica, i looked at a couple of websites and found some treking type 'holidays' which look fantastic. has anyone been? if so do u have any tips when choosing which packages to take. cheers!

[Toffee]

My daughter is in Antarctica and has been for nearly two years. British (and other) Antarctic Surveys are not keen on tourists trampling round interfering with their experiments and possibly leaving foreign bodies. Everything taken on (and that includes foul waste) must be taken off again. We investigated visiting her but it proved prohibitively expensive. I believe there is a facility for civilians to be carried on military flights from Brize Norton, but that only gets you to Port Sanley in the Falkand Islands. It might be better to investigate flying to Uruguay or Argentina or even the US and picking up a cruise ship. Some do visit some of the less remote outposts, such as King Edward Point, the BAS station on South Georgia. Americans seem to like to visit Shackleton's grave at Grytviken. Only so many at a time are allowed ashore. The terrain can be extremely dangerous ascan some of the animals. The travel is only possible in the southern summer (roughly corresponding tonorthern winter). The southern ocean is no place to be in winter. I would first of all visit the BAS website, go to living and working and then browse round the monthly diaries written by base members. There are plenty of stunning photographs.

[Toffee]

On re-reading your question I suspect the trekking holidays you've spotted must be in Patagonia or the islands round Tierra del Fuego. If this be the case they could be very well organised and safe, but it is not what most of us understand as Antarctica.