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🇦🇶Things to Do in Antarctica
From cruising the Antarctic Peninsula to standing among vast penguin colonies - the essential sights, and how to keep your own record of them.
Travel guide - last updated September 2026
Antarctica belongs to no country, governed instead by international treaty and reserved for peaceful and scientific purposes, and almost everyone who visits does so the same way: by expedition ship crossing the Drake Passage from South America. It's a continent of superlatives - the coldest, driest, windiest and highest-average-elevation on Earth - and a trip here is less about built attractions than the sheer scale of ice, wildlife and silence. Here are 4 places worth building a trip around.
Top attractions
The sights most first-time visitors build an itinerary around.
Antarctic Peninsula
The most-visited part of the continent, reached by expedition ship, with dramatic ice cliffs, calving glaciers and sheltered channels navigable by zodiac boat.
📍 Antarctic Peninsula
🚉 Almost every visitor sails from Ushuaia in Argentina, two days across the Drake Passage each way; fly-cruise operators shorten it to a two-hour flight from Punta Arenas to King George Island.
Penguin Colonies
Landing sites across the Peninsula and South Shetland Islands host vast colonies of gentoo, chinstrap and Adelie penguins, often numbering in the tens of thousands.
📍 Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands
🚉 Landings are made by Zodiac from the expedition ship, never independently - IAATO rules cap visitors ashore at 100 at a time and require a five-metre distance from the birds.
Whale Watching
Antarctic waters are rich feeding grounds for humpback, minke and orca whales, commonly sighted from ship decks and zodiacs, especially in late summer.
📍 Antarctic Peninsula
🚉 Humpbacks and minkes are watched from the ship and from Zodiacs in the peninsula bays, at their best in February and March as the season ends.
South Shetland Islands
A frequent first stop for Peninsula cruises, including Deception Island's flooded volcanic caldera, where a landing can include a look at an abandoned whaling station.
📍 South Shetland Islands
🚉 The islands are the first landfall after the Drake Passage - Deception Island's flooded caldera is entered by ship through Neptune's Bellows, a gap barely 200m wide.
Mark Antarctica, get the stamp
In MyPassportStory, every country you mark - visited, lived in, or still on the list - becomes a stamp like these in your own travel passport. Add the cities you stopped in, draw the route between them, and turn the whole trip into a shareable passport-style image.
Open MyPassportStoryPlanning questions
How many days do you need in Antarctica?
A typical Peninsula cruise runs 10-11 days including the Drake Passage crossing both ways; fly-cruise options that skip part of the crossing can run shorter.
What's the best time to visit Antarctica?
The travel season runs November-March (Southern Hemisphere summer). Early season favors pristine snow and penguin courtship, later season favors whale sightings and penguin chicks.
Is Antarctica good for a first-time visit?
It's a significant undertaking best suited to travelers prepared for a dedicated expedition cruise - there's no independent or budget-airline access, and the Drake Passage crossing can be rough.
Do I need a visa to visit Antarctica?
Antarctica has no visa regime of its own since no country holds sovereignty over it, but you'll need a valid passport and, depending on nationality, may need a visa for the South American port city (typically Ushuaia, Argentina) you depart from. Check that country's official visa information: argentina.gob.ar.
What are some things to do in Antarctica on a tight budget?
There isn't really a budget way to visit Antarctica - expedition cruises are the only practical access and carry a significant fixed cost regardless of cabin class, though booking a last-minute berth in Ushuaia can sometimes bring meaningful savings.
Can I rent a car in Antarctica, and what licence do I need?
No - there is no rental, no roads and no public transport of any kind. Every visitor arrives with an expedition operator, by ship from Ushuaia or on a fly-cruise from Punta Arenas, and moves ashore by Zodiac under IAATO rules that cap landings at 100 people at a time. The Antarctic Treaty governs all activity, and operators handle the permits your own country requires. What is worth planning instead is the season, roughly November to March, and travel insurance that explicitly covers Antarctic evacuation, which standard policies exclude. Operator standards are published by IAATO at iaato.org.