We sail south on splendidly outfitted and surprisingly comfortable ice-strengthened ships and even an icebreaker, complete with bar/lounges and libraries, and private baths for most cabins. (They also have a clinic and physician on board, and satellite telephone, fax and e-mail capacities) On-board naturalists lecture, hobnob, and help identify the Last Continent’s lavish wildlife. Our voyages from Ushuaia, Argentina, head into Drake’s Passage, where crabeater, Weddell, and leopard seals, pods of orcas, and fleets of seabirds bring the seas and skies to life. We weave in and out of celebrated ice and sea-mountain passages, and Zodiac ashore on the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Shetlands and spectacular South Georgia Island to hike, study, and photograph the teeming wildlife.

On the icebreaker we visit and socialize with the Emperor Penguins, we travel along the coast and investigate and explore the huge frozen continent by zodiac and helicopter and we call on such fascinating places as McMurdo Sound, the mysterious Dry Valleys and the Ross Sea. On first seeing mainland Antarctica from the Ross Sea, Robert Falcon Scott observed with bookkeeperish precision that “the golden light on this wonderful scene of mountain and ice satisfies every claim of scenic magnificence.”

For the more adventurous among us, a number of our voyages even offer sea kayaking, camping, mountaineering and cross country skiing.