While researching Antarctica trips, you may wonder about the huge differences in among different tour providers. So what's the explanation for this? There are many reasons, from quality of the ship to the company's reputation. Then again, the biggest factor is clearly the tour package you pick.
Cheap Package One sure thing is if you get a too-cheap offer from a tour company, there's bound to be a catch somewhere. Maybe the staff is not well-trained or the vessel is very old or you can only stay on the actual continent for a very short period. but the experience will likely be as cheap.
Luxury Tour
There are so many luxury cruise ships that travel to Antarctica, and if this is the experience you're into, then you'll be thrilled. These ships can give you all kinds of comforts that you can picture, like hot tubs, masseuses, bars - name it and you'll likely find it! Luxury Antarctic cruises may also include flight tickets to the Peninsula, which means you can skip the Drake Passage, the roughest seas in the world, if you want to. Some trips are much longer, starting from, say, Montevideo in Uruguay and ending up in Valparaiso in Chile. Expectedly, these personalized experiences can be rather expensive, even amounting to $25,000 (or more) at times! Do you actually have to spend such a fortune to visit Antarctica? Probably not as the ships are often large sizable enough to accommodate many, many travelers.
Last-Minute Cruises
You might have heard about those decent Antarctica cruises that are well under USD$5000. These are last-minute bookings, and "last minute" means really super late. And often, you will have to go all the way to Ushuaia to be on local tour providers' waiting lists. When previously booked slots are suddenly free, as when someone cancels their booking, they might put you in. However, you might only be given a day or two's notice, which means you could stay a week or longer in Ushuaia with no assurance of getting booked.
What to Do
Like everyone else, you want a reputable and responsible Antarctica tour company, but what if you don't have the money to pay a lot? Tip: go for the least expensive cabin on the ship! Your Antarctica experience will be the same - from services to destinations to activities and more - except that you won't be sleeping in a plush room. You won't be staying in there a lot anyway.