Антарктида

Antarctica has no immigration or border controls, but visitors to any land or sea south of 60°S need permission from an Antarctic Treaty member country. Your tour / cruise organiser will take care of this but those travelling independently should apply six months in advance. By plane Only five places in Antarctica can handle large, wheeled aircraft suitable for intercontinental flights in potentially hazardous conditions: • Villa las Estrellas (TNM) on King George Island, 200 km north of the Antarctic Peninsula. This has a gravel, all-seasons runway, and receives 2-hour charter flights from Punta Arenas between December and February. These flights require clear skies, but nearly all proceed as scheduled (98% as of January 2025 according to Lindblad, up from 85% previously). This is a common transfer point for visitors joining small-ship cruises of the islands and Peninsula. …

See also: Cold weather Antarctica is an extreme environment, and accidents are unavoidable. Weigh up the risks and your own abilities before committing to a trip. By sea is how most visitors arrive. The southern oceans are never calm, and often very rough even in summer, with hurricane-force winds and 20 m / 70 ft waves. The ship is designed to handle this so your main risks are three days of upchucking, being thrown about, falling down a stair well, or having heavy doors or items crash into you. Always have one secure handhold, and in severe weather stay in your cabin. Trips won't venture ashore in poor weather but it may deteriorate: be extremely cautious when returning in a zodiac and follow crew instructions on when to hold still and when to cross onto the landing stage. If you fall in, your survival time in these waters is less than a minute. …

Antarctica has a very fragile environment. Penguins live at the very limit of what is survivable and are especially vulnerable in the brooding / hatching season. Some habitats have extra protection and you may not enter these. Interfering with wildlife is illegal and discouraged. Unless you're a trained researcher, don't approach wildlife closely, and even when viewing from a distance try not to surround animals which might confuse or frighten them. At the same time, don't feed or help animals even if they would die without your help; if you did, it would interfere with the "survival of the fittest" and would have negative long-term consequences. Leave no trash. Antarctic treaties require the equivalent of leave-no-trace camping. …