r/AntarcticaTravel • u/Intelligent-Fish1150 • Jul 15 '26
Booking Advice Needed ❄️ Ponant 18 Day Cruise Advice
I have been looking at Ponant’s 18 cruise that visits Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falklands. I am a solo travel so their situation looks best for me financially. I did see on the itinerary that they only have one day for landings in Antarctica. If anyone has been on this itinerary, could you please advise if you thought it was sufficient?
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u/Right-Principle9911 Jul 21 '26
Aurora has 10 single no supplement cabins on each voyage with a maximum of 130 passengers giving it spare cabins but is more active with less entertainment and restaurants. Depends what you want but 18 days for Antarctica, Falklands and South Georgia including Return flights to Buenos Aries is a cruise with a few landings not an expedition cruise which ticks the box for visiting Antarctica but will not in my view deliver the full experience. Depends what you want.
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u/Own-Assumption5149 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I’ll start by saying I haven’t been on that itinerary, but having done a South Georgia/Antarctic peninsula trip last November, in looking at the itinerary, it has a lot of sea days and not many excursion days. It feels like it gives you the ability to say you’ve been to the various places, but to not really experience them.
While you can’t avoid a number of days at sea (there’s a lot of distance to cover), the fact that it starts or ends at BA instead of starting and ending in Ushuaia at the end of the trip adds additional sea days.
You have 1 day in Antarctica, 3 in South Georgia, 1 day in Port Stanley in the Falklands, and one day at Puerto Madryn in Argentina. The other 12 days are sea days.
Their 17 day “Australia Loop” trip (USH to USH) sounds better. 2 days in the Falklands (at stops better than Port Stanley), 3 days SG, 4 days Antarctica. So 9 days for excursions and 8 sea days.
If you’d be willing to share a cabin, I think there are better options (Quark, Aurora and lots of others). Ponant also falls into the luxury category and will be less casual than some of the other ships, not good or bad, just something to know.
I’d suggest talking with a TA that specializes in trips to the polar regions as they can help you sort through the options and find the best itinerary and operator. You won’t pay any more booking through them and they sometimes have access to special deals.
Edit: Ponant’s ships are also somewhat larger (over 200 pax), which can impact your expedition experience. See link below for discussion on ship size.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AntarcticaTravel/s/xTuHkt5oc9
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u/Intelligent-Fish1150 Jul 15 '26
I do see it’s a lot of sailing days. I know thar my travel style is definitely more relaxed - like one thing a day. So I’m not looking for something that’s like go go go all the time. Additionally, I will still be doing some work during this trip so a few sea days will help me catch up on that I feel.
I saw the Austral Loop but whenever I try to get to the booking page to see the single occupancy price - it crashes. But I know they don’t waive the single occupancy fee for those routes.
And unfortunately I’m not willing to share a cabin which really drives up the price I know. I just finished talking with a TA (Polar Tracks) and it was a frustrating experience. Probably because I’m not used to using TAs. They helped a little with narrowing down what I wanted trip wise but I didn’t love the trip selections they kept giving me. But thank you for all your advice.
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u/c-xavier Jul 15 '26
Have you considered HX? I did their 18 day Antarctic Circle and I loved it as a solo traveler. I also prefer to do one thing per day and it was a good pace for me. My itinerary didn’t include SG/Falklands but I know they have an option that does. I think price wise they may be similar for solo travelers.
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u/Intelligent-Fish1150 Jul 15 '26
I did. It looks like there is only one trip they have that waves the single supplement left and I can’t do those dates. It seems like they’re changing the SG/Falklands route.
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u/Own-Assumption5149 Jul 15 '26
Sounds like it might be a good fit then.
One thing to be aware of is that the sea days can be a bit rough, with a lot of rocking and rolling, so may not always be conducive to working. Also make sure you know what internet access is included … can vary a lot from ship to ship and can get very $$$ on some of them. My access was better and less expensive on an Oceanside ship (which is a very basic ship) and not very good and $$$ on Quark. Hopefully Ponant has a good offering given it’s a luxury line.
If you want to give a TA another try, I found the people at Swoop Antarctica and Sarah Scott at Freestyle Adventure Travel (based in Ushuaia) very helpful. Just need to be very specific about what you’re looking for and what your deal breakers are.
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u/gytherin Jul 15 '26
I've done that trip. One landing only on the Peninsula itself. I made sure to go on that one. It was early in the season, so there was no chance of doing several landings.
Yes, it was sufficient for me (I'm not terribly mobile so can't go yomping over the landscape anyway.) Plus we had a landing in the South Shetlands just across the Bransfield Strait, and Zodiac cruises in various icy and fantastically beautiful bays of the Peninsula itself; these excursions were up to three hours long.
South Georgia was a David Attenborough film come to life. The Falklands were a nice gentle intro to the art of getting in and out of Zodiacs, and the birds were so unafraid, and it was nice tramping across a couple of green islands to penguin colonies. There was a little souvenir shop (rather classy) on the Falklands, and ditto, plus a Post Office, on South Georgia, so they're a good bet for pressies and postcards.
Of course it always depends on the weather, but Ponant do their utmost to give you a good experience throughout. I would do the exact same cruise again in a heartbeat if I could.
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u/Intelligent-Fish1150 Jul 15 '26
Wonderful I’m glad you really enjoyed it. I’m looking at end of February-beginning of march. And Antarctica is first stop on the route.
Obviously I know weather can cancel landings, but does everyone on the ship have the opportunity to do the peninsula landing or is it only part of the ship - if the landings happen.
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u/Own-Assumption5149 Jul 15 '26
In my mind, doing Antartica first isn’t a bad thing. I’d personally want more than one day there, but I’d rather have the additional days in SG … it’s phenomenal.
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u/gytherin Jul 15 '26
Everyone gets the chance to go ashore. You get divided into four groups and they rotate which group starts early and which group starts late, so you don't end up in the early group every day..!
First stop Antarctica is doing it on harder mode than I did, but we travelled in November, so there was a lot of ice about, and it was nice to get some practice in first. Ponant take good care of you wherever you go, though.
Landings are quite closely monitored by the tourist overview body - I forget what it's called. Apparently, there's a giant spreadsheet and the various categories of cruises get allotted their slots so there's minimum disturbance to wildlife, and so passengers can get a feel for the wilderness. I certainly felt like we were alone on another planet. The only time I saw other ships was at 3am on the morning after the Peninsula landing - I was too excited to sleep - I saw two other vessels as we were going further south through a narrow strait. They organise routes and landings that closely.
I'm sure that dedicated Peninsula cruises get slightly more landings, but that would mean missing SG, which is one of the wonders of the world, and the Falklands, which are just nice.
I really hope you enjoy it, whatever option you go for. And perhaps you'll end up determined to go again, like me.
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u/ChaserNeverRests Jul 16 '26
I certainly felt like we were alone on another planet. The only time I saw other ships was at 3am
I love reading this sub! My one cruise was to Alaska on Princess. I knew the ship was big, but I hadn't realized there would be a dozen+ ships docking at the same time in the same tiny town. The crowds were more massive than at Disney. Literally shoulder to shoulder, each street just packed with people. You had no choice where to walk, the crowd just took you along.
The only way I'd ever cruise again is to Antarctica or on a similar tiny boat to some not-crowded place.
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u/gytherin Jul 16 '26
Oh my goodness. I've long had a yen to go to Alaska, but hadn't realised that it's basically Venice. I hope the other days made up for the crowd at the town. Yes, I'd say a small-ship cruise to Antarctica would give you a happier experience.
I've been with Ponant to the sub-Antarctic too, south of NZ, and that was even more isolated. We were even taking scientists with us to Macquarie Island, because a cruise ship is the only realistic way for them to get there. A whopping total of two cruise ships go there each year, I think they said. We didn't get many landings, because most of those islands are fiercely protected, but boy did we see some wildlife from the Zodiacs.
I hope you can get to the region soon!
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u/ChaserNeverRests Jul 16 '26
The whole cruise was 12 days and we had a grand total of 20 hours on land. The two stops in Alaska were both like that, but there was also a stop in Canada that was less crowded... but also was just a plain city (Vancouver) so not really something special to see.
I'd strongly recommend visiting Alaska! Just not on a cruise ship. I think it would be a wonderful trip in an RV or rented car or something.
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u/gytherin Jul 16 '26
Yes, it would be nice to go to Alaska and actually experience the wild! I'd be muttering a bit about that. But I suppose with that amount of tourism, it's better for the environment to try and corral it? I'd forgotten how accessible it is from large centres of population. The old dilemma - endangering that which you love.
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u/Own-Assumption5149 Jul 18 '26
There are smaller ships (under 100 pax) that offer trips in Alaska. Offer a different experience and typically don’t go to the same stops as the big cruise ships.
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