The process to book a trip to Antarctica can be insanely frustrating.
I don't mean physically getting myself to the continent, though getting across the Drake is a challenge in itself. The very act of figuring out how to book it as a backpacker was the most stressful aspect of this trip. I started off researching my options online and was quickly in over my head.
Previous backpackers openly mocked those who spent thousands and thousands to get to Antarctica when they simply showed up in Ushuaia, booked a last minute sailing at drop bottom prices, and set sail the next day.
The problem with these blogs and forums was that they all seemed to have sailed five or more years ago. More up-to-date information was confusing, with some travelers to Argentina’s southernmost city reporting no last minute deals to be found any more or ones that didn't vary greatly in cost in what was offered online.
I went back and forth over which way to go about this for weeks.
It was the most frustrating part of my trip planning and I obsessed over it. In the end, I decided to book my trip more than a year in advance for a number of reasons: I like having a plan, I wanted to SUP (stand-up paddleboard- one of the newest things to do in Antarctica) and only one ship offered it, and I wanted to be on a reliable ship.
So how did it work out?
Wonderfully.
