Antarctica, Patagonia and Rio 2025

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

We will visit the most important highlights of the city, which may include the following: Discover the history of the Plaza de Mayo Square, the site of Argentina’s most important historical events – see its surroundings and the most emblematic buildings and learn all about them.

Then enjoy Mayo Avenue and wonder in awe at the oldest residential neighbourhood in Buenos Aires: San Telmo. Live and feel the original Tango in the neighbourhood of La Boca: walk along Caminito Street and enjoy the Dancers and souvenir shops. See the mythical Boca Juniors soccer stadium. Contemplate the modernization of the city whilst traveling along Puerto Madero and its exclusive docks, full of excellent restaurants and large of~ces. Pass through the Retiro neighbourhood and move on to see Palermo and its most exclusive residential area before ~ finally arriving at Recoleta.

Here you will enter into the Recoleta cemetery with your guide. Experience shadowed walkways with towering marble mausoleums that are rich in Art Deco, Art Nouveau, baroque and neo-gothic architectural styles. You will ~nd the ~nal resting place of Eva Peron, “Evita”, along with many other notable people. During the tour you will enjoy lunch at a local restaurant and on the completion of your tour, you will be taken to your hotel.

Buenos Aires - Ushuaia

Fly to Ushaia, the southernmost city in the world.

Buenos Aires to Ushuaia flight – included in package

Check into your beautiful hotel overlooking the Beagle Channel with spectacular views of the imposing Andes Mountain Range.

Ushuaia – Expedition ship

Free morning to explore town.

Late this afternoon board our expedition ship.

Leave behind the towering shores and sheltered waters of the Beagle Channel for the two day crossing of Drake Passage.

Surrounded by nothing but sea, shadowed by albatross and petrels, you realise that a trip to the Antarctic Peninsula is a journey to the most remote reaches of our planet. Along the way, as well as the conference, you will begin to learn about the wildlife, history and ecology of Antarctica. But nature is unpredictable and uncontrollable – so we might get “Drake’s Lake” or the “Drake Shake”.

Accommodation: on board

Beagle Channel and Drake Passage

Our expedition ship has a state of the art stabilising system and the ship’s doctor will drug us to the hilt if necessary! Cross the Antarctic Convergence where the relatively warmer waters of the subantarctic meet the cold, northward-flowing Antarctic waters and soon you will be rewarded. The excitement builds as you spot the first icebergs in the distance and soon you are surrounded by magnificent sparkling white and blue-tinged ice sculptures of every shape and size that have calved from the Antarctic ice sheet. Sea-birds whirl above you and you will thrill to the site of whales swimming gracefully close by.

Accommodation: on board

Antarctic Peninsula

Antarctic Peninsula

Find out about working life in Antarctica when you visit one of several international scientific research stations. Peak into the tiny Holy Trinity, a Russian orthodox church, complete with priest and assistant… perhaps life in such a remote place at the mercy of nature is the perfect place for a conversion!

Livingston Island, another in the icy South Shetland archipelago, will provide a wealth of wildlife viewing: rotund Weddell seals and fat elephant seals – the males masters of their harems; skuas aggressively protecting their territory; petrels – named after St Peter because they appear to walk on water; and rookeries of chinstrap, gentoo and macaroni penguins – you’ll soon tell them apart – macaronis have a tufty orange “monobrow”

Pass through Neptune’s Bellows into the sheltered waters of Deception Island.

A snow-covered circle of peaks melt into an abstract picture of ash-grey and brick- red slopes, reaching the black-sand beach from which waft clouds of sulphurous steam.

Antarctic Peninsula

Yes, you are in the crater of a “restless” volcano. Pintadoo petrels, their nests on the rocky cliffs, wheel about above you.

On shore, you hear the clacking cacophony and pick up the tell-tale smell of a huge Chinstrap penguin rookery – we are talking 50,000 couples here!!

You can’t help but attribute human qualities to these gorgeous birds as you observe their busy parenting.

You can explore the ruins of an old whaling station. If you are brave, you can even take a dip in the (relatively) warm waters of Whaler’s Cove.

Antarctic Peninsula

Our captain will navigate the spectacular Lemaire Channel, deftly nudging aside ice floes. Over the gentle thrum of the engine expect to hear appreciative sighs of fellow passengers and the click, click clicking of cameras as you glide between 1,000 metre sheer cliffs, their jagged clefts carved by glistening blue-hued glaciers. With luck you will be accompanied by Orca and humpback whales.

At the end of the Channel are a very photogenic pair of tall, rounded snow-capped peaks know as Una’s tits – apparently named after the last woman a couple of workers saw before heading to Antarctica for a 2 year (woman-free) stint!

Aboard your zodiac you weave between spectacular icebergs, colours ranging from sparkling white to aquamarine. Some are enormous flat-topped (“tabular”) affairs, others smaller – perhaps a comfortable spot for a couple of fur-seals to bask. Some have sharp, jagged faces, others are smooth and rounded from the action of water and wind. Imagine being so close to a Minke whale that as he surfaces you are showered with his spume.

Arrive at Paradise Harbour to the dazzling face of a glacier which has carved its way between rugged cliffs, their blue-green patina dotted by patches of orange and yellow lichen. This is when you feel utterly over-awed by nature. Blue-eyed shags nest on the cliffs above you and ashore you discover the stone ruins of a survival hut provide a perfect nesting place for a colony of busy little Adelie penguins.

Antarctic Peninsula

And, an opportunity to send off a few postcards … yes, there is a post office and gift shop because no Unconventional Conventions trip would be complete without a shopping opportunity!

And so much more:

• experts to educate you about all aspects of Antarctica
• history, geography, climate, fauna, flora
• photography instruction
• walking and hiking excursions on snow and ice
• an opportunity to camp on the ice
• sea kayaking (special conditions apply)
• massage/health spa on board

Drake Passage

As you leave this magical place and head across the Drake Passage, reflect on this extraordinary experience and share tales and photos with your fellow passengers.

Accommodation: on board

Drake Passage and Beagle Channel

Round Cape Horn and enter the quiet waters of the Beagle Channel and enjoy a final celebratory dinner and your last night on board.

Accommodation: on board

Ushuaia - Buenos Aires

This morning you will desimbark in Ushaia and be transferred to the Airport where you will fly to Buenos Aires.

Ushuaia to Buenos Aires Flight –  included in the package.

Overnight in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires

You will be collected from your hotel at the appropriate time and transferred to the airport for your onward flight.