Antarctica

The beautiful Antarctic Peninsula extends a welcoming arm north toward South America’s Tierra del Fuego as if beckoning visitors. This, the warmest part of the continent, is Antarctica’s major breeding ground for seabirds, seals and penguins.

• photograph eye-popping scenery and ice at Paradise Harbor; Lemaire Channel and Char-lotte Bay are similarly astounding
• maps
• listen to 200,000 braying adélie penguins on Paulet Island
• transport
• knock back a throat-burning pepper vodka at the convivial bar of the Ukrainian station Academician Vernadsky
• restaurants & accommodation

Coverage includes: Central Peninsula, Charlotte Bay, Cuverville Island, Danco Island, Rongé Island, Neko Harbor, Useful Island, Waterboat Point, Paradise Harbor, Port Lockroy, Anvers Island, Melchior Islands, Booth Island, Lemaire Channel, Pléneau Island, Pe-termann Island, Yalour Islands, Argentine Islands, Southern Peninsula, Detaille Island, Adelaide Island, Marguerite Bay, Stonington Island, Northern Peninsula, General Bernardo O’Higgins Sta-tion, Astrolabe Island, Hope Bay, Joinville & D’Urville Islands, Dundee Island, Paulet Island, Brown Bluff, Weddell Sea, Vega Island, Devil Island, James Ross Island, Seymour Island, Snow Hill Island, Ronne Ice Shelf, Filchner Ice Shelf, Halley Station.

Severe and spectacular, East Antarctica is the land of the polar plateau and the continent’s coldest temperatures. The icebound coast, with its massive ice shelves, is broken up by the occa-sional ice-free oasis, or teeming seabird or emperor-penguin colonies.

• zip around the world in seconds at the Geographic South Pole
• maps
• visit Mawson’s ‘Home of the Blizzard,’ Commonwealth Bay
• transport
• tour the base and learn about cutting-edge experiments such as IceCube at Amund-sen-Scott South Pole Station
• restaurants & accommodation

Coverage includes: East Antarctica, Neumayer III Station, SANAE IV, Troll Station, Schirmacher Hills, Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, Syowa Station, Dome Fuji, Mo-lodezhnaya Station, Mawson Station, Scullin & Murray Monoliths, Lambert Glacier & Amery Ice Shelf, Larsemann Hills, Vestfold Hills, Mirny Station, Bunger Hills, Casey Station, Dumont d’Urville Station, Commonwealth Bay & Cape Denison, Leningradskaya Station, Concordia Sta-tion & Dome Charlie (Dome C), Vostok Station, Dome Argus (Dome A), South Pole.

This chapter contains the Welcome to Antarctica, Antarctica’s Top 15, Need to Know, If You Like…, Itineraries, Planning Your Adventure, and Regions at a Glance chapters from Lonely Planet’s Antarctica guidebook.

Your journey to Antarctica starts here. You’ll find the tools to plan your adventure: where to go and when, how much to budget, plus in-depth info on picking your tour or cruise.

• tailor-made itineraries, arranged by region, themes and events
• list of highlights and best experiences
• everything you need to know about planning a wildlife-, history- or science-themed trip
• user-friendly country overview ensures you won’t miss a thing

Coverage includes: Welcome to Antarctica, Antarctica’s Top 15, Need to Know, If You Like Wildlife, History, Adventure, Icebergs & Glaciers, Science, Remote Reaches, Itineraries, Planning Your Adventure, and Regions at a Glance.

The explorers of the Heroic Age, who sailed the Ross Sea region’s ice-choked waters, gained a crucial foothold here for exploration of the interior. Around the Ross Sea, Antarctica’s richest historic heritage is on full display.

• feel the chill of the ghosts of the polar party who never returned at Scott’s Terra Nova hut
• maps
• puzzle over fantastic natural wind-sculptures at Dry Valleys
• transport
• peer into marine aquariums at Crary Lab at Mcmurdo Station to see local sea life up close
• restaurants & accommodation

Coverage includes: Cape Adare, Possession Islands, Cape Hallett, Cape Washington, Mount Melbourne, Terra Nova Bay, Drygalski Ice Tongue, Franklin Island, Norden-skjöld Ice Tongue, Dry Valleys, Ross Island, Ross Ice Shelf.

The wild waters of the Southern Ocean surround Antarctica and isolate it geographically, bi-ologically and climatically from the rest of the world. Scattered around these waters are the is-lands that early explorers and sealers encountered before they found Terra Australis Incogni-ta.

• brave the surging swells to reach Deception Island’s giant chinstrap rookery
• maps
• view rare nesting albatross at Prion Island
• transport
• ring the bells at the evocative old Whalers’ Church of Grytviken
• restaurants & accommodation

Coverage includes: Ushuaia, Cape Horn, Islas Diego Ramirez, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Stanley, East Falkland, West Falkland, Antarctic Convergence, South Georgia, South Orkney Islands, Laurie Island, Signy Island, South Shetland Islands, Elephant Island, King George Island, Penguin Island, Nelson Island, Greenwich Island, Half Moon Island, Livingston Island, Deception Island, Other Peri-Antarctic Islands, Heard & McDonald Islands, Macquarie Island, New Zealand’s Sub-Antarctic Islands.

This chapter contains the Antarctica Today, History, Environment, Wildlife, Antarctic Science, Directory A–Z, Transportation, and Behind the Scenes chapters from Lonely Planet’s Antarctica guidebook.

All the info you need on everything from history, wildlife and the environment to flights, pub-lic transport, climate, money, the internet... you name it. Get tips for women travellers, gay and lesbian travellers, travellers with disabilities, and travellers with kids. And get the most out of your conversations with a handy language guide and glossary.

• a rundown on Antarctica’s astounding variety of unique wildlife
• info on the range of science research underway on the continent
• full coverage of the story-book history of Antarctic exploration
• details on the geography of the continent, and the effects of climate change

Coverage includes: Antarctica Today, History, Environment, Wildlife, Antarctic Science, Directory A–Z, and Transportation.