Highlights of Antarctica Expedition Cruise

At HX Expeditions - we explore some of the world's most remote locations and as such, in many of these locations, sophisticated medical services are few and far between. Medical care at sea is limited, and often emergency sea and air services may also be inaccessible, particularly in the polar regions. It is therefore vital that you make us aware of any current or past health issues, and as such we require a Medical Screening Form to be completed for Expeditions to Antarctica.

The Health, Safety and well-being of you our guests and our on-board crew are our top priority, and we want to ensure that all our guests are fit for travel. On board all our ships, we will have a qualified physician, which have a small, limited medical facility with basic medical supplies and equipment. Still, that makes it more difficult to diagnose and treat even the simplest conditions. This often leads to missed diagnoses, worsening conditions, a greater burden of chronic disease, and in some cases, unnecessary costly medical disembarkations.

Our promise to you is that if your Medical Screening Form is declined for medical reasons as determined by Vikand Solutions, we will refund you of all bookings made by HX up until the date of declinature. This includes all applicable flights, hotels and ground transportation. Rebookings can be made at no additional cost, subject to applicable booking conditions.

For more detailed information on this topic, click here.

We require all guests (including children) to submit and complete the Medical Form prior to departure to Antarctica.

Complete the form online through the Vikand Medical portal. It includes sections for both you and your doctor to fill out. You can begin the process up to 120 days before your sailing start date. Group bookings: access opens 90 days before your sailing start date. To start, Vikand will verify your name against our passenger list. If your name isn’t found, please contact HX or your local travel agent(if you booked through one) to ensure your name has been added to the booking exactly as it appears on your passport. For Doctor’s section - if your doctor can't sign the form, please consult an alternative or use Vikand’s online doctor service.

To make sure you receive important updates about your Medical Screening Form, we’ll send a verification email to the address you provided. Please check your inbox (and Spam/Junk folders) and click the verification link to continue. Once verified, you can complete the Guest Section of the form. If you don’t receive the email, try using an alternative address for future updates.

Please note: We only accept the Medical Screening Form available through Vikand portal and has been specially designed for HX sailings to remote destinations.

A suite with HX is a premium, all-inclusive experience designed to elevate your expedition cruise. Suite guests enjoy priority boarding, access to the Lindstrøm fine-dining restaurant, premium drinks, laundry, welcome champagne, and much more. It’s the perfect way to indulge your inner explorer.

To travel to Antarctica, the closest place to depart from is the southern tip of South America, from where you can take a ship or plane.

Most flights go from Punta Arenas in Chile to King George Island in Antarctica, which takes two hours. From King George Island, you then need to take a ship to reach the Antarctic continent or other islands. There are also limited flights to the interior of the continent, where you land on a runway of blue ice!

Alternatively, you can fly to Antarctica from Cape Town, South Africa, or sail from Australia, from South Island, New Zealand, or from Ushuaia, Argentina.

On a HX Expeditions trip to Antarctica, you can cruise in comfort on one of our state-of-the-art ships that are outfitted for the purpose of making your trip as enjoyable and rewarding as possible. We offer expedition cruises with a variety of different itineraries so you can find the one that suits you best.

We recommend choosing an Antarctic cruise provided by a reputable company with modern ships and top experts to help you understand and get the most from your incredible opportunity. Coming to such a pristine wilderness, we also consider it of the utmost importance to take care to protect the environment and keep it unspoiled.

At HX Expeditions, we offer expedition cruises to Antarctica with a variety of different itineraries, so you can find one that suits you best. Simply get in touch with our knowledgeable experts – they’re always happy to help. They can talk to you and ask you about your preferences to help you choose your dream trip to Antarctica.

Once you’ve chosen a cruise, our friendly teams can give you expert advice on topics such as what you need to pack for Antarctica.

Antarctica is teeming with animal life. Even though it’s one of the least hospitable places in the world, the wildlife there is spectacular.

The largest animals of all are found around Antarctica – whales. The whales found here include blue, humpback, Minke, sperm, and beaked. It’s also thought that Antarctica has the largest population of orcas (a type of dolphin) to be found anywhere in the world. In addition, many other types of dolphins are found here. Seals abound, including fur seals, leopard seals, elephant seals and sea lions.

Penguins are the most common birds in the Antarctic, where there are about 20 million breeding pairs (40 million birds). There are 18 different species of penguins in Antarctica, and while most are migratory, the Emperor Penguin and Adélie Penguin remain on the continent year-round, hatching their eggs among the bare rocks. Other birds found here include albatrosses, petrels, skua, prions, fulmars, shearwaters, gulls, terns and cormorants.

Some of the most notable differences between Antarctica and the Arctic are the differences between the animals found there. While penguins are emblematic of the Antarctic, there are no penguins in the Arctic. Moreover, there are no land mammals, reptiles or amphibians in Antarctica, so there are no Polar Bears! In fact, the only terrestrial vertebrates in Antarctica are birds that are found on the sub-Antarctic islands – the South Georgia pipit and freshwater ducks.

Further down the food chain are huge numbers of krill, fish and squid that nourish the marine ecosystem. In fact, the vertebrates living in Antarctica are almost entirely dependent on the Southern Ocean surrounding the continent for sustenance.

Invertebrates in Antarctica include earthworms and molluscs, as well as spiders, beetles and flies – though these are mainly confined to the warmer sub-Antarctic islands. There are no flying insects on the Antarctic continent itself – only tiny nematodes and the Antarctic springtail arthropod are able to survive and complete their lifecycles there.

It gets very cold. In fact, Antarctica is the coldest continent on Earth. The lowest temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth was recorded at Vostok research station, where the temperature once fell to −89.2 °C during winter.

However, the temperature varies considerably with the location, weather and seasons in Antarctica.

The coldest parts of Antarctica are in the interior of the continent, away from the coasts. Even during the summer, the interior remains below freezing with an average temperature of between −20 °C and −35 °C. The average temperature here during the coldest months is between −40 °C and −70 °C. It gets so cold because the sun doesn’t rise here in winter. Ever in summer, the sun remains low in the sky, so its rays are spread out over a wider surface area than they are in warmer parts of the world.

The warmest parts of Antarctica are the coastal areas, where the maritime climate keeps temperatures slightly higher. The average temperature during the coldest months here varies from −20 °C to −30 °C, while the mid-summer average temperature is about 0 °C on the coast.

The Antarctic Peninsula and the islands around it extend the furthest northwards towards the equator. Here, midsummer temperatures remain mostly below 0 °C, but can reach as high as 15 °C on occasion.

Research indicates the rate of climate change in Antarctica is greater than the global average.

No, polar bears don’t live in Antarctica. In fact, there are no land mammals living there.

Polar bears are found in the Arctic, which is located around the northernmost region of the planet, and while they do move south of the Arctic Circle, they remain in the colder northern latitudes.

Interestingly, the name ‘Arctic’ comes from the Greek word for bear. This is because the constellation Ursa Major – also known as the Great Bear – is always visible there. The name ‘Antarctic’ means ‘opposite to the Arctic’.

If you’re interested in spotting polar bears, you might like to see our expedition cruises to Arctic destinations such as Svalbard.

IAATO (The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators) protects Antarctica by advocating and promoting safe and environmentally responsible private sector travel to Antarctica that has no more than a minor or transitory impact on the Antarctic environment.

IAATO does this by providing a forum for more than 100 travel companies in the travel industry to cooperate and share their expertise, opinions, and best practices.

You can read more about the work of IAATO here.