New Fly/Sail options to the Antarctic Peninsula

By guest blogger Steve Newman

Aurora Expeditions have launched their Antarctica brochure for 2011/2012, showcasing their brand-new Fly/Sail options to the Antarctic Peninsula and their celebratory voyages to East Antarctica and Commonwealth Bay to celebrate the centenary of Sir Douglas Mawson's Australian Antarctic Expeditions.

These 26-day voyages are Aurora Expeditions' most adventurous in scope, with extended sea crossings and the chance to explore the pack ice edge, where much of Antarctica's marine life, including whales, seals and penguins, can be found. The voyages will visit Mawson's Hut and the abandoned French base at Port Martin, and the working research station of Dumont d'Urville. Prices start from $17,475 per person, twin share.

The voyage, "Emeralds of the Subantarctic," is a 13-day expedition focusing entirely on the stunning islands south of Australia and New Zealand. This one-off voyage takes in Macquarie Island and Campbell Island, the Auckland Islands and, depending on sea conditions, a rare Zodiac cruise of the Snares Islands. This region contains the greatest diversity of seabirds in the world, often in astounding numbers. It's a tremendous opportunity to visit a wildlife wonderland. Prices for this voyage start from $7,325 per person, twin share.

Aurora Expeditions have also announced new Fly/Sail and Sail/Fly options, associated with their South Georgia & Antarctica Peninsula voyages. The Fly/Sail options have been designed to reduce sea time on these journeys. On two of the South Georgia voyages, participants will fly from Santiago in Chile to join the ship in The Falkland Islands, and on a third, the trip finishes in Stanley and participants fly to Santiago, reducing travel time by two days. The Fly/Sail voyages are 17 days in duration, with the first taking place from the 12th-28th November 2011, with kayaking and photography options, the second fom 5th-21st January 2012 with kayaking options, and the third from the 21st January-6th February 2012, again with kayaking options. Prices start from $11,685 per person based on twin share.

For the Antarctic Peninsula region, Aurora Expeditions are also offering Fly/Sail voyages for Christmas and New Year 2011/2012. The trips will travel south to the Antarctic Circle to visit remote regions such as The Gullet and Crystal Sound. The Christmas 10-day Sail/Fly voyage takes place from the 19th-28th December 2011 with prices starting at $7,340 per person, twin share, while the New Year Fly/Sail 9-day voyage takes place from the 28th December 2011-5th January 2012. Prices start from $6,525 per person, twin share.

For more information on Aurora Expeditions, visit http://www.auroraexpeditions.com.au/

We're on Countdown Central here at Chez Veness, ready for our big epic adventure of the year - off to Chile and a week's cruise with Nomads of the Seas followed by a post-cruise stay in the capital Santiago.

It marks the start of our loose 'theme' with World of Cruising magazine for 2010, the whole subject of adventure cruising and the best ways to do it in different parts of the world.

We have already highlighted the new Adventure Cruise Collection just published by our sister company The Cruise Line Ltd, but our subjects for the magazine promise to go into a lot more depth in each case.

We will open the Spring edition with the great Pacific North-West, exploring the little-known region between Seattle and Vancouver (including the charming San Juan islands), and then go on to present Chilean Patagonia in all its splendour. After that, we go on to sample river-cruising in Indo-China; the classic Norwegian Coastal Voyage of Hurtigruten; the Galapagos with Haugan Cruises; Alaska in the company of American Safari Cruises; and discover how to enjoy a true African safari with your cruise.

But, for now, we are suitably excited about the prospects of a flight from Miami to Santiago and then Santiago to Puerto Montt (both with LAN Airways, about whom we hear good things) to meet up with Nomads and their unique operation.

It is certainly one of the most unusual and enticing trips I will have tried as editor of the magazine, and one which has been a long-standing ambition since I first saw the BBC TV documentary series Flight of the Condor back in the 1970s.

The whole region of sub-equatorial South America has long been a major fascination for me and this will be the ideal opportunity to discover if the fantasy lives up to the reality. We should get to see a lot of the Chilean Andean landscape and its wildlife (the whole week is subtitled as a Wildlife Cruise), and I will have the camera very firmly primed for lots of pictures - many of which you will see in our Summer edition.

Following that up with a few days in Santiago and a chance to visit the neighbouring wine country should be equally captivating. It is a city and region about which I know little (apart from what the Lonely Planet guidebook has told me so far!), but it promises to add an extra dimension to our trip.

So you'll have to excuse me if I seem a little distracted this week. But it should be worth waiting for...!

Set Sail for Adventure

Here at Cruise Central (i.e. anything to do with World of Cruising magazine and The Cruise Line Ltd!), we have set our sights very much on adventure cruising as our 'theme' for 2010, if you like.

And, the more we have looked into it, the more we have discovered a truly rich and rewarding array of possibilities for not only cruise adventures, but life-enriching experiences of ALL kinds.

In compiling our forthcoming new Adventure Cruise Collection (more details in due course!), we have found there is a magnificent variety of voyages to all corners of the earth, each with an upmarket aspect but also with something that marks them out as utterly unique.

Just take a look at any of the following:

Aqua Expeditions on the Upper Amazon in Peru

American Safari Cruises for small-scale experiences in Alaska, the Sea of Cortez and Hawaii

Festiva Sailing Vacations for catamaran sailing in the Caribbean

Sakkara for luxury, personal voyage on the legendary Nile

Quasar Expeditions in the amazing Galapagos Islands

And Sultans of the Seas for yachting in the stunning Maldives

All feature true luxury, genuine, one-off experiences and a level of personal service that the big ships just can't provide. They also have that spirit of adventure which is such an important prospect for many people on vacation these days.

We have also been fortunate to get to know the wonderful Nomads of the Seas operation in Chile, where their purpose-built vessel the MV Atmosphere offers superb sailing and distinctive exursions into the heart of Patagonia, one of the world's true great wilderness areas, and packed with astonishing wildlife, local culture and vast scenic panoramas.

We will be venturing further with Nomads in the near future (including a trip to Chile's capital, Santiago, and their wonderful wine country), so watch out for our full story of their excellent adventure opportunities both here on our Blog and in the Summer edition of World of Cruising (publishing early June).

And keep an eye out for our new Adventure Cruise Collection brochure!