Destination GuideSouth America & Antarctica

Puerto Williams, on Chile's Navarino Island just across the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia, has built out new port infrastructure — including a newly completed 130-meter berthing head — and industry reporting describes it handling dozens of cruise calls in a recent season, positioning it to rival Ushuaia and Punta Arenas as an Antarctic gateway. A second construction phase was reportedly still pending as of that reporting.

Brazil has repeatedly announced a visa or e-visa requirement for US, Canadian and Australian citizens, then postponed it, over the last several years. The most recent reporting points to an e-visa system taking effect around the start of 2026, but given the pattern of delays, don't assume any specific date is final until you've checked directly with Brazil's current entry requirements close to your sailing.

Industry-reported Antarctica visitor numbers ran roughly 118,000 in a recent season, down slightly from roughly 122,000 the season before — a modest pullback reporting attributed mainly to one cruise-only operator sitting out the season rather than falling demand. New ships and operators (including several polar-focused lines that entered or expanded in the region in the early-to-mid 2020s) have kept overall capacity growing even as any single season's headcount moves around.

IAATO (the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators), the association most polar operators belong to, discourages passenger landings from ships carrying more than roughly 500 people, and limits landings to no more than about 100 people ashore at any single site at once. This is a widely-followed voluntary industry standard, not a binding requirement under the Antarctic Treaty System — a proposal to make the 500-passenger rule binding internationally did not reach full consensus among Treaty parties. IAATO membership itself is voluntary, so a non-member operator isn't bound by any of this at all.

IAATO publishes formal decontamination guidance covering boots, clothing and equipment before and after every landing, intended to keep soil, seeds and other organic material from moving between sites or from outside Antarctica entirely. This guidance is reviewed and updated close to every season, including for the most recent season at the time of this guide — expect a real boot-check and cleaning routine before you step ashore each time, not just a formality.

Brazil has moved toward reinstating a visa or e-visa requirement for US, Canadian, Australian and other passport holders multiple times in recent years, each time after a period of visa-free entry, with the most recent reporting pointing to an e-visa system around the start of 2026. Whether this applies to cruise-ship port calls the same way it applies to arriving by air is not something we could confirm with confidence in researching this guide.

We found no evidence of a comparable recent overhaul to Argentina's or Chile's standard cruise-passenger entry requirements, which cover Ushuaia, Puerto Williams and Punta Arenas. That doesn't mean permanently fixed — entry rules anywhere can change — but as of this guide, Brazil is the specific unsettled piece of paperwork in this region, not the Patagonian gateways. Whichever country's stamp you end up needing, confirm your passport has several months of validity left beyond your travel dates -- a common requirement across South American entry rules, and an easy thing to overlook on a trip this far in advance.

Both run small landing-capable ships out of Ushuaia and offer both classic sail-the-Drake itineraries and fly-cruise options that skip the crossing entirely.

All three have entered or expanded their Antarctica programs in the 2020s, running landing-capable ships under the same roughly 500-passenger ceiling as the rest of the specialist fleet.

Ponant's icebreaker-class Le Commandant Charcot runs some of the longest, deepest Antarctic itineraries on the market; the smaller specialist operators in this group focus specifically on polar expedition cruising rather than running it as one region among many.

Runs dedicated, smaller ferry-cruise ships built specifically for the Strait of Magellan and Beagle Channel route, with a Cape Horn landing when weather allows — a different product from Antarctica expedition cruising, since it never crosses the Drake Passage. It's close to the only dedicated operator on this exact route, so a thin shortlist here reflects the market, not a gap in this guide.

Built specifically around the fly-the-Drake model, flying passengers from Punta Arenas to King George Island rather than sailing the Chilean fjords route -- a useful option if you want the fly-cruise shortcut without booking through one of the bigger expedition specialists above.

All run South America coastal itineraries on large mainstream ships, and several market some of these itineraries with Antarctic place names attached — but at this passenger capacity, expect scenic viewing at most, not a landing. These four compete mostly on price and schedule breadth rather than a meaningfully different onboard experience.

Runs the same Buenos Aires-Montevideo-Rio coastal route on smaller, more premium ships than the mass-market four above, with a higher price point and a noticeably different onboard experience -- still no Antarctica landing, just a different version of the coastal product.

Antarctica expedition cruising runs roughly November through March, with the experience shifting across the season: November and December bring long daylight and courting or nesting penguins, January is the busiest and most expensive month with chicks hatched and whales feeding heavily, and February and March bring more relaxed wildlife, fledging chicks and shoulder-season pricing as the season winds down.

Sailing the Drake Passage takes roughly two days each way; one widely-repeated industry estimate suggests most crossings are calmer than the dramatic “Drake Shake” reputation implies, though we couldn't independently verify that specific ratio against a primary source. Flying from Punta Arenas to King George Island takes about two hours and skips the crossing (and the seasickness risk) entirely, usually on a shorter overall itinerary.

A true Antarctica expedition cruise commonly runs somewhere between about $5,000 on the accessible end and $30,000-plus for luxury or extended itineraries, over trips lasting roughly 5 to 35 days — combined itineraries adding the Falklands and South Georgia run toward the longer, pricier end. South America coastal cruising, by contrast, is priced and structured like any other mainstream big-ship region: a small fraction of Antarctica expedition-cruise cost for a comparable number of nights.

Every landing site on this map is explicitly weather- and ice-dependent, and a cancelled landing generally isn't compensated the way a cancelled flight might be -- it's simply part of expedition cruising in a remote place. Travel insurance that covers trip interruption and medical evacuation is worth pricing out for any of the three products here, but especially for an Antarctica expedition sailing given the cost and the remoteness of medical care if something goes wrong.