Arctic or Antarctic: how to pick your polar adventure

Can’t decide between the Arctic or Antarctic for your polar adventure? Our guide will help you choose between 66° north or south

The North and South Poles were only “conquered” in relatively recent history. The South Pole was first attained in 1911 by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen after his epic race with the ill-fated Robert Falcon Scott.

The conquest of the North Pole is a little murkier thanks to its location in the middle of the Arctic Ocean among waters that are almost always covered with shifting sea ice.

It’s possible that Frederick Cook was the first to reach the North Pole in 1908 or perhaps it was Robert Peary in 1911 or maybe Richard E. Byrd who was the first to fly over it in 1926… But it wasn’t until Roald Amundsen’s definitive flight over the Pole on 12th May 1926 that the first consistent, verified and scientifically convincing attainment of the North Pole was recorded.

Polar exploration has long sparked the public’s imagination and in recent years travellers’ appetite for adventure means there is even more on offer than ever before.

Arctic or Antarctic?

Kia and I have been fortunate enough to cross both Polar circles. Between us, we chased the Northern Lights, trekked the Arctic Circle Trail and observed the midnight sun in Svalbard and Greenland. Most recently, we visited Antarctica on a 10-day expedition to the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula and then Svalbard on an 8-day Svalbard expedition.

I would like to tell you that having crossed off these bucket list items, I can move on. But I can’t. Instead, I suspect I have caught the “polar bug”.

I would return to the Antarctic in a heartbeat and I still want to see the Canadian, Russian, Alaskan, Swedish and Finnish Arctic. Not only is it an overwhelmingly beautiful landscape, home to some of the planet’s most extraordinary animal life but there are countless more places to see beyond the peninsula: South Georgia, the Falkland Islands, the Auckland Islands, the Ross Sea.

If you’ve dreamt about visiting these frigid lands but are unsure which destination is right for you, our guide should help you choose between the Arctic or Antarctic.

Sustainability

As the world faces unprecedented challenges in the form of climate change, it’s more important than ever that we make the right decisions when visiting sensitive ecosystems such as…