EASTside Magazine’s Travel Editors Top Bucket List Destinations: 2023 Edition
The Final Continent: Touring Antarctica
Textbook images of hard-to-reach Antarctica become reality when venturing to the last frontier on Earth.
From the Americas to Australia, every inch of human-occupied land is feasibly accessible to anyone able to afford a plane ticket. Isolated islands and landlocked mountain countrysides are all open to tourists looking to visit them. Plenty of people can cross off six continents on their bucket list, knowing they’ve seen the majority of the world, but south of the tip of Argentina is a sliver of rock and ice still waiting for those brave enough to see it.
By plane or boat, curious travelers looking to see the native habitat of penguins can make their way to the frozen lands of Antarctica. The former offers a chance to take a charter plane ride into the vast interior of the South Pole. Camp out and observe Emperor Penguins waddle around their natural habitat. The boat skips over the rough waters of the Drake Passage and takes visitors deep inside the perpetual winterly lands. For those willing to ride out the waves, sail from the tip of South America, landing on the Antarctic Peninsula where glaciers tower over the rocky beaches. Those brave enough to venture here will see a vast horizon of snowy terrain that only a handful of people ever see.
By Deven Wilson
