Ending its near sell-out Antarctic season with a 20-night voyage from Ushuaia to Cape Town, the cultural expedition cruise pioneer announces what’s in store for explorers of the “White Continent” in 2025-2026. The ice-class Swan Hellenic cruise ship SH Vega sailed into Cape Town from Ushuaia, bringing the cultural expedition cruise pioneer’s 2023-2024 Antarctic season to a close.
And a very successful season it’s been. The figures speak for themselves. Almost 3,000 guests chose Swan Hellenic to discover the continent, and stateroom occupancy averaged just shy of 90%. Guests from the USA and UK continued to account for the majority, with an increasing number from China and Brazil. Bookings for the 2024-2025 Antarctic season are already equally strong on the back of powerful online buzz.
It’s clear that Swan Hellenic’s cultural expedition cruises have now built a strong reputation for being desirably different, with their elegant but informal boutique ships, expertly curated itineraries, gourmet cuisine, specialist talks and hands-on expeditions.
Marking the moment of SH Vega’s Cape Town arrival, Swan Hellenic has released full details of its 2025-2026 Antarctic Season, giving ample time to secure a booking in the face of this increasingly strong demand. Offering a wide choice of vacation lengths, the proven 9, 10, 11, 13, 17 and 20-night itineraries continue with subtle enhancements, offering 12 cultural expedition cruises aboard the five-star SH Vega and SH Diana, accommodating 152 and 192 guests respectively. The first cruise of the season departs Buenos Aires on 14 November 2025, and the concluding cruise sails from Ushuaia on 17 March 2026. Full details are already available on the Swan Hellenic Website, where you can also download a complete color brochure.
Swan Hellenic CEO Andrea Zito comments: “We’re delighted with the booming popularity and outstanding reputation we’ve earned for our Antarctica cultural expedition cruises – all true adventures of discovery while always being conducted to the highest standards of safety and environmental responsibility. But, above all, we’re over the moon with the feedback we’ve received from our guests, telling us all about their life-changing experiences aboard and ashore. That’s exactly what we work so hard to achieve and our recently announced 2025-2026 Antarctica cruises have been expertly designed to build even further on everything we’ve learned.”
The voyage to Cape Town was a spectacular 20-night cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina. After crossing the notorious Drake Passage, her intrepid voyagers explored the Antarctic Peninsula in depth and then struck out northeast to Paulet Island, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, subsequently sailing on to Gough Island, part of the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, before finally reaching Cape Town.
Enriching the voyage as part of Swan Hellenic’s Explore Space at Sea Series in partnership with the SETI Institute, cruise guests were accompanied aboard and ashore by Dr. Jeffrey C. Smith, Expert in Planetary Science, AI and Data Analytics. During the voyage, Dr. Smith gave four fascinating talks: “How do Astronomers Find Exoplanets?”, “Yes, look up! Utilizing AI to Find Exploding Meteors and to Help Protect the Earth from Dangerous Asteroids”, “Why do Scientists Love Antarctica so much?” and “Will we ever really find E.T.?”
