I’ll do my best to share useful info. When we were planning our trip, I scoured the Internet to find trip reports wherever I could dig them up. But there’s just not a tremendous amount of detailed information out there. So here goes…
Packing tips
First, our cruise went from Ushuaia to Antarctica and back - no Falklands. So that informs some of my packing advice. For instance, we both packed heavy boots and never wore them. On the ship, we most often wore sneakers we could quickly pull on and run around in. And, of course, on land we wore the supplied muck boots. There was zero need for my own boots.
As for clothes, we both packed too much. Our daily go-to outfit ended up consisting of: base layer of Merino wool (very important) followed by sweatpants and a sweatshirt topped with waterproof pants and a jacket. For zodiac cruising, I’d wear my “puffy coat” topped with the supplied jacket from Hurtigruten. But for hiking on land, I left the puffy jacket on the ship. It just wasn’t needed. I can’t tell you how many photos we have where we’ve removed our coats entirely and are walking around just in sweatshirts. When it’s mid-30s and sunny with no wind, you’re plenty warm in Merino wool and a sweatshirt.
I packed two sets of the Merino base layer for each of us, and we definitely needed that. I also packed two pairs of waterproof pants for both of us. We could have done with one pair each, but it was nice to have two. And here’s why…
After your third day or so surrounded by thousands of penguins, you notice the smell clings to your outwear. The supplied jacket, waterproof pants and muck boots got the worst of it. It was nice to have two pairs of pants so that we could rinse them well and let them dry to help with the smell. Pro tip - we left our muck boots in the hall right outside our room when we weren’t using them. The smell definitely sticks to them.
We also both relied on balaclavas at times on the Zodiac. Sometimes, we didn’t need them. But when you’re zipping through the wind and snow is blowing into your face, it feels good to have that cover over you.
Things I didn’t need: special polarized sunglasses - bought them and never wore them; tons of special camera equipment - mostly used our iPhones and Canon and got spectacular photos; expensive outer gloves - wore them once and then relied on normal weight gloves and silk glove liners (these were great on the Zodiac for picture taking while keeping something on your hand).
Packing really does come down to layering. If you get the base layer right, that will go a long way toward keeping you warm. And if your trip is like ours, you’ll find it’s very rarely frigid. It can be really cold on the zodiacs and on open deck when the ship is moving, but when you’re hiking around, we found it mostly pleasant.
Off to bed for now. I’ll do another post tomorrow with info on surviving the Drake. And I’ll share some of my favorite memories. You are going to love this trip so much!
