There is a wonderful mysterious air to the remote island (of South Georgia.) Could it be the breathtaking landscape of enormous mountains that peak unapologetically upwards or possibly the glacial aspects?

Or is it the fact, South Georgia has truly no permanent human inhabitants? Whatever the reason, the only access to this very remote island is strictly (by way of) sea. Maybe it is this fact alone that makes South Georgia such an awe-inspiring travel destination.

There are two mountain ranges here with eleven peaks nearly two thousand meters in height.

During the summer months millions of penguins are joined by thousands of albatrosses and an enormous number of seals. The natural wildlife extravaganza is available for viewing, each year, despite the isolation of the island.

Historically speaking, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton travelled with two members of his courageous crew in order to save the lives of his men. The famed explorer is buried on the island.

On a more cynical note, the first explorer to the island was Captain James Cook. He was quoted as saying that it was an island “doomed by nature to everlasting frigidness and never to feel the warmth of the sun's rays whose horrible and savage aspect I have no words to describe.” Brrr…..quite “chilling” words from an explorer!

Today, there has been a resurgence of interest in the explorer Shackleton. This, in effect, has increased tourism to the area.

Currently, the number of cruise ships has risen from three per year, in the past decade to well over thirty.

In conclusion, it is a wonderful place to view thick, icy glaciers and watch penguins. Bon Voyage Antarctic style!

You will find Iceland located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It lies between the United Kingdom and Greenland.

In the winter, the weather can be mild yet windy. During the summer, the island experiences a damp, and cool climate.

There is still much volcanic activity taking place on this northern island. As a result, the visitor is provided the rare opportunity of viewing magnificent erupting geysers; and “bubbling” pools.

Historically, from the time of the Vikings, the way to get around the island was by horseback. The Viking horses, over the centuries are the descendents of the original horses that arrived with the island's first inhabitants nearly one-thousand years prior. Nowadays, these wonderful purebred companions are the perfect solution in sightseeing the island.

The landscape of Iceland is a vibrant and rustic countryside. As you horseback ride from one bay area to the next, you will travel over elevated trails; observe lava fields (unique to the country), and be treated to a generally, green grassy environment.

Additionally, due to the glacial activity, there are many beautiful waterfalls in existence. You will find this to be a fact when you are traveling inland from the coast.

Hiking is available at the Rhyolite Mountains at Landmannalaugar.

There are fishing villages in the eastern portion of the island as well as glaciers in the south.

You will not be in “want” of sightseeing opportunities when visiting Iceland.

1. Watch for repositioning cruises where a cruise line will offer substantial savings just to reposition its ships. For example, cruise lines are gearing up for Europe voyages starting in May so they are offering transatlantic cruises for as little as $34 per night or for Alaska cruises, you can sail to Vancouver from Los Angeles for as little as $173 per person.
2. Forfeit a view by taking an interior cabin. If you are looking for the cheapest fare then stop looking for a cabin with a view. You won't be spending much time in a cabin anyways so save some money and look for interior or inside cabins. If none is available, then look for oceanview cabins that have an obstructed view.
3. Watch the news and look for unpopular cruises. On November 27, 2007, the MS Explorer cruise ship was evacuated and hours later, sunk off Antarctica. In December, Princess cruises slashed their 17-day South American Explorer cruise prices and offered February 2008 passengers an incredible offer, $999 including airfare to Buenos Aires.
4. If you don't mind being a little adventurous or asking for directions in a foreign place then save some money sailing from an unknown or hard-to-get-to port. Choose a cruise that leaves from Savona, Italy rather than from Rome, Italy and save yourself up to $1,000.
5. Wait for last minute cruise deals where cruise lines drastically reduce fares to fill the ship up. Here you can get free upgrades, free champagne and free onboard credits or a whole suite with balcony for the price of an interior cabin.

If you like these tips, please share this with your friends or digg it. trio

The Map of Antarctica

Satellite image of Antarctica

Because of a high altitude, thin air, coupled with the snow and ice on the surface of the solar reflection, has been the result that the Antarctica becoming the coldest areas in the world, with an average temperature 20 degrees lowers than the Arctic's temperature.

There is a common phenomenon with 12 or more tropical storms (typhoon) in the Antarctica and it is by far the most frequent turmoil, with wind speed above 100km per hour. The France “Dierweier” observation team has detected the wind speed with 100m per second, a wind speed of 12 typhoons three times, and its destructive power is equivalent to 10 times of 12 typhoons. Therefore, the Antarctic is renowned for a characteristic of “very windy.”

Luoerde Amundsen (Roald Amundsen) is the first explorer who reached Antarctica on December 14, 1911. A month later, Robert Scott (Robert Falcon Scott) arrived at the Antarctica. However, Scott and his four companions were dying of hunger due to extremely cold weather in the Antarctica.

Exploring the Beauty of Antarctica

Migration process is usually a tiring and hard journey for the penguins to venture. When they hardly bear on hardships while walking over the time, they will use their fat belly to crawl around the ice or snow.

These emperor penguins have gigantic heads. They are the giant penguins in the world. In general, their height is 90cm, but they can achieve as high as 120cm in height. Their maximum weight is 34kg. These penguins are monogamy but not polygamy, and thus the family structure of them is one wife and one husband. After laying the eggs, mother penguin will hand over the eggs to father penguin. Then the mother penguin goes out in search for foods, while the father penguin incubates the eggs. Every year in March, these penguins will leave the ocean and migrate to different places that they find free from natural enemies to produce offspring. Almost all the penguins from these species will have a mass migration to leave the sea every year. Their two feet walk in a slow pace as tough a baby starts walking to explore their challenging and attractive journeys.

These penguins have small black feathers from the side of the ear pass through their chins and to the other side of the ear. Sometimes, people call them “police officer's penguin.” Their height can extend from 43 to 53cm and weighing 4kg. These penguins are very aggressive, as they prefer to fight. Their reproductive season is in every winter. Mother penguin produces two eggs each time, while the father penguin incubates the eggs. Both father and mother penguins will take turn to take care of their baby penguin.

Young penguins has strict custody and well care from both of their parents, nevertheless, young penguins have to bear on the harsh environmental condition in the Antarctic coupling with the threat from the predators. Therefore, the survival rate for them is relatively low with their low birth rate of 20% to 30%.

Penguins are renowned for loving their nests the most. Sometimes, they steal the neighbor's eggs by conquering other penguins' nests. They monopolize the custody by taking care of other baby penguins that they succeed to steal. Thus, penguins refuse to leave their children even a second as they fear of losing their children. When mother penguin is out in search for foods, father penguin will take strict supervision to their children. Similarly, when father penguin is out for “business affairs,” mother penguin will take over the responsibility to look after their children.

Young penguins stand at the feet of their parents, while adult penguins will use their abdominal features to let their children stay warm. On the whitish and ice-covered land, penguins nest and feed their children. Both male and female penguins will take turn to hatch the eggs. The hatching process takes approximately one to two months.

In order to survive their lives, penguins have to adapt themselves to an extreme weather in the Antarctic. Therefore, they always walk in a crowd close to other penguins with their back facing out. Their ancestors have taught them how to walk against the cold and strong winds with the speed of 160km per hour. The penguins that walk out of the group will always rotate to the middle of the group to get warmth. The empty place left by them will be filling by the penguins in the middle group. They will always take turn to get warmth. The spirit of unity ensures them to store the energy in their bodies to continue to survive at the harsh environmental condition in the Antarctic island.

Antarctic seabirds breed in the summer. They breed their eggs mostly in the Antarctic Peninsula and Sub Antarctic Islands, with one to two eggs each time. Male and female birds will take turn to hatch the eggs. They share their responsibility to take care of their young children. After three months, they teach their children how to swim and how to search for foods. The main characteristics of the Antarctic seabirds are their ability to fly, to land on the land, iceberg, on top of the water and icecaps. They feed on shrimps, fish and squids.

Antarctic swallow or commonly known as the Antarctic pigeon as its appearance resembles the pigeon. Antarctic swallow is the most beautiful seabird among the bird species in the Antarctic Island. They inhibit in the Antarctic region throughout the year and thus they are “indigenous tribes” as compared to other birds that tend to migrate to the north of the Polar Regions when the season changes.

Skua is a natural enemy for penguins. Skua has about 0.7m in length. Its body has a covering of black, blue, green, shining and bright feathers. Besides that, Skua has a long hooked beak and a pair of strong wings.

Skua, a type of bird mostly flies over the Antarctic Island and seldom stays close to the water. However, sometimes when searching for foods, Skuas will fly near offshore to capture its prey. Skuas have a marvelous flying ability to adapt itself to the extreme climate conditions in the Antarctic Island.

Antarctic fur sea lion, a type of seal, which is also called sea wolf. Its head and facial appearance resembles a dog or a wolf, and its long beard looks as if a lion. The fur sea lion has about 2m in length and weighing 150 to 200kg. They do not like to live in groups, and only 3 to 5 of Antarctic fur sea lion will stay together.

Chinese Antarctic expedition team has named this region as the Great Wall Bay. Behind the Great Wall Bay is an island of penguin and the ice on this island never melt off throughout the year.

The winds in Antarctica are strong with a maximum wind speed accelerates to 100m per second. Years and years, the strong winds erode, grind and construct the stones by shaping them into a diverse and unique shape of rocks and stones.

Lichen is one of the oldest plants on Earth. It belongs to a kind of primitive type of lower plants, and they are the most widely distributed species found on the island of Antarctica. Its growing rate is relatively low, with the growth of 1mm every 100 years.

Penguins can be seen everywhere near the station in the Antarctic. Three penguins were lining up in a sequence to walk towards the station, while the other three rooted on the ground by paying great interest to the helicopter.

The station was located in Fildes Peninsula on the island of King George, which is the largest island in South Shetland Island. Approximately 85% of the island has a snow cover. Its location is in the low latitude areas of Antarctica, surrounded by sea with a characteristic of marine climate, and thus this area is also known as “tropical” in the Antarctica. Its annual average temperature is -2.8°C.

Antarctica has its surface covered with tremendous amount of iceberg. Most of the iceberg forms in spring and winter. The warm weather at these periods causes the glacier or ice edge to split at a tremendous speed. Greenland glaciers alone have 10,000 pieces of iceberg forming up each year.

At the high latitude of Antarctic, there will be a bright light phenomenon flashing through the long dark night. Very often, this colorful and endless changes in the Earth's Aurora is caused by a huge discharge phenomenon occurred in the atmosphere, approximately 100km above the ground.

Tourism in Antactica has been only going around for around 10 years, but it has already showed

tourists how Antarctica is different to the other world.

How to get there

You can start your journey to Antarctica from Perth (rarely), Tasmania, Cape Town(South Africa)

and Ushuaia(Argentina). Some tourists use icebreakers such as the Aurora Australis and Polar Pioneer to get there, but they often use cruises that varies from basic to luxury specially built to withstand the cold and break through some ice. You can also use planes to get there, but most are for scientists. When the Antarctic summer starts, planes from Tasmania will start regular flights to Antarctica in public and to continue on to the end of the Antarctic summer.

What is the cost to get to Antarctica?

For air tranport return flights to Antarctica to its only airport, it will cost $900 at least.

Ships to Antarctica costs varies from $700 to $25000, basic ships are the cheapest, while the luxury ones are more expensive.

Sometimes, you can go on icebreakers such as the Aurora Australia, but its mainly to bring and take away scientists and researchers, waste and supplies to Antarctica.

Tourism Issues Facing Antarctica

The bad thing about tourism in Antarctica and its surrounding islands is that more and more people go there every time, and when more people come, more people are crammed into this continent and frighten more penguins such as the gentoo penguin. They also even grab them because they want to hold a penguin, then in then future all the penguins may learn how to defend themselves from humans, researchers and scientist have to be badly wounded if this penguin grabbing continues. And there will be more krill and maybe whales and seals to be fished out of the Antarctic waters.

Conclusion

So in my conclusion, tourism in Antarctica should be limited, and make penguin colonies on the world heritage list to protect the penguins from extinction. More strict rules should be placed in the Antarctic and there should be patrollers watching. I hope then Antarctica will be better.