Luxury Travel Advisor - April 2008 - (Page 48)

CRYSTAL SERENITY’s penthouse suites offer the most space in which to enjoy the Antarctic scenery (above; left). 800 miles in a small lifeboat to South Georgia Island, they were found safe and sound when he returned with a rescue ship more than three months later. There are plenty of chinstrap penguins along the shore and around the memorial that commemorates Shackleton’s return, along with ancient moss colonies (more than 2,000 years old) for cruisers to check out. On Deception Island, cruise passengers can take a quick dip in Antarctic waters, because the shallow shore waters actually are the thermal springs of a dormant volcano (the most recent eruptions were back in the early 1990s). It’s also a great place to see chinstraps by the thousands, as well as the remains of an abandoned British Antarctic Survey base known as Operation Tabarin (it was last used in 1969). Crescent-shaped Half Moon Island is chock-a-block with chinstrap penguins and languid fur seals clustered along large pebbled beaches and a large colony of blue-eyed shags, terns and kelp gulls and, if you’re lucky, whales making the rounds along the shorelines. Between the Scotia and Weddell Seas, Coronation Island was discovered by American and British sealers in 1821. It has since served as a base for Scottish, French and Argentine sealing and scientific expeditions. It’s also an opportune place in which to take a zodiac cruise between the multi-hued glaciers at Shingle Cove, meet up with a slew of Adelie penguins and see the sunlit Sunshine Glacier and Mount Nivea rising high above the sea. In the Falklands, war and history buffs can opt for a one-hour drive to the charming village of Stanley, where quaint buildings sport brightly painted corrugated-metal roofs, and British bobbies keep the peace. There, they can visit the battlefields of the 1982 Argentinean-British conflict. Clients also can visit the memorials for the Welsh Guards and Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Considered a bird-watching paradise, the Falklands afford the opportunity to see gentoo, king and magellanic penguins, as well as elephant seals and sea lions along the white-sand beaches (enthusiasts will spot blackbrowed albatross, giant petrels and caracaras). Tip: The Falkland Wool Center near the pier offers the best prices on Falklander sweaters, and the Victory Bar on Philomel Hill serves up the best fish and chips. A compelling combination of snow-covered peaks, blue glacier ice and emerald-green bays, South Georgia Island is where Shackleton was buried in 1922. It’s also home to an extraordinary number of sleepy elephant seals, reindeer and king, macaroni and rockhopper penguins. Inside a whaling house built by the Norwegians in the early 1900s, the South Georgia Museum provides an excellent overview of the island’s natural history, as well as some great exhibits on explorers and Britain’s military presence from 1982 to 2001. Advise clients to take a peek behind the museum in the whaler’s cemetery, where Shackleton was laid to rest. 48 LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR | April 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Travel Advisor - April 2008

Luxury Travel Advisor - April 2008 Contents Publisher's Letter Editor's Letter London DESTINATIONS India Greece HOTELS Golf Royal Hideaway Playacar Chateau Marmont SPAS Hawaiin Spas Southeast Asia CRUISES: Antarctica Cover Story: Rocket man The Pulse Traveling Gourmet Jetset Sightings Source List

Luxury Travel Advisor - April 2008

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