Why Visit the South Shetland Islands?
One or more places on the South Shetlands will almost certainly be on the itinerary of every Antarctic Peninsula cruise due to the ease of access and variety of interesting places to visit. That aside, they are a fascinating place to go and give a great feeling of a variety of aspects of Antarctica. Make sure you take your swimming things if you visit Deception Island, you’re bound to regret not having swum in the Antarctic Ocean if you don’t do this. Deception Island is the most comfortable place to swim in Antarctica – far more preferable than jumping into any other bit of the Antarctic Ocean that pretty much hovers around freezing point all year round (been there, done that, didn’t enjoy it – something to tell people about though). Actually “swimming” is stretching it a bit as it’s more like paddling in mixed hot and cold water up to about waist depth. You could go deep enough to swim if you wanted but then the water temperature is about freezing point (sea-water freezes at -2C so s
