Antarctica, at an unhurried pace.
Rest before you board; come home slowly.
Fixed departure · 18 February 2028Or a private journey, on your own dates
On most Antarctic journeys, the ship is the centre.
The days before and after are a few flights and hotels strung together.
We begin designing this one before you board.
First, three nights in Buenos Aires, to let the body recover from the long flight.
Then with PONANT across the Drake Passage, for ten nights deep in Antarctica.
Off the ship, five nights in Patagonia: the Perito Moreno glacier, and a day at an estancia on the open steppe.
Last, three nights back in Buenos Aires, and a day across the widest estuary in the world to Uruguay, often called the Switzerland of South America.
The pace is unhurried and every move is carefully planned, for travellers who want to explore Antarctica together with their parents or older family members.
The same continent, a very different journey. The difference is not the ship; it is every day around it.
Based on the cruise line’s published land programmes, and on Antarctic packages on the market at a similar price.
21 Nights · five stays · one ship
Design decisionThree nights before the ship, not one: the long flight is slept off in Buenos Aires, and a delayed flight or late bag still leaves time before the flight south.
Day 01
Arrive, and sleep
You are met at Ezeiza airport, and a private car takes you to the five-star hotel in Buenos Aires that PONANT selects for the voyage. You stay here for three nights. Nothing else is planned: the evening is yours to rest.
TonightA five-star hotel selected by PONANT, Buenos Aires
Day 02
A day of rest
Kuala Lumpur and Buenos Aires are eleven hours apart, almost day for night. So this day does one thing: it gives you back your sleep. If you feel like it, a slow walk near the hotel.
TonightA five-star hotel selected by PONANT, Buenos Aires
Day 03
A gentle walk
In the morning a private guide and car take you to Recoleta, for an easy walk of two to three hours through the neighbourhood: leafy squares, Belle Époque façades and the Centro Cultural Recoleta. The afternoon is for packing for Antarctica and an early night. This extra night before the ship also leaves room for a delayed flight or late luggage: the flight to Ushuaia does not wait.
TonightA five-star hotel selected by PONANT, Buenos Aires
Design decisionThe Antarctic days are left to PONANT’s expedition team: each day they choose where the Zodiacs can go, and you choose which outings you join.
Day 04
To the end of the world
Early in the morning PONANT takes you from the hotel to the airport for the flight to Ushuaia. You board Le Lyrial in the afternoon, and at 18:30 the ship sails out along the Beagle Channel. From the hotel to the ship, PONANT arranges every step.
TonightLe Lyrial
Days 05–06
Two days at sea
Two days crossing the Drake Passage. The expedition team explains how landings and Zodiac outings work, and talks about the history and wildlife of the Antarctic. Albatrosses and petrels follow the ship. You can spend the crossing in the heated panoramic lounge.
TonightLe Lyrial
Days 07–11
Five days among the ice
Each day the Captain and the Expedition Leader choose Zodiac outings or landings according to the ice and the weather. Penguins, seals and whales, glaciers and icebergs. You join the outings you have the energy for, and watch from the ship on the others.
TonightLe Lyrial
Days 12–13
Two days back north
The crossing back to South America. Time to rest, and to look out for whales and seabirds from the decks.
TonightLe Lyrial
Design decisionNothing is planned on the day you come off the ship: a bed that does not move first, then the train and a flat boardwalk the next day.
Day 14
Off the ship, and a quiet afternoon
You leave the ship at about 08:00. A private car meets you at the pier and takes you up to the Arakur resort on the clifftop. Nothing else is planned: after the Drake Passage, a bed that does not move and an afternoon with no clock. If you would like dinner in town, the hotel will call a car.
TonightArakur Ushuaia
Day 15
The End of the World Train
A private guide and car for about six hours. You ride the End of the World Train in Premium class, one way, into the national park. At the park station the car is already waiting, and drives you on to Lapataia Bay for an easy walk on a flat boardwalk, then back to the hotel. No queue for the return train, and half a day of energy saved.
TonightArakur Ushuaia
Design decisionThree nights by the lake: the glacier by boat, with a guide and car for the whole day, then an estancia after two weeks of ice.
Day 16
Into Patagonia
A private car to the airport and a flight to El Calafate, with 23 kg of checked luggage. You are met and taken to Ayres de Calafate, to a lake-view room on the second floor. In the evening, if you feel like it, a walk to the Nimez wetland at the edge of town to see the flamingos; if not, the lake from your room.
TonightAyres de Calafate
Day 17
The glacier, from the water
The glacier is about 80 km from town, so this is a day with a private guide and car from start to finish. About an hour on the boat, close to the face of the ice. Then the guide takes the gentlest route along the walkways to the viewing platforms, where you wait for the ice to break away. Lunch at the restaurant in the park, at your own cost.
TonightAyres de Calafate
Day 18
A day at an estancia
After two weeks of ice, a different Patagonia: the steppe, the sheepdogs and the life of a working ranch. Transfers to a traditional estancia, a sheepdog demonstration, then lunch of lamb roasted over the fire, at your own cost.
TonightAyres de Calafate
Design decisionThe city sights wait until the end, when the jet lag is gone. Colonia is a day there and back, so the bags stay unpacked.
Day 19
The last change of hotel
A private car to the airport and a flight to Buenos Aires (Aeroparque), with 23 kg of checked luggage. You are met and taken to the Alvear Icon in Puerto Madero. The afternoon and evening are free. This is the last change of hotel: what you unpack today stays unpacked for three nights.
TonightAlvear Icon Hotel
Day 20
A day in Uruguay
A private car to the Buquebus terminal, and the First Class ferry across the Río de la Plata to Colonia del Sacramento. A local guide walks you through the old town, listed by UNESCO. Lunch in the old town at your own cost, then the ferry back in the afternoon, where the car is waiting. No night in Uruguay: no bags to pack, and the same bed tonight.
TonightAlvear Icon Hotel
Day 21
The city, and a night of tango
The sights are kept for the end, when the jet lag is long gone. In the morning a private guide and car: Plaza de Mayo, the pink Casa Rosada, and El Ateneo, the bookshop in an old theatre, with a coffee in its café at your own cost. The afternoon is for rest. In the evening, the Gala Tango show from front-row seats, with drinks and transfers included; dinner beforehand is at your own cost.
TonightAlvear Icon Hotel
Day 22
Journey home
No early start. Breakfast at the hotel, and in the afternoon a private car to Ezeiza for the flight home to Kuala Lumpur, by way of the Middle East.
Tonight—
Ten nights among the ice.
Eleven on land, at your own pace.
Antarctica is the reason to go. The days around it decide whether you can truly enjoy it.
We chose PONANT for this journey, and not simply because it is more luxurious.
What really matters is this:
it brings together the expertise and landing conditions an Antarctic expedition needs, and the comfort of a small French ship, on the same voyage.
For a first visit to Antarctica, by travellers who want a journey with quality and space, away from the crowds and noise of a large cruise ship, this matters all the more.
PONANT’s Le Lyrial carries up to about 245 guests and 145 crew, in 122 staterooms and suites. That is a very different scale from large cruise ships carrying thousands.
It means a quieter ship, but not only that.
IAATO rules state that ships carrying more than 500 passengers may not land passengers in Antarctica; ships that can land must follow strict rules on numbers, sites and how each landing is managed.
So choosing an expedition ship that can land does not buy a “more premium” label.
It buys this:
You can go ashore.
You can come close.
You can truly step into Antarctica.
PONANT’s Antarctic voyages land by Zodiac, led by experienced naturalists and an expedition team.
For many first-time travellers to Antarctica, the most practical worry is not the penguins, or the ice.
It is the Drake Passage.
PONANT’s ships are fitted with dynamic fin stabilisers. Under way, the fins adjust to the ship’s movement to actively reduce the roll caused by the waves.
PONANT presents the system as a way to improve the ship’s stability, and its specialist briefings speak to it directly for guests prone to seasickness.
At a PONANT briefing we attended, the team noted that the stabilisers can reduce the ship’s roll by about 85%.
This does not turn the Drake Passage into a calm sea.
Antarctic sea conditions remain unpredictable.
But when the sea cannot be changed, the ship’s design and technology keep the side-to-side roll as low as possible, so the crossing is more comfortable.
So if you have been thinking:
“I would love to see Antarctica, but I’m afraid of being seasick.”
that is exactly why we chose the ship itself so carefully when designing this journey.
Le Lyrial belongs to PONANT’s Sisterships series, with a strengthened hull rated Ice Class 1C and its own Zodiacs, built for expedition voyages including the polar regions.
This does not make Antarctica simple.
Weather, sea and ice are always part of an Antarctic journey.
Real polar expertise is not a promise that everything will go as planned. It is the captain and the expedition team judging the conditions as they change.
Land when it is time to land.
Adjust when it is time to adjust.
Wait when it is time to wait.
That is one of the reasons we chose PONANT.
Le Lyrial carries up to about 245 guests, with 145 crew. On board are restaurants, lounges, a spa, a fitness room and other shared spaces.
So on the days between landings, you never feel you are simply “waiting on the ship for the next landing”.
Instead,
the ship itself is part of the journey.
Watch the sea, read, dine, listen to a lecture, or do nothing at all.
On a 22-day journey to Antarctica, that kind of space matters a great deal.
Antarctica is not a journey to be rushed through day after day.
Long flights, jet lag, days at sea, Zodiac landings, and day after day of new landscapes to take in: all of it uses energy.
So this journey sets aside:
three recovery days
Not to add more sights.
But to give the body real time to recover, and to leave room to breathe between days at sea, landings and long journeys.
Some days, you can wake slowly.
Some days, you can take your time over breakfast.
And some days, nothing is planned at all.
Because we want you to come home with Antarctica, not with exhaustion.
PONANT voyages are all-inclusive, with the exact inclusions depending on the voyage; PONANT’s own voyage information lists them as all-inclusive, covering meals, on-board service and some activities.
On a polar journey, this simplicity matters.
Once on board, there is no need to keep adding up the basics of meals and life on board.
When there is something to see, you see it.
When it is time to rest, you rest.
The rest is left to the team on board.
One of the biggest differences between PONANT and the traditional large cruise lines is that it does not try to turn the ship into a giant entertainment complex.
Le Lyrial is about French elegance, French cuisine and a French way of life.
PONANT describes Le Lyrial as one of its Sisterships, combining French refinement with the expedition experience, with restaurants, lounges, a spa and a fitness room on board.
So this journey is not:
exploring by day and making do on board at night.
It is:
Antarctica by day, and in the evening a ship you genuinely want to come back to.
For a first visit to Antarctica, the real question is rarely:
“Is Antarctica impressive enough?”
The questions are more practical:
PONANT cannot change the Antarctic weather, and it does not promise that every landing will go as planned.
But it brings a proven way to meet that uncertainty:
And beyond PONANT, we take one more step:
we design the whole journey at an unhurried pace.
Not filling 22 days.
But giving Antarctica enough time, and people enough space.
Because a once-in-a-lifetime journey deserves to be lived well.
Outings and shore visits in small rubber boats, led by naturalist guides. You join the outings you choose, and watch from the ship on the others.
You sail where the great Antarctic explorers went: glaciers, tabular icebergs, volcanic beaches, research stations and the traces of the whaling years.
PONANT notes that Antarctica is visited at the mercy of the weather and the ice: landings at particular sites and sightings of particular wildlife cannot be guaranteed, and every outing follows the safety rules set by IAATO.
Why here: the five-star hotel in Buenos Aires that PONANT selects for the sailing. The same bed for three nights after the long flight, and on Day 04 you go straight from the hotel to the flight south.
Why this ship: a small expedition ship, never more than 245 guests, with a panoramic lounge and all meals on board, and an expedition team that decides each day where the Zodiacs can go.
Why here: a resort on the clifftop outside town, looking over the Beagle Channel, with a warm infinity pool at the edge of the cliff.
Why here: a small hotel by Lago Argentino, with the room chosen for its view of the lake.
Why here: the last change of hotel. A high-floor room facing the river or the city, and three nights in the same bed before the flight home.
Perito Moreno, the estancia and Colonia del Sacramento are day visits.
Antarctica is the reason to go, and also the hardest part of the journey. So I left the Antarctic days to PONANT’s ship and expedition team, and designed everything around them: the nights before, the nights after, and who is waiting for you at each door.
I have planned and arranged this route for clients before, so this is not a first draft. Every hotel and every day on land here is one I have chosen and put in order myself. If the weather moves a day, I am the one who reworks the plan with you.
ZeL coordinates your journey from Kuala Lumpur and is your main point of contact.
Private transfers between airports, piers and hotels (on Day 04, PONANT’s own transfer), and a private guide in Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, El Calafate and Colonia on the days that need one.
On Le Lyrial, PONANT’s crew and expedition team look after you, from the flight south to the last morning in Ushuaia.
You have a direct WhatsApp contact with ZeL for coordination and support.
Journeys That Matter.
Antarctica can only be visited in the southern summer. Even then, the ice and the weather decide where the ship can go each day.
Where a day depends on the ice, the expedition team chooses the alternative on the day.
The Antarctic season, when PONANT sails to the Peninsula. The price is quoted for the dates you choose to travel.
Chosen each day by the Captain and the Expedition Leader. Landings at particular sites and sightings of particular wildlife cannot be guaranteed.
Two days each way across open sea. The order of the days at sea and at the Peninsula can change during the voyage.
November to March. The actual price is quoted for your travel dates; the cruise fare follows PONANT’s actual price when the booking is confirmed. Flights within Argentina are included. A single room carries a supplement.
| Per person | |
|---|---|
| Land and cruise | From RM 89,800 |
| Business-class flights · Kuala Lumpur ↔ Buenos Aires | About RM 55,000 · reference |
| With business-class flights | About RM 145,000 · reference |
| Single room | Supplement on request |
We have a variety of more in-depth and adventure routings in Antarctica and Patagonia. Tell us what you have in mind, and we will send you the details.
Ask About Other Routings →18 February 2028
Your own dates
A deposit is required to confirm the journey. The amount and payment schedule are stated in the formal quotation.
Cabin category and the PONANT sailing dates are confirmed with you before booking.
Landings, Zodiac outings and wildlife depend on ice and weather, and are decided on board.
Cancellation and refund conditions depend on the confirmed services and the cruise line’s terms, and are stated in the quotation before any payment.
Room types, cabin categories and operating schedules are subject to final supplier confirmation.
Tell us your travel month and who is coming, and we will come back with the full plan.
Enquire About This Journey →In Antarctica, the Zodiac outings are your choice. On the days you stay on board, the panoramic lounge is heated.
If you are prone to seasickness, ask your doctor before you travel what to bring.
ZeL looks after you in Chinese, from the first conversation to the flight home. On the fixed departure, Zelts leads the group himself, subject to the group size.
AIG Travel Insurance is included. PONANT usually asks for a health declaration before the voyage. Landings are by Zodiac, sometimes stepping into shallow water.
The exact deposit amount and payment schedule will be stated in the formal quotation.
They will be stated clearly in the quotation before any payment is made.
This is a reference itinerary. The final arrangements may be adjusted to suit your actual departure date, flight schedule and local operating conditions.
Share your next journey with us. We would love to design a journey around you.
Ten nights among the ice, a glacier from the water, and a last evening of tango in Buenos Aires. Tell us your month and who is coming, and we will come back with the full plan.
Every enquiry is answered by the person who designs the journey.