Outdated:
- The listings in Ushuaia are terribly outdated. Many no longer exist. If your Antarctic journey begins in Ushuaia, I would strongly recommend purchasing a Tierra del Fuego chapter from a more recent Lonely Planet guide (e.g.
Lonely Planet Chile & Easter Island: Tierra del Fuego
)
- The volcanic hot spots on Deception Island shift, and expeditions are discouraged from digging into the sand on the beach, so the prospect of a less than authentic swim in Antarctic waters is becoming extremely unlikely. (But the advice to pack a swimsuit still holds true, as visitors still go swimming, and you might otherwise be persuaded to make the icy plunge in your thermals. Or au naturel.)
Awkward:
- If you're really headed to Antarctica, chances are that you're headed to the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. However, the peninsula comprises just one chapter of the book, and that chapter is nestled somewhere in the middle of the book. Even after a week of landings in the area, I still found that I had trouble locating the one chapter that covered nearly everywhere we visited. If nothing else, pack a bookmark!
Penguin Clip-over-the-page Bookmark By Re-marks
- Even the most detailed map of the Antarctic Peninsula is not particularly useful, since the Lonely Planet map conventions don't make much sense in a place devoid of traditional landmarks. The attractions here are the places themselves (islands, bays, waterways, etc) which are not indexed in the map legend. This means that you're forced to scour a map of a huge region, hoping that the tiny spot where your next landing will be actually made it onto the map.
- I agree wholeheartedly with dickh's review that this book is a bit of a failure as a travel guide. There are very few logistical details on the different expedition companies and the different kinds of ships.
- When to go? Every trip to Antarctica is different, but there are relatively well-defined differences in the seasons. The "When to Go" section is a few short paragraphs with vague comments. Basically, the book's answer is "summer," but ask someone who's spent a full summer there, and they can elaborate quite a bit on the differences between the beginning of the season and the end of the season. The temperatures, the landscape, the wildlife all change from month to month. There are no guarantees in Antarctica, but you can certainly schedule your trip to improve your chances of seeing what you hope to see.
- The sections covering wildlife do the best that they can (since Lonely Planet books have very few color photos), but a text-only wildlife guide leaves much to be desired. It is well worth looking into another book to cover this if your trip does not include one.
Antarctica Cruising Guide: Includes Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Ross Sea
has great photos and descriptions of the wildlife as well as descriptions of common landing sites.
Good Points:
- The history section is excellent! It provides a wonderfully detailed history of the key expeditions and the exploration of the continent. I was also surprised to find that the history of the Scott and Amundsen's race to the pole was reasonably unbiased (Many accounts come across as very one-sided).
- The book contains a map of the various research stations and bases around the peninsula, which I found extremely useful and referred to quite often. But again, I always had trouble locating it when I needed it.
- Antarctica is a vast area to cover in a single guidebook, and I appreciate that LP made the effort to even produce this book. A very few visitors do explore the other islands and other parts of the continent, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I already own the guidebook that covers some of my most obscure travel goals (e.g. Tristan da Cunha, Bouvetøya), so it will definitely stay on my shelf for years to come.
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