Chill out in luxury at the world’s most remote five-star hotel
TRAVEL to Antarctica has reached fever pitch.
You can go by yacht. You can come and go in a single day. You can even book a fly-around for New Year’s Eve. And now you can stay in a five-star hotel with bespoke furnishings and its own fleet of aircraft.
To be fair, the White Desert camp isn’t exactly new. And it’s no secret spot, either; the guest ledger includes such names as Prince Harry and Bear Grylls. But as a means of celebrating its 10th anniversary, the “most remote property in the world” has had a luxury overhaul.
What it humbly calls “sleeping pods” are six heated fibreglass domes, with bamboo headboards, Saarinen chairs, fur throws, and en suite bathrooms stocked with sustainable Lost Explorer-brand toiletries.
Wooden skis adorn the walls, thick parkas for each guest hang from racks. And each suite stands alone in the interior of Antarctica, midway between a frozen lake and towering walls of ice. Drama is in no short supply.
Perhaps the most significant renovations have taken place in the lodge’s library, lounge and dining room. Whereas the dining room once consisted of one long wooden table, it’s now more formal, with furs thrown over chairs that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Brooklyn Heights apartment. After hangout sessions with 6 000 emperor penguins, this is where guests share convivial three-course meals, with ingredients and wines flown from Cape Town.
All the cold-weather adventure your heart can desire
(They’re prepared by a chef who cooks for British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton when he’s not at camp.)
Running a camp like White Desert requires “some of the most complex and remote logistics in the world”, said Robyn Woodhead, who co-founded and directs the lodge with her husband. Renovating it is even more of a challenge.
“Everything for the hotel refurbishment had to come in on an Il-76 cargo plane, costing $17 (about R230) per kilogram,” said Woodhead. What’s more, getting all the materials to Antarctica’s Unknown International Airport — yes, that’s its official name — required multiple flights. Since each plane could transport only 20 tons at a time, the Woodheads had all the furnishings unboxed in Cape Town pre-flight to maximise efficiency.
Once the cargo landed on the blue-ice runway, Woodhead said, “it was transported by a specialised 4x4 across a crevasse-ridden route” to the camp. Then all the old materials had to be shipped back to Cape Town for safe disposal. (That also applies to waste generated by guests.) White Desert, she explained, “operates on a zero-impact policy”.
Sustainability was a key concern throughout. “Many of the simple elements, such as getting water for the construction work, involved drilling through a 2m-thick ice lake,” said Woodhead. The wallpaper was from environmentally friendly designers and installation had to be done with great speed.
“Everything freezes far quicker than normal conditions here,” she said. “The metal freezes to your hands, so our team had to be extremely focused and careful when working. It’s not a brief most interior designers are used to.”
Want to see the fruits of their labour? As with anything here, it’s not as easy as taking to travel website Expedia. The season for travel to inner Antarctica is short — November to December only — so you’ll have to book one of White Desert’s two trips that still have space. One is for eight nights; the other for 11. Both cost the same: $72 000 per person, all inclusive.
For that hefty price tag, you’ll get all the cold-weather adventures your heart can desire. Popular choices send guests trekking into blue-ice caves, kite-skiing, abseiling, warming up in the sauna, and visiting researchers. Flights from Cape Town are part of the deal.
The one thing that’ll cost you extra? An exclusive souvenir.
If you book an overnight excursion to the South Pole, which requires a flight and a trek in frigid temperatures, you’ll earn access to a custom Bremont watch. It’s $7 500 and comes engraved with the date of your visit — as if you might ever forget it. — Bloomberg