WHAT IT’S REALLY LIKE TO BE A TOURIST IN ANTARCTICA, THE COLDEST, QUIETEST PLACE ON EARTH

Antarctica: the coldest, quietest and arguably the most magical place left on earth is a once in a lifetime travel destination for certain, but getting there is no smooth ride.

The ride in question? Three days aboard a 100-strong passenger ship, bobbing (seasick) like a cork amid ten-metre high waves and crashing winter storms in temperatures that can freeze your eyelashes solid.

So is it worth it? It hasn’t been a tourist destination for long, it’s not cheap, and it’s not for the faint-hearted - but take it from a traveller who has just returned: this is a destination worthy of a place at the very top of your bucket list. The planning stage for any trip is important, but none more so than with Antarctica.

Do you want a luxurious ship? Do you want an adventurous itinerary? Do you want to trek up snowy peaks with a bunch of 20-something foreigners, or do you want to float past the towering icebergs from the comfort of your jacuzzi?

I went for somewhere in the middle - organised by Abercrombie & Kent and courtesy of Polar Latitudes - which operates a sturdy five-deck icebreaker ship carrying 200 passengers named the Sea Explorer, and while it provided above-average levels of comfort, it was decidedly an expedition and not a cruise.

I shared a cabin with a charming Argentinian mother.

The 12-day voyage around the Antarctic peninsula cost £6,825 for a 14-day trip to Antarctica via Argentina, including international and internal flights.

My journey, as per the flights package, started in London, hopped over to Amsterdam, then to Buenos Aires, landing finally in Ushuaia - the southern most city in the whole world, clinging to the tip of Argentina. It didn’t really begin, of course, until I embarked the Sea Explorer, greeted Titanic-style by rows of grinning staff brandishing champagne, and was ushered into the ship’s belly, the ‘lounge’, where I would spend much of my time.

I was travelling alone, fully aware that 80 percent of the voyage would be experienced onboard the ship, and therefore had a fully loaded Kindle and no expectations of much social interaction. All this was dashed within the first half an hour, when the lounge full of passengers - as humans always do - sorted themselves swiftly into inseparable friendship gaggles. The average passenger aboard any cruise, including Antarctic ones, is over 50; but interestingly of late, there has emerged a growing army of under-30s headed to the South Pole, and I was one of them.

Needless to say that over the course of the trip, our crew of nine ate every raucous meal together, were inseparable during trips to shore, and spent more than a healthy proportion of time at the bar. To get the South Pole, you have to cross the Drake Passage, notorious as being the most tempestuous oceanic corridor in the world. This takes three days both there and back.