Hey there,
In 2018, I started a new career as an Antarctica travel agent for the biggest and best polar agency in the world at the time. My first three weeks on the job were a dream: sailing across the Drake to experience Antarctica, spending a week in Ushuaia getting on and off every expedition ship that came into port, and inspecting boutique hotels in Buenos Aires. I have been forever grateful for that first experience and in the years since, I have flown across the Drake, spent time in Punta Arenas, explored the mountains of Patagonia, and visited polar ships in their home ports in Europe.
I can tell you first-hand that there’s so much to know about going to Antarctica that it’s beyond the ability of even the most determined traveler to learn it all. Not because you don’t have the skills, but because it's constantly evolving and so much of the information is held captive: behind inquiry forms, deep inside marketing funnels, and within the brains of experienced sales agents.
With Antarctica Confidential, my aim is to make what I know easy to access and organized in a way that doesn't require you to join six Facebook groups, wade through three subreddits, or sit through a series of sales calls to find the answers you're looking for. No operator has paid to be here. Every ship, every company, every itinerary is here because it's worth knowing about. Your curiosity doesn't become a lead. Nobody is going to chase you with limited availability warnings or sell your email address to the highest bidder.
I think that's worth something.
Possibly not to everyone.
But probably to you, or you wouldn't have read this far.
If you’re curious about my personal motivations for this site, I’ll tell you straight up. I’ve reached a point in my working life where I only want to do the fun parts. Both kids are out of the house and I’m traveling more. I changed my agency model to give me more flexibility and enjoy the best parts of the job. The time and energy I pour into this project comes from a love of building things, and having paid members keeps it from becoming a casual (and thus, optional) hobby.
Here’s why I think joining Antarctica Confidential is worth paying for:
The Guidebook. This comprehensive knowledge base is organized around the questions you have about traveling to Antarctica. It started as a book project when Antarctica was closed in the 2020-21 season and has lingered in my Scrivener app until now. (It's more than 80,000 words, which I'm told is the equivalent of a 330-page paperback.) There's a section for people just getting started and a section for people ready to book, and everything before and after. Start where you are. Come back when you need to.
The Trip Finder. There are more than 500 voyages each year on more than 50 ships from more than 20 companies. The Trip Finder database catalogs them all. As a paid member you can go deeper than the free version and filter by the most popular parameters to help narrow your search. Each voyage links directly to the page on the operator website so you can see current cabin pricing and promotions. It also allows you to save trips, compare them head to head, and share them with friends or your travel agent via e-mail.
The Profiles. You care about the features of the ships and the companies that operate them so the Ship Directory and Operator Directory each contain detailed profiles of every company and ship in the fleet. These profiles are also filterable, so if you want to see which ships have single cabins, or which operators offer fly-cruise voyages, it’s just a simple click.
One Place, Not Twelve. Say goodbye to having 16 tabs open and searching your inbox for that one voyage you were thinking about. Here the information lives side by side, and is easy to find. Each ship, operator and voyage contains the same fields of information, allowing you to easily compare features.
News and Deal Alerts. Antarctica operators run sales more often than most travelers realize, and there are even private promotions that are offered to agencies that the general public will never see. The Deal Alerts newsletter is available only to members and when I find a promotion worth knowing about, I'll send it your way.
A Living Resource. Antarctica travel is a dynamic marketplace and things change all the time. Keeping it up to date is a priority and I’ve made it easy for any member to report errors or inconsistencies so the site can be as accurate and reliable as possible. It’s a ton of work, and I couldn’t do it without you.
One Payment. You pay once, you have full access to all features for a year. No sipping from your credit card every month from now until 2050, no setting yourself a reminder to cancel. If you only need it to make one big decision very quickly, it's worth the money for the time saved.
Satisfaction Guaranteed. If you spend time on the site and can honestly say it isn't worth it, reach out and I'll make it right.
Now stop reading this and go sign up. Antarctica isn't going to plan itself!
—Jud
P.S. If you've read this far and decided this isn't for you, I'd love to know why. Not to talk you out of it, I promise I won't. Just drop me a quick note. It's the only way I'll know how to make this better for everyone who comes after you.