KOCHI: Want to go to Antarctica? Well, you can visit the southernmost tip of the world if you are ready to shell out Rs 6.90 lakh. A Kochi-based travel operator has announced a tour to the continents of Antarctica and South America from February 22 to March 23.
Travellers will be flown from Kochi to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on the first day. A full-day tour of the Brazilian city has been arranged on February 23, during which the sightseers will also be able to participate in world-famous Rio Carnival. On February 24, they will be taken to Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The cruise to Antarctica will leave Buenos Aires port on February 25. Three days at sea and a few other stops later, travellers will reach Antarctica on March 3.
“The peak summer season in Antarctica is during January and February when the temperature goes above zero degree Celsius and ice begins to melt,” said Paulose K Mathew of Coraz Travel & Trade Links, which is offering to take travellers to the southernmost and least-populated continent. This is the second trip being conducted by Mathew to Antarctica.
The first was in 2020, just before the Covid pandemic crippled the world. He had taken a group of 35 travellers from Kochi to Antarctica, which has no native population. “Besides the 35 Malayalis from Kochi, we had another group comprising five travellers joining from Delhi in the trip,” he said. The fee at the time was fixed Rs 5.50 lakh per person.
“The rates are higher, at Rs 6.9 lakh per person, this time due to flight charges. The aviation sector has not fully recovered from the pandemic-induced slowdown,” Paulose, who travelled with the group in 2020, told TNIE. “I speak for the group when I say it was an amazing and magical experience,” he said.
Paulose said the Celebrity Infinity Cruise ship can carry 3,200 people. “There will be 1,200 crew members. The tourists can occupy the remaining 1,400 to 2,000 seats,” he said. The highlights of the tour will include visits to Rio’s Sugarloaf Mountain, the beaches of Botafogo and Flamengo and Christ the Redeemer statue.