Antarctica🇦🇶Checklist: What To Take Part 3 – Food and Drink

 

So you’re heading to Antarctica and you want to know what food and drink to take to survive in the world’s coldest continent? Well for a start, trips to Antarctica don’t come cheap so you’re likely to get all meals included on board the boat. Literally all you can eat breakfast, dinner and lunch!! So take advantage of it and eat all you can!

Does this mean you don’t need to bring any food or drink on board? In theory yes. Even tea and coffee is FREE (I should say included) 24 hours a day on board the boat, BUT alcohol is not, and bar prices on board for beer and wine are not cheap.

So I’d strongly recommend taking:

1. ALCOHOL!

I took 3 beers and 2 boxes of wine onboard. I bought them all in Ushuaia the night before boarding. There is no restriction on what you can take onboard, though they do say you shouldn’t drink your own drinks in the bar on board the boat. I did however, and while you’re stranded in Antarctica they are hardly going to kick you off a boat you have paid thousands of dollars to be on!

There is however a Happy Hour on board the boat every day so make sure you use and abuse that and try the random Antarctica Cocktails they mix up! I’ve a degree in Public Relations so I know all about marketing and how this shit works, but when you’re on a boat in Antarctica and they offer a special one off drink for $4 US Dollars, I’m in everytime!!! I’m a sucker for them. And the cocktails on board were great as were the staff.

And if you want to have a beer on Antarctica itself, sneak one on and drink it with your friends behind some rocks – as we did to toast to our amazing trip!

Yes there were five of us enjoying life and having a REALLY ICE COLD beer near the Polish Arctowski at Admiralty Bay in Antarctica!

The only food or drink product you are supposed to take onto Antarctic land is water. It is a protected continent – no litter, no rubbish, no urinating and no consumption of food unless inside a base (we did visit 2 bases on my trip). That said, a sneaky beer to toast to this amazing land was a great moment for us and you’ll be fine to do that!

2. PRESCRIBED/DIETARY REQUIRED FOOD:

I personally didn’t take ANY food at all on board (not even crisps, chocolate bars or biscuits – my usual travel food types), there is plenty of food choice for almost everyone on board. However if you have some kind of dietary requirement, then make sure you bring what you need on board, or ask the tour organisers beforehand what food they provide. You may even get a cheaper price if you tell them you don’t eat some of the food available on board.

So this isn’t a long post, sorry as I’ve basically summed it all up already – ONLY take alcohol on, and only to save money. If saving money is no object to you, there is a good range of alcohol on board and they even have special Antarctic Cocktail of the Day! To be honest when you go to somewhere as special as Antarctica, food and drink become less important as you are simply in awe of nature!!

Here’s a video of me having a beer in Antarctica: