Antarctica Travel Map — Countries in Antarctica

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Every country and territory in Antarctica.

1

Antarctica Territory

The continent itself: 14 million square kilometres, an ice sheet up to 4.8 kilometres thick, and the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth at −89.2°C. Reached by ship from Ushuaia between November and March, or by flight to the interior.
2

Bouvet Island Territory

An uninhabited Norwegian volcanic island in the South Atlantic, generally described as the most remote island on earth — the nearest land is Antarctica, 1,600 kilometres away.
3

French Southern and Antarctic Lands Territory

France's sub-Antarctic territories: the Kerguelen and Crozet archipelagos, Amsterdam and Saint-Paul, reached four times a year by a supply ship carrying a handful of passengers.
4

Heard Island and McDonald Islands Territory

An Australian external territory holding the country's only active volcano and its highest point, entirely glaciated and visited by almost nobody.
5

South Georgia South Sandwich Islands Territory

South Georgia has the largest king penguin colonies on earth, the ruins of the Grytviken whaling station and Shackleton's grave; the South Sandwich Islands are volcanic and uninhabited.

The Traveller's Antarctica

Antarctica is governed by treaty rather than by anyone. The 1959 Antarctic Treaty suspended all territorial claims, banned military activity and set the continent aside for science — which is why there are no countries on this page, only the territories and sub-Antarctic islands that sit within or near the convergence. Around 1,000 people overwinter at the research stations; roughly 5,000 are there in summer.

Nearly every visitor arrives the same way: by ship from Ushuaia in Argentina, across two days of the Drake Passage, to the Antarctic Peninsula between November and March. That stretch is the mild end of the continent, and it is where the penguin colonies, the old whaling stations and the calving glaciers are. The interior — the Pole, the dry valleys, Vinson — is flown to, costs many times more, and sees a few hundred people a year.

The sub-Antarctic islands are the other half of the story and are genuinely separate trips. South Georgia has the largest king penguin colonies anywhere and Shackleton's grave at Grytviken; the French Southern Lands and Heard Island are among the least-visited places on earth. Tourism is capped, landings are limited to a hundred people at a time, and biosecurity checks are taken seriously — which is a large part of why it still looks the way it does. How many have you made it to?

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