On the quotation for an Antarctic journey, one item is often questioned by guests: two extra nights in Ushuaia before boarding. One guest said plainly: it’s a little town at the end of the world — surely a single night, just for the sake of it, would do?
We explained three ‘what ifs’.
What if the luggage is late. Flying to the tip of South America means two or three connections, and luggage arriving a day behind its owner is common enough. The extra buffer day is enough for the luggage to catch you up — whereas with only half a day, once the ship sails you would face the whole of Antarctica in the same jumper.
What if the flight is cancelled. The leg from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia is much at the mercy of the weather. The ship waits for no one; miss the boarding and the entire journey is void, with no remedy that money can buy back. Two nights’ buffer is the true insurance on this ten-thousand-dollar ticket.
What if the body needs a step to stand on. Thirty hours of continuous flying and then straight aboard to cross the Drake Passage doubles the odds of seasickness. Letting the body first find its rhythm and its appetite on land is the most economical investment you can make in the ten days that follow.
The commonest ending to those two buffer nights is that nothing happens at all. Guests eat king crab in the little town, walk the glacier trail, post a card from the post office at the end of the world — ‘wasting’ the time to their heart’s content.
In good itinerary design there are always a few parts that look superfluous. In ordinary times they are scenery; when something goes wrong, they are the floor.