A room at the end of the Earth: What does staying in Antarctica’s first hotel actually cost?
Picking the right hotel room is an important part of travel, for it can often define your stay, and while that’s hard enough if you’re visiting London, New York or Hong Kong, it’s worse when involving a remote location like Antarctica.
There are expensive hotels, and then there’s Whichaway Camp, perched on the edge of the Schirmacher Oasis in Antarctica, one of the most remote places in the world, and this hotel, one of the first on the continent, offers you luxury in an otherwise perilous and scary location.
Calling the Whichaway Camp a hotel is arguably a disservice, because, after all, you’re paying more for the operation of getting to one of the most remote locations on the planet, and staying in a room in a truly dangerous environment. Not only that, but you’re also getting a private chef as well as being guided around by experts who are specialists in their fields.
This isn’t a hotel stay, it’s an experience, and in the 2025 to 2026 season, the prices ranged from $15,950 (£11,964.49) for a night, or something more like a one-day excursion, to between $71,500 (£53,633.94) and $110,000 (£82,513.75) to stay for a full week. At the time of writing, the cheapest option is their ‘Antarctica in a day’ package that comes in it $16,500 (£12,377.06). Apart from a bed for a night, for that money, you’re also getting an ice cave visit, glacier abseiling and champagne in a bar made entirely from ice, which, despite being well beyond my means, doesn’t sound that bad.
Other packages include the ‘Baby penguins and blue tunnels’ from $72,250 (£54,196.53), a five-night stay that will give you the chance to see young emperor penguins take their very first steps, as well as visit the blue ice tunnels underneath the surface of Antarctica. For $115,500 (£86,639.44), you can enjoy the ‘Discovery week’ that includes stays in Whichaway and their other camp, Echo, as well as a visit to the South Pole and a seven-night stay.
The hotel itself is hugely impressive; opening its doors in 2005 on the site of a former East German science base, it blends that legacy that comes with being a research base, with contemporary luxury. It’s sat on an ice-free oasis, which is incredibly rare for the continent itself. There are six pods that sit on the rocky Antarctic terrain, each with its own en-suite and all the luxuries you’d not usually expect in a research tent. They’re still not The Ritz, but you’re getting one-way mirror panels on the walls so you can see out, but not have any penguins look in, as well as a coffee machine, high-quality furnishing and more.
In the hotel’s communal spaces, you’ll be served food from award-winning chefs, have a lounge to relax in, and the best part is that with a maximum of 12 guests at any time, you’re set to have a quiet and relaxing stay. Don’t forget that just getting here alone is something of a logistical nightmare and one of the reasons why it’s so expensive. Every trip begins in Cape Town before a private charter flight brings you to Whichaway, which takes between five and six hours.
This isn’t your average city break drinking cheap European grog, or a week spent by a Spanish pool, but rather, this is something you won’t forget, and nobody else you know is ever likely to experience, it’s a truly unique holiday.
Whether you’re watching baby penguins, rappelling down glaciers, scaling walls of ice, cross-country skiing, exploring the blue tunnels or hiking, this is real once-in-a-lifetime stuff. You’ll also have a photographer with you at all times to record the trip for you, and save you from getting frostbite when you take your phone out to get a quick snap. There’s a sauna and ice plunge, as well as massages on the house, and yoga and meditation settings too. You’re really getting luxury as well as the experience of being somewhere truly remote and unforgettable.
With previous guests including Prince Harry and Bear Grylls, it’s clear that it caters for the rich and adventurous. However, behind the luxury, there’s purpose and having been carbon neutral for nearly 20 years now, it shows that there’s a commitment to the environment, rather than this just being a cash cow.
The numbers involved in a stay here are eye-watering; there’s no way around that, but when you really think about what you’re being offered and the logistics to even get there at all, it almost begins to sound like a strong value proposition.
I’m probably not going to be staying anywhere but a Premier Inn anytime soon, but if you want a life-changing, one-off expedition, wrapped in gourmet food and true expertise, then you can really get better than this. The price doesn’t just reflect the luxury of the hotel; it reflects the sheer audacity to build a hotel in such a remote and inhospitable place.
