How to plan an epic trip to Antarctica

With its enormous ice shelves, vast emptiness and ethereal silence, Antarctica really is like nowhere else on earth. Its landscapes are a study in the color white: how it reflects light, accentuates mountains and crumbles atop the sea. Yet, it’s often the animals who leave the biggest impression. There are the tuxedo-clad penguins, who belly-surf out of the ocean to guard eggs from soaring skuas. Then there are the humpback whales, who breach from steel-grey fjords, and the doe-eyed Weddell seals, who ham it up for distant cameras while resting on wondering ice floes.