I originally found Aurora Expeditions on the internet a couple of years ago when we did a Scottish sea kayaking expedition with them. We realized at that time that Aurora was BY FAR the best expedition organization we had ever traveled with anywhere. The lectures, personnel, the superb experts of Scottish history and archeology that traveled with us, the food and everything else were simply PEERLESS! There was simply nothing to criticize.
Therefore, we decided to do our South Georgia/Antarctic kayaking expedition with them this past January. Were we the least bit disappointed??? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! In fact, this most recent South Georgia/Antarctic adventure with Aurora excelled to a seemingly impossible level that even exceeded our previous Scottish expedition with them.
Thank you, Gary, Robyn, Alex, Allen, Alasdair, Judy and all other members of the incredible Aurora Expedition staff that made our travels with Aurora simply peerless experiences of a lifetime. How can one expect better than perfection! Thank you Aurora.
The Polar Pioneer is an older, ice breaker, Russian research vessel converter to an expedition ship for very small numbers of clients. In fact there were less than 50 clients on our South Georgia/Antarctic expedition and only six (6) of us were kayakers. We found this small number of participants delightful as we were able to kayak and land virtually anywhere and explore on shore for as long as we liked, conditions permitting.
Our cabin and bathroom were very comfortable equipped with two twin beds, a private bathroom with shower, a well sealed starboard porthole and even a desk. There were two closets plus additional storage in our cabin that was more than sufficient.
Aurora had arranged for us to be met at the airport and upon arrival we were treated to a lunch and short guided tour of the island on the way to the port of Stanley to board our ship, the Polar Pioneer.