{"id":805121,"date":"2025-01-08T09:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T07:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=805121"},"modified":"2025-01-08T09:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T07:21:14","slug":"the-one-day-trip-from-cape-town-which-costs-r300000-per-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/805121\/the-one-day-trip-from-cape-town-which-costs-r300000-per-person\/","title":{"rendered":"The one-day trip from Cape Town which costs R300,000 per person"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

White Desert offers rich South African and international tourists a one-day trip from Cape Town to Antarctica. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Desert was founded in 2005 by polar explorers to make it possible for people to experience Antarctica\u2019s interior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew that thousands of people went on the cruise ships that patrolled the periphery but that the interior was almost untouched,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the company has taken hundreds of clients to experience this rarely seen interior white desert in Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company offers clients numerous options, ranging from one-week excursions at its Whichaway and Echo camps to its fly-in fly-out The Greatest Day experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greatest Day Experience is a popular option for people who want to experience Antarctica but do not want to stay there for a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a one-day option where clients are flown business class from Cape Town to Antarctica on an Airbus A340 or private jet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 5.5-hour flight, the plane crosses the Polar Circle, passes over thousands of icebergs, and experiences 24 hours of continuous sunshine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It lands at the Wolf\u2019s Fang Runway, created using specialist techniques and machinery to ensure safety and minimal delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With experienced pilots flying over 25 flights a season, it is now regarded as a well-established and reliable airbridge between Africa and Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After arrival, people will spend approximately three hours on the continent, which includes a few unique activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur guides will lead you into an ice cave and take you on a gentle hike to a mountain where we will host a champagne picnic with views of the Wolf\u2019s Fang range,\u201d White Desert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People can abseil down the side before crossing the glacial ice back to the Snow Lounge for a final drink before they board their return flight to Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greatest Day does not come cheap<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Greatest Day offers travellers a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience described as \u201cas human yet as unusual an experience as one can imagine\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is not cheap. The one-day trip costs $15,950 per person, which is roughly R300,000, depending on the exchange rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The price includes a safety briefing, flights to and from Antarctica, all accommodation, food and drinks, all guiding fees, and the use of certain items of polar clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The R300,000 also includes White Desert’s payment of a \u2018Carbon Tax\u2019 to offset emissions created by all logistics associated with Antarctic travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it excludes commercial flights to and from Cape Town, polar clothing, comprehensive insurance cover, additional baggage costs, and satellite phone use in Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the significant cost of The Greatest Day, it is extremely popular and has been sold out for five of the eight trips this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its longer, expensive trips, like the R2 million South Pole and Emperors and the R1.3 million Early Emperors excursions, are equally popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many trips in the 2025\/2026 season, which is still a year away, are already fully booked, illustrating the strong demand for this experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Desert has identified that rich people are hungry for a new experience and are willing to fork out lots of money for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The personal journey to the last true wilderness and most remote place on Earth, Antarctica, definitely fits this bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greatest Day Trip Photos<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans and international tourists can take a five and half hour flight from Cape Town to Antarctica. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":805122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[21285,2279,21286,21284],"class_list":["post-805121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-antarctica","tag-cape-town","tag-the-greatest-day","tag-white-desert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805121"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806056,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805121\/revisions\/806056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}