ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC 

 

They might be at opposite ends of the planet but, for many, the magnetic polar regions of Antarctica and the Arctic remain side by side on many a once-in-a-lifetime travel wish list. If you're fortunate enough to be planning a trip but don't know which to choose, here's our guide to the Arctic vs the Antarctic.

Antarctic

 

THE ARCTIC (The North)

The Arctic Circle is made up of the North Pole region and a number of large islands, including the Svalbard archipelago, Greenland, Baffin Island and Franz Josef Land. It borders Russia, Canada and Alaska, and therefore encompasses several different continents.

It is permanently inhabited by indigenous groups, including the Inuit, Saami and Siberian peoples in the far north, and towns and cities across the major islands and countries, like Longyearbyen in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and Rovaniemi in Finland. With about 5% of the Arctic covered in small shrubs and flowering plant species, such as purple saxifrage, summertime here is particularly green, and makes a habitable home for land mammals like reindeer and foxes. It’s also where, if you’re lucky, you’ll see polar bears.

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ANTARCTICA (The South)

Antarctica is its own complete continent and home to the South Pole, covering an area of around 5.4 million square miles of pristine wilderness. Uninhabited apart from naval bases and scientific research stations such as Port Lockroy, the Great White Continent is unreachable for around half the year, when it is swathed in darkness and the sub-zero temperatures of the austral polar winter.

Visitors usually head to the Antarctic Peninsula by ship, with longer voyages reaching its easterly side. The majority of Antarctica is covered in ice and snow, leaving only 1%, mostly around the fringes, for plant life. There are no trees or shrubs, and only a couple of flowering plant species.

Arctic

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