Getting to Antarctica by plane has always had an awkward gap in it. You fly across the Drake Passage to skip two rough days at sea, but before that you have to get yourself to Puerto Williams, Chile — the southernmost city on Earth — and hope the weather cooperates. Silversea has now closed that gap with its own hotel.
The Cormorant at 55 South opened on November 5 in Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino, and it's the first property of its kind for Silversea and parent company Royal Caribbean Group, built with a consortium of Chilean investors. With 150 rooms, it serves as the base for the line's Fly the Drake program: guests arrive on Silversea-branded charter flights from Santiago, spend a night at the hotel before and after their expedition, then continue by charter to King George Island and the Antarctic Peninsula aboard Silver Endeavour, Silver Wind, or Silver Cloud.
That setup matters more than it might sound. Other fly-cruise operators rely on a small pool of hotels in Puerto Williams and Punta Arenas, and availability — and quality — can be thin. With its own property, Silversea controls the experience from touchdown to ship, and if weather delays a charter flight, guests have somewhere comfortable to wait instead of sitting in a tiny airport. Silversea shifted its Antarctica turnaround operations to Chile back in 2021; this is the logical next step.
The hotel itself is more than a holding pen. Rooms all face either the forest or the Beagle Channel, with king beds that convert to twins — a small but useful touch for friends travelling together. There's a restaurant called Latitude 55 serving Tierra del Fuego flavours, a bar pouring Chilean wines with a pisco cocktail masterclass on offer, and a fireplace lounge, which is exactly what you want at 55 degrees south. Birders should pack binoculars: yellow-billed pintails, ringed kingfishers and cormorants are all around.
Because Silversea guests only occupy the hotel on the night before and after their expedition, it opens to non-cruise guests roughly three to four days a week. That makes it a genuine option for anyone exploring southern Chilean Patagonia — the hiking, kayaking and nature walks around Isla Navarino are a worthy trip in themselves, no Antarctica ticket required.
The fly-cruise route isn't the classic multi-day Drake Passage crossing, and some travellers will still want that rite of passage. But for anyone whose priority is reaching the Antarctic Peninsula quickly and comfortably — or who simply wants a well-built hotel at the very bottom of the map — this is now the strongest option in the region.
Story via Travel Codex.
