Category: Stories & Inspiration

If you take an ice cube out of your freezer, you’ll see that it’s full of tiny bubbles: microscopic pockets of air that were trapped in the water the last time you refilled the ice cube tray, a week or a few months ago. Pluck a piece of floating glacial ice out of the water […]

Islands are nature’s laboratories. Their small self-contained ecosystems can allow animals and plants to flourish that wouldn’t be possible elsewhere. But their size means that those ecosystems can be fragile when exposed to outside influence. Within 60 years of the first sailors landing on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, the flightless dodo had been […]

The Subantarctic island of South Georgia is a marvel of the natural world. It’s a hundred mile long mountain range that erupts out of the Southern Ocean, with more marine wildlife than anywhere else on the planet. Penguins and fur seals here are counted by the million. It’s a scene that’s all the more extraordinary […]

Antarctica is one of the greatest whale watching destinations on the planet. There are few feelings quite so ecstatic as the joyful surprise when a humpback whale silently surfaces near your zodiac, and then fills the air with a krill-flavoured mist as it explosively exhales through its blowhole.  Their recovery after years of exploitation is […]

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have my own phone. I’m part of Generation Z, so phones have always been as essential as breathing: endlessly scrolling or capturing content to put on my social media. My phone is glued to my hand most of the day. It’s my connection to the world – […]

When choosing an Antarctic expedition cruise, people often concentrate on the ship and its amenities alongside the itinerary, but there is one element that’s all too often overlooked but that we believe, can transform a simple voyage into something truly extraordinary – the guiding team.  Expedition Guides bring an amazing wealth of polar experience to […]

At Swoop, we firmly believe that tourism can have a positive impact on both people and the planet, and that protecting the destinations we travel to should be at the heart of everything we do. As well as being a registered B Corp, we’re proud to be associate members of the International Association of Antarctic […]

Two and a half years ago, the world marvelled at the news of the discovery of the wreck of the Endurance, the ship that was centre stage for the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s greatest Antarctic triumph and tragedy. Organised and funded by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, the Endurance22 expedition found the ship more than […]