The Antarctic is a region of superlatives. Vast, wild, and utterly beautiful, the White Continent, as it is also known, hosts some of the world's most sensational wildlife spectacles. Over the last 20 years, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours has brought hundreds of travelers to the Southern Ocean to partake in the experiences that make a trip to Antarctica so unforgettable. The advantage of traveling with VENT is that we pick the best ships and the best itineraries to ensure our guests the most from their travel experience.

While getting to Antarctica itself is the ultimate goal of an expedition, our itinerary includes the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island, which are so important, as this is where MOST of the wildlife is found. On South Georgia, the vast colonies of King Penguins, numbering into the hundreds of thousands, provide some of the most astonishing visual experiences over the course of the trip, but the colonies of other penguins and albatrosses are equally captivating. Landing on beaches filled with southern elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals are daily experiences, while farther offshore we keep vigils for passing whales and dolphins. On our recently completed January 2009 expedition, we did extremely well in finding numbers of killer, fin, and minke whales, in addition to finding four dolphin species—dusky, Peale's, Commerson's, and hourglass—that are entirely restricted to the southerly reaches of the world's oceans.

Certainly, the wildlife spectacles are the chief draw of Antarctica for many, but it is the remarkable scenery that at times seems so totally overpowering. Raw landscapes composed of snow-veiled mountains, ancient cracked-glaciers, and treeless plains complement wild seascapes of unimaginable beauty, where icy seawater glows a cobalt-blue where it laps the bases of icebergs of unlimited shape and size.

If you have been to Antarctica before, perhaps the images featured in this gallery will rekindle fond memories from your trip. If you haven't been to the seventh continent, but dream of doing so, we hope these images will encourage you to make the unforgettable journey south. Brian Patteson is a veteran of many Antarctic voyages, including four expeditions for VENT. An avid birder and fisherman who owns his own seabirding company, Brian contributed the outstanding images that appear in this gallery.