How to follow in the footsteps of the great Antarctic explorers

Thanks to advances in technology and transport that almost any feat of exploration of the past 500 years is now feasible as a holiday, writes Chris Leadbeater

Just over 100 years ago, in October 1914, a sailing ship slipped out of Buenos Aires, carrying one of the planet's most noted explorers. It would not see South America again. Within 13 months it had been crushed by pack ice, leaving its passengers facing an epic battle to survive in the harshest conditions imaginable.

Considering that it was one of the most ill-fated episodes of Antarctic exploration, the volume with which Ernest Shackleton's imperial trans-Antarctic expedition (1914-1917) rings through history is remarkable. It was meant to see Britain's fabled man of snow and his team become the first adventurers to make a full crossing of the most southerly continent. Instead, after the loss of Endurance in the Weddell Sea, they spent over a year adrift on the ice, before resorting to a "voyage" in lifeboats to the remote Elephant Island. From there, Shackleton (pictured below) and five others piloted one of these tiny craft 1 300km to the island of South Georgia in a bid to summon aid.

It was desperate, glorious stuff - but not the sort of journey, you might think, that anyone would wish to repeat. Yet, such have been the advances in technology and transport that almost any feat of exploration of the past 500 years, including Shackleton's, is now feasible as a holiday. Not least the following odysseys. Go to the given websites for future departure dates.

ANTARCTIC

The inhospitable waters where Shackleton almost came to grief now play host to intrepid tourists. World Expeditions (worldexpeditions.co.uk) offers a 20-day Shackleton Spirit cruise, which covers much of the territory that held the Endurance crew hostage during 1915 and 1916. Departing from Ushuaia in Argentina, it visits South Georgia, where Shackleton was able to make contact with local whalers, and set off to retrieve his men. It will also try to land on Elephant Island, from where the 22 remaining sailors were picked up on August 30 1916, as well as the Antarctic Peninsula. Prices start at £7 871 a head - full board, cruise only.

G Adventures (gadventures.co.uk) sells a 15-day Journey to the Antarctic Peninsula, which visits the part of the Weddell Sea where the Endurance (pictured below) became mired, seeking out whales and seals before heading on to the less-seen east flank of the Antarctic Peninsula. The cruise, also from Ushuaia, costs from £5249 a head, full-board, cruise only.

Last Frontiers (lastfrontiers.com) offers a 19-day Ultimate Antarctica voyage - from £7 150, full board, cruise only, from Ushuaia - which calls at Shackleton's grave during five days on South Georgia. The explorer died there of a heart attack on a later expedition, on January 5 1922, and is buried at Grytviken.

Of course, Antarctica was also the focus for other 20th-century adventurers, notably the doomed Robert Scott and his Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen. The latter was the first man to reach the South Pole, on December 14 1911 - a triumph that the very fit can try to replicate with Ice Trek (icetrek.com), a Tasmania-based company that specialises in polar jaunts. Its 40-day South Pole: Axel Heiberg Route traces Amundsen's path to the pole. Participants cover 640km on skis in 32 days. Prices start at £53 200 a head, expedition only. The same company has a seven-day South Pole Overnight package where guests fly there - from £30 650.

ARCTIC

Amundsen was also the first to conquer the Northwest Passage (1903-1906), the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific, across the fractured upper reaches of the Canadian land mass, which had eluded Europeans since the Venetian John Cabot probed the area in the late 15th century.

Now more navigable thanks to the receding polar ice, the passage reappeared in the spotlight last September when an expedition, sponsored by the Canadian government, located HMS Erebus - one of two British ships that vanished, along with explorer John Franklin and his team, in this icy zone in 1845.

One Ocean Expeditions (oneoceanexpeditions.com) took part in the search, and will return this year for a voyage, The Northwest Passage - East to West (August 12-24), which will forge up the coast of Greenland, past giants such as the Sondre Stromfjord (pictured below) and the iceberg-spewing Jakobshavn Glacier. Then it is into Canadian waters through Baffin Bay. The ship also calls at Beechey Island, where both Franklin and Amundsen wintered. Prices from £5 220 full board, cruise only.

Amundsen was also part of the group that made the first verified crossing of the North Pole by airship on May 12 1926. The top of the globe is accessible via the raw power of the ice-breaking ship. Exodus (exodus.co.uk) runs jaunts on the nuclear-powered behemoth 50 Years of Victory and has itineraries that also call at the uninhabited Russian archipelago Franz Josef Land, where seabirds soar and walruses roar. Prices from £15 965 . - © The Sunday Telegraph