Terra Nova Expeditions vs Oceanwide Expeditions: Which Antarctica Cruise Is Better in 2026?
Quick comparison table
| Terra Nova Expeditions | Oceanwide Expeditions | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2025 — first Antarctic season 2026 | 1993, the Netherlands — family owned |
| Fleet | St Helena, Icebird | Hondius, Ortelius, Plancius, Rembrandt van Rijn |
| Passenger capacity | 6–98 | 33–170 |
| Guide team | ~13 guides per Antarctic voyage, avg. 10–15 years’ experience | ~7–8 core guides per ship, plus specialists for activities |
| Stabilisers | Yes, on St Helena | Only on Hondius |
| Single supplement | 4 dedicated single cabins; supplement applies on other categories | Shared twin (same-gender) or ~1.7x solo supplement |
| Activities inclusion | All activities included in the fare — no add-ons | Free to try once; paid to join the group daily |
| Signature experience | Hybrid ship + sailing yacht voyage (Icebird, 5 nights) | Ross Sea voyages with helicopter access |
| From (shortest classic Peninsula voyage) | USD 7,990 (10-day) | ~USD 10,000–12,000 (10–11 day) |
Company overview
Terra Nova Expeditions was set up in 2025 and is launching its first Antarctic season in 2026, founded by Greg Carter, who first travelled to Antarctica in 2007 and co-founded polar travel company Chimu Adventures in 2003, leading it until its sale to Intrepid Travel in 2019. Before starting Terra Nova, Carter was Chief Commercial Officer at Albatros Expeditions, overseeing global sales and marketing. He’s also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. The company itself is based in the United States, though its director is based in Australia, and it’s independently owned with no corporate parent — its stated ethos is “expedition first, comfort always, hidden costs never.”
Oceanwide’s own history has a personal element rarely found in polar operators this size: around 30 years ago, a Dutch scientist conducting research in Svalbard fell in love with the Arctic, then partnered with the family that still owns and runs Oceanwide today. That original family owner is now in his eighties and remains actively involved in the company — a level of continuity across three decades that’s genuinely rare in this industry. Oceanwide is one of the few polar operators that self-owns and operates its entire fleet rather than chartering ships from third parties, run out of Vlissingen, the Netherlands.
The two companies share more philosophical ground than their age gap suggests — both are independently owned rather than backed by a larger corporate parent, and both build their identity around small, expedition-first ships rather than scale. Where they differ is track record: Oceanwide has three decades of seasons and the same family still at the helm, while Terra Nova is asking travellers to back a brand-new operation built by experienced individual operators rather than an experienced company.
Fleet comparison
Terra Nova’s fleet is deliberately small: just two vessels, each built around a completely different kind of expedition. St Helena is the flagship — a former Royal Mail Ship, purpose-built for long ocean voyages and reimagined for polar cruising after a £10 million refit in 2022. She’s fitted with stabilisers and handles well at sea, rated to carry up to 150 guests but Terra Nova caps her at 98, all in en-suite ocean-view cabins, with 12 Zodiac MK5s, 81 crew, a science lab, panoramic observation lounges, two Jacuzzis, a gym, and a spa. Four dedicated single cabins are available for solo travellers with no supplement; other cabin categories carry a single supplement that varies by category, so it’s worth checking the exact figure for the category you want. As an older ship built before modern accessibility standards, St Helena has no lift and isn’t well suited to wheelchair users. Icebird is something else entirely: a 61-foot ice-reinforced aluminium expedition yacht, custom-designed by Van de Stadt and built at the Trintella Shipyard in the Netherlands, carrying just six to eight guests. She’s used exclusively for Terra Nova’s hybrid “Ultimate Antarctic Adventure” itinerary, which combines a St Helena crossing with a five-night sailing leg aboard Icebird — a genuinely different mode of travel from anything else in this comparison.
Oceanwide’s Antarctic-going ships — m/v Hondius (170 passengers), m/v Ortelius (108), and m/v Plancius (108) — are all ice-strengthened, conventional-bow vessels, though only Hondius is fitted with stabilisers; Ortelius and Plancius are not. Hondius, launched in 2019, was the world’s first-registered Polar Class 6 passenger vessel and is the flagship. Ortelius carries the fleet’s most distinctive hardware: on select Ross Sea departures it operates with helicopters on board, giving access few other operators can match, though the logistics mean not everyone can go ashore at the same time on those days. Plancius is the line’s longest-serving ship and still one of its most popular. A fourth vessel, the three-masted sailing schooner Rembrandt van Rijn, carries just 33 guests and works exclusively in the Arctic. None of Oceanwide’s ships have lifts, and solid personal mobility is genuinely necessary — guests spend long stretches outside and need to get in and out of Zodiacs unassisted.
The contrast here is scale versus range. Oceanwide’s four ships span 33 to 170 guests across genuinely different vessel types, giving prospective travellers real choice within one brand. Terra Nova’s two vessels sit at opposite extremes of intimacy — a 98-guest ship that still feels spacious thanks to its below-capacity guest count, and a six-guest yacht that’s arguably the smallest way to reach Antarctica commercially available today.
Expedition experience
Day to day, both run the same core rhythm: Zodiac landings, excursions when conditions allow, and itineraries that flex around weather and ice. Oceanwide’s typical day runs wake-up call, breakfast, a full morning ashore, back aboard for lunch while the ship repositions, then repeat — everyone heads out together in the same departure, with roughly nine guests per Zodiac and 15–20 minutes to get the whole ship ashore. Neither operator runs onboard entertainment in the cruise-ship sense — the landscape is the programme.
Where they diverge is in how much variety sits inside one itinerary. Oceanwide’s three Antarctic ships share a similar ice-strengthened, no-frills expedition character, so the experience feels broadly consistent whichever one you’re on. Terra Nova’s standard St Helena voyages are a comparatively conventional small-ship expedition — but the Ultimate Antarctic Adventure itinerary splits a single trip across two completely different vessels and paces, from a 98-guest ship to a six-guest sailing yacht, inside one 21-day departure. It’s a structure Oceanwide doesn’t offer anything close to.
Guides and staff
Oceanwide’s own sales team puts its expedition team at around 7–8 core guides per ship, with extra specialist guides added for particular activities like diving and kayaking. Staff are drawn from a range of nationalities and fields, deliver lectures throughout the voyage, and run recaps most evenings — and they’re around on deck whenever guests are, outside of rest hours.
Terra Nova’s team is built around named specialists rather than a rotating pool — Expedition Leader Ryan Hope-Inglis, currently on his 100th trip to Antarctica; glaciologist Ida Olsson, who spent a decade based in Svalbard; cinematographer David Baillie, whose credits include BBC’s Planet Earth and Frozen Planet; and a marine biologist, a geologist, and a reproductive biologist rounding out the naturalist team. Speaking directly with Terra Nova’s Sales Director, Ross Avenell, we confirmed Antarctic voyages carry around 13 guides on board, all fully trained across multiple voyages, with an average of 10–15 years’ guiding experience each — among the highest average tenure of any operator we’ve compared, and a notably larger team relative to guest numbers than Oceanwide’s core complement.
Activities
Oceanwide runs one of the broadest activity menus in the industry — kayaking, snowshoeing, mountaineering, ski mountaineering (Arctic only, for experienced skiers who bring their own gear), Antarctic camping, polar diving (30 logged drysuit dives required, bring your own drysuit), ski trekking in South Georgia, and helicopter tours are all on offer, though not on every voyage — each departure’s activity list is published on its booking page. Most activities are free to try once, then paid if you want to join the group and do it daily; camping, kayaking, and mountaineering are bundled into the fare at no extra charge on “Basecamp” itineraries specifically. The bridge is open to guests throughout.
Terra Nova takes the opposite default position: kayaking, trekking, snowshoeing, Zodiac cruising, open-air camping (capped at 30 guests per departure using expedition-grade bivvy gear), a photography workshop, the polar plunge, and morning yoga are all included in every fare, with no extra charges on any departure — not just a subset of itineraries. The bridge is open here too. On the Icebird leg specifically, guests can also snorkel, dive, ski, and climb, matching Oceanwide’s diving offering in a considerably more remote, hands-on setting.
Food and accommodation
Oceanwide runs a buffet breakfast and lunch with à la carte dinner service. Coffee, tea, and water are included; everything else runs through a reasonably priced bar tab — around USD 4 for a beer or wine, USD 9 for a cocktail, USD 3 for a soft drink. There’s no spa or pool on any ship, and it’s a straightforward, well-reviewed programme — the line holds an average 9.7/10 rating across more than 1,300 customer reviews. Solo travellers either share a twin cabin split by gender or pay roughly a 1.7x solo supplement.
Terra Nova serves a buffet breakfast and lunch with a three-course dinner aboard St Helena, and the ship’s post-refit interiors include panoramic observation lounges, two Jacuzzis, a gym, and a spa — more onboard amenity than the description “former Royal Mail Ship” might suggest. Four dedicated single cabins are available at no supplement; other cabin categories carry a single supplement that varies by category, so this is worth confirming for your preferred cabin before booking. Icebird’s accommodation is a different proposition entirely: simple, shared expedition-yacht quarters, fully insulated and climate-controlled with a heated pilothouse saloon, built for access and adventure rather than comfort in the conventional sense.
Pricing and value
Oceanwide’s classic 10–11 day Antarctic Peninsula voyages have started from around USD 10,000–12,000 per person in recent seasons, with combination itineraries into the Weddell Sea, Falklands, or South Georgia running higher, typically USD 11,000–12,000-plus.
Terra Nova’s advertised starting prices run lower across the board: its Classic Antarctica itinerary (10 days, St Helena) starts from USD 7,990, Spirit of Terra Nova (11 days) from USD 8,790, and Polar Circle Quest (12 days, furthest south) from USD 10,980. The hybrid Ultimate Antarctic Adventure — 21 days combining St Helena and Icebird — starts from USD 21,080. Because Terra Nova includes activities that many operators, Oceanwide included on standard departures, sell separately, the effective gap between the two operators’ total trip cost is narrower than the headline per-person prices alone suggest — though it’s worth factoring in Terra Nova’s single supplement on non-single cabin categories when comparing like for like.
Treat any figures you see online, including ours, as a starting point rather than a quote — pricing changes constantly with season, ship, and cabin category. For the full picture on what an Antarctic voyage actually costs once flights, gear, and extras are factored in, see our guide to what an Antarctica expedition cruise actually costs in 2026.
Which traveller should choose Terra Nova?
Terra Nova suits travellers who want fare simplicity above all — one price that already includes kayaking, camping, photography coaching, and the rest, with nothing held back as a paid extra. It’s also the only way to book the hybrid ship-and-sailing-yacht itinerary, which is a genuinely different Antarctic experience to a standard expedition cruise, and worth considering if intimacy and access matter more to you than fleet size or brand tenure. A notably high guide-to-guest ratio — around 13 experienced guides on a 98-guest ship — is a genuine point in its favour too, as are the four no-supplement single cabins for solo travellers. The trade-offs are backing a first-season operator without Oceanwide’s multi-decade operating record, and St Helena’s lack of a lift, which rules it out for guests needing wheelchair access.
Which traveller should choose Oceanwide?
Oceanwide suits travellers who want a settled, family-owned operation with more than 30 years of continuous polar operating history and a fleet that behaves consistently ship to ship. It’s also the stronger pick if Ross Sea helicopter access, a wider range of vessel sizes within one brand, or scuba diving fleet-wide are priorities — none of which Terra Nova currently offers outside the Icebird leg. Good personal mobility matters more here than on most ships: there are no lifts, and guests spend long stretches outside and getting in and out of Zodiacs unassisted, so it’s less suited to travellers with limited mobility.
Final verdict
Terra Nova and Oceanwide represent genuinely different bets. Oceanwide is the known quantity: a family-owned, self-operated fleet with three decades of consistent operating history and a broad, mostly-paid activity menu across four ships. Terra Nova is the newer, more concentrated proposition — a founder with real polar-industry pedigree, an all-inclusive fare with no hidden extras, a notably high guide ratio, and a hybrid ship-and-yacht itinerary unlike anything else covered in this series. Neither answer is universally right; it depends on how much weight you put on operating history versus fare simplicity and access.
We work with both Terra Nova and Oceanwide, along with the rest of the Antarctic operators, and we don’t have a horse in this race — our job is to match the ship and itinerary to you, not the other way around. That matters more than usual here: with Terra Nova in its first operating season, knowing exactly what’s included, what the realistic onboard experience looks like, and how it stacks up against an established name like Oceanwide is the kind of detail that’s easy to miss reading a brochure alone.
If you’d rather talk through Terra Nova versus Oceanwide for your specific dates and priorities, tell us what you’re after and we’ll get back to you with a straight answer — free, no obligation.