Ushuaia is beautiful. I would love to go back someday and explore Tierra del Fuego National Park nearby, but just like Buenos Aires it was only a small pitstop to getting to Antarctica. We walked around, ate some lunch, bought some small things, and then made our way over to the boat once it was time.

Once onboard we found our room and then got to know the boat. We had “Helicopter Familiarization” time to look at the helicopters, a lifeboat drill, a “Welcome & Safety Briefing”, dinner, and then went back to our room to get some sleep. We started the next day with breakfast and then had a day of presentations and briefings on the boat as we started making our way through the Drake Passage.

Every breakfast and lunch was served as a buffet. They had a pretty good variety of food available to choose from, specialties you could pick, desserts, drinks, and some special requests you could make. I’ve only been on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian cruises but the food on Quark completely blew away what you get on the regular cruise lines. Every dinner had unique options to order from and included a starter, soup, main course, and dessert. If none of that night’s items interested you then they also had grilled chicken, grilled salmon, or ribeye steak always available. I can’t remember exactly what I had the first two dinners, but looking back at the menus (which they email you as part of the overall trip photo journal), I probably had something like this for dinner 1:

• Selection of Fresh Lettuces & Marinated Salad

• Chicken Consommé

• Slow Roasted Cajun Marinated Pork Loin

• Mississippi Mud Pie

and this for dinner 2:

• Breaded & Sesame Coated Fried French Brie

• Beef Broth Royale with Julienne of Vegetables

• Fillet Mignon of Locally Sourced Argentinian Beef

• Dark & White Chocolate Truffle Tart

I don’t think I had a meal I didn’t like on this trip. Everything was consistently high quality and kept me out of the dreaded “food fatigue” you get 3 days in on a Caribbean cruise when you start realizing every lunch is just leftovers from breakfast made into something new and every dinner is leftovers from breakfast and lunch in a different sauce.

After dinner each night there was usually another presentation or lecture put on by one of the crew members, but I found I was often pretty worn out and ready to go watch a movie in our room or sleep. The boat has plenty of movies you can watch in your room and I also brought my Retroid Pocket for some gaming.

I thought the boat days might be a bit boring, but with how often you’re eating and how many presentations and safety briefings we had the day was soon over. Despite everything I had heard about the Drake Passage and how extreme it could be crossing it, it was completely fine. We were very lucky and had a smooth experience, no medication needed (which was good because I was probably overconfident in my ability to not get nauseous and didn’t bring any seasickness medicine. I’m undecided on if I’ll bring some the next time we go to with Keira in ~15 years or so). We had left home at noon on February 27th and it was now March 3rd, over four days into the trip. It took a long time to get from home to the middle of the Drake Passage and we knew when we woke up we would finally be within reach of exploring our seventh continent.

• Go to every Disney Park

• Go to every continent

Neither of these had much of a plan behind them, but both quickly came together in just under 8 years and we’ve now marked them off and need more goals. I’m hoping to properly document and share this experience through a series of posts covering each day and what we did. Antarctica was unbelievable and I can’t recommend it enough, but it is a journey that has to be planned for (and paid for) with a little more thought than most destinations. I found it was fairly difficult to research exactly what you got for your money, what life was like on the boat for 14 days, how food was, and all the other details you would want to know before fully committing to it. Hopefully this post helps someone eventually plan out a trip of their own.

In 2023 Ashley and I started to talk more seriously about going to Antarctica, narrowing down the time we wanted to go to the 2024/2025 season. We wanted to go before Keira started Kindergarten and figured we could ask my parents to watch her for the two weeks while we were gone, but soon realized we wanted to do this trip together with them. While this slightly complicated the plan for Keira, it ended up all working out and I’m thankful I got to experience this trip with my parents.

I generally am able to plan out trips for what I consider a fairly reasonable price. I often look through the National Geographic tour offerings and love to be able to say, “Oh, we did that for 1/4 the price” or “Oh, we should do that, I bet I could plan it for way less and see more”. I wait for cheap flights, I’m flexible, I use credit card points smartly, I’m fine with an extra layover or two. Planning out future trips is a genuine hobby of mine that I put a lot of time into and consider myself good at. I generally plan with the philosophy that the more money I save on things that I truly don’t feel meaningfully alter the experience of being in a new place, the more places I can see. Things like staying in a hotel near a subway station in Tokyo or Beijing rather than a more popular area or staying with friendly hosts just outside Amsterdam and using public transit, or driving us all over foreign countries have turned into memorable experiences for far less money than an expensive hotel in the city or tour guide. I wish I could say any of that applied to this trip, but it does not. Antarctica is expensive and I don’t think there are ways around it if you want to do it right. You can’t take that budget flight because you’re not just risking missing a day or two of hotel bookings, you’re risking missing the boat leaving the southern tip of the world. The only real way you can save some money is on the itinerary and boat you go on, but you risk how a once in a lifetime experience will play out based on what you’re willing to pay. The time commitment alone makes it hard to visit Antarctica, and even the low end of expedition costs are high. Thankfully someone recommended Quark Expeditions to my dad and we stuck with them after a little investigation for this once in a lifetime trip.

Quark offered three things that most other lines don’t:

• The opportunity to cross the Antarctic Circle. I didn’t want to just touch the very tip of Antarctica, I wanted to go as far south as expeditions allowed.

• A new ship built for polar exploration. Looking around at some of the other ships used for this type of trip, you can tell that some are made for this and others are not. It made a difference in overall comfort on the trip.

• Helicopters. I wanted to be able to really see Antarctica from high up.

We ended up being extremely happy with Quark and would go with them again. I will include more details of the boat, itinerary, room, and the actual voyage in later posts, but here is a rough overview of what we did:

Ashley and I’s booking with Quark was for an “Explorer Suite” (pretty much the base room, but still very nice) and was $15,544.85 per person. This included the 14 day cruise, meals, a chartered flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and back, one night at a hotel in Buenos Aires, a big yellow coat to handle the Antarctic cold, a helicopter ride, and all other included activities on the boat.

Beyond those costs you have to get yourself to Buenos Aires (~$1500/person from SLC), add another night on for the Buenos Aires hotel (~$200) so you have a chance if something goes wrong with your flight, and of course buy anything else you want to bring with you on the voyage like clothing, snacks, camera equipment, etc. With Quark providing the big coat I actually don’t think I bought too much I didn’t already have, but there was a lot to bring (Quark’s packing list for Antarctica is here). Beyond these costs there was also a tip at the end of the trip (~$1000?) and we also added on an additional helicopter landing for our anniversary (~$2000).

This trip was multiple times more expensive than any other trip we’ve done. The timing was right though and it was completely worth it.

All of this planning eventually led up to us flying to Buenos Aires in late February 2025 to start the trip of a lifetime. Over the last few years of traveling we’ve had multiple flight issues that have been out of our control. Lost luggage in Spain, Ashley, Keira, and my mom got delayed over a day going to London, flights in general have just seemed off. With $35,000 already spent on this trip all I wanted was to get to Buenos Aires without any delays or issues. We flew from Provo to Dallas to Buenos Aires and everything went unbelievably smooth, giving us about two days to explore the city.

I could probably write a whole post just on Buenos Aires, but it was just a short stop on the way to something much larger. We visited Casa Rosada, San Telmo Market, La Recoleta Cemetery, and ate a lot of good food. It made for a great layover and it was nice to know that from here until returning to Buenos Aires everything was in Quarks hands. We had arrived on time, had our luggage, and were ready for them to take us on the trip of a lifetime. After all the planning and preparation we were ready to head to Antarctica.

The drive was uneventful other than seeing the occasional “camel crossing” sign and a mirage in the desert. About 45 minutes from our destination we stopped at the “Star Wars Canyon”. This is where a lot of the A New Hope desert scenes were filmed, scenes like R2-D2 getting stolen by the Jawas, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s introduction, and more. We wandered around trying to match what we were seeing with various scenes from the movie and managed to find just about all of them before finishing the long drive.

We got to our new hotel, the Palm Beach Palace, and checked in. Hotels offer various site seeing packages, but since we already had a car and had driven this far I figured we would be fine on our own. The hotel tour staff didn’t seem as confident about it as I felt, but I was not going to come this far just to be rushed in and out of everything I wanted to see by a tour guide.

The next day we woke up and tried to beat the sun out to the Mos Espa filming site. Mos Espa is the Tatooine city in Star Wars that Anakin is from, featured heavily in Episode I. The filming was done on site in Tunisia. The city set was built out of fiber glass and then filmed with a mix of the location and CGI. After the filming was done the entire set was abandoned and left to deteriorate. Most Tunisians haven’t seen Star Wars so most Tunisians don’t care about these sites or even understand why people would want to see them. A couple of locals set up their souvenir stands at the front of the set, knowing some tourists will come each day, but it’s nothing more than a dozen or two people a day. I don’t think any of the vendors had seen Star Wars, but for each item they were selling they would point at it and say, “Star Wars!”

We had the set mostly to ourselves and enjoyed walking around it. Keira had fun going in and out of the buildings, arches, and up and down the stairs. I had a great time matching up various scenes from the movie with the remains of the set. We tried to find a geocache, but it was long gone. I’m glad we made it out here when we did as it is clearly not being maintained and won’t be around forever. It’s a shame this site isn’t on some sort of Tunisian historical landmark list. On the way out we bought some nice warm Coke and Fanta and began the next leg of the day’s journey, driving through the desert and to Ong Jemel to see more Star Wars scenery.

I had read online that it was possible to make this drive in pretty much any car as long as it hadn’t rained in the last couple of days. It had been dry, so we got in our VW Passat and attempted it. The roads up to this point had been paved for the most part, and the dirt ones had been nice.

With the destination loaded in Google Maps we started out. As we set off, I started noticing that our road on Google Maps didn’t really match up with where we were driving. It was parallel with it, but nearly a half mile away. I didn’t see any actual road where Google said there was a road and Google Maps didn’t show the very road I was driving on. The road was good though, so we kept pressing forward, speeding up whenever we hit the occasional sand drift to not get stuck. I had a separate set of instructions for how to get there and they still were matching up for the most part, but I began to get nervous as more and more roads of various sizes started branching off of our road. There was a mountain in the distance that I knew we had to turn just after passing, so with that as our guide we pressed on, eventually ending up where we intended to.

Ong Jemel isn’t much to see unless you’re a Star Wars fan. It’s a small little hill you can climb up and look around. A couple of sites are in the vicinity, one of the locations used for the podrace scene, and the other being the location where Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn faced off for the first time. Funnily enough, there was a small shack right at the base of the mountain with drinks, snacks, and a makeshift bathroom.

We did the quick hike up the steep hill, loaded up The Phantom Menace on Disney+ to find some scenes, took some pictures, and then went back down to get a drink. The guy running the shack brought a desert fox out and let Keira pet it and take pictures with it. If you are ever in the desert around here I strongly recommend stopping by the shack. It seems like a lonely place to spend your day and I didn’t see another person drive by the whole time we were there, but we appreciated the drinks and kindness.

On the way back things quickly fell apart. Without any real landmark to guide us back, Google Maps showing a single road a half mile away, and the hundreds of offshoot roads, things got a bit scary. Every half mile or so the road would start getting more and more sandy to the point where it couldn’t possibly have been the road we drove in on. We would then turn around and try and find where we had gone wrong, but it was not easy. 4x4’s drive all over here and have made so many different trails that without a GPS recording of exactly how you got there I don’t think you could ever find your exact path back. Eventually we flagged down a guy on a four-wheeler and he pointed down to where the “real” road was. Luckily the ground was fairly hard packed so rather than drive back down our current trail and try to connect I just drove straight across until I hit the real road. We made it back easily enough after that, but I will never drive in a desert without recording my trip with GPS again.

The several hours of driving through the desert all paid off when we ended our time in the area with a stop by the exterior filming site of Luke’s Tatooine home. Our entire day had an otherworldly feeling to it that I will always remember, but this was really the spot the whole trip was planned around. I have so many great memories growing up that involved Star Wars, and getting to see the place where it all began really meant a lot to me. Hopefully it will all still be around the next time we make it out to Tunisia.

The logistics of traveling to Cuba are unlike those of most other countries. U.S. credit and debit cards aren’t accepted, so you have to bring enough cash to cover your entire trip. Internet access is only available through prepaid one-hour Wi-Fi cards, which can only be used at designated Wi-Fi hotspots. Your phone won’t have service. It’s a lot to figure out and probably why you don’t hear many people talking about “the time they went to Cuba”.

When we first arrived in Havana, we exchanged USD for CUP at the airport. At the time, Cuba had two currencies (this changed in 2021): the CUP and the CUC. One was for tourists, and the other for locals. It didn’t make much sense, but I was glad to be familiar with the two when a “taxi” driver tried to scam us. He claimed we had paid him in CUC instead of CUP. Since I knew we didn’t have any CUC, I suggested we check with a nearby police officer. He suddenly changed his mind and accepted the significantly lower-valued CUP (which we absolutely did not give him), at a 1:25 exchange ratio.

We took a taxi into town and checked into our first casa particular of the trip. A casa particular is essentially a room in someone’s home, and thankfully, you can book them on Airbnb. Upon arrival, our host gave us an hour-long rundown: where to go, what to see, where to eat, and everything else on his mind. All in Spanish

Ashley and I both speak some Spanish, and it really paid off in Cuba. We’ve been to five Spanish-speaking countries but had never used as much Spanish as we did here. I honestly don’t know what you would do if you didn’t speak any Spanish. We booked almost everything in Spanish, from hiring drivers between cities to arranging activities and ordering food. Every time I asked if someone spoke English, I was met with blank stares. Traveling in Cuba without Spanish would make an already difficult trip to plan even more difficult.

Food in Havana is pretty good, with an interesting variety. Most restaurants fell into two categories: authentic Cuban cuisine or attempts at international dishes. The main dish we had was ropa vieja, typically served with yuca and rice. Fried plantains were also a common side. One place near us made surprisingly good burgers and milkshakes. We even found a great Chinese restaurant. All of our meals were decent, but there was always something slightly off. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but if you gave me seven different versions of Chinese food from different countries, I could pick out the Cuban one instantly.

Breakfast in Cuba was usually at our casa particular or arranged through a neighbor. It typically involved lots of fruit and bread and usually came with conversations with our hosts. Our hosts were incredibly helpful, often assisting us with exchanging money (at better rates than official exchange businesses) and finding drivers to take us to our next destination.

One thing I found especially amusing was how many restaurants stocked Costco products. Someone must be shuttling Costco orders from the U.S. to Cuba. In a country with minimal American influence, it was funny to see the familiar Kirkland Signature brand pop up in random places.

So, what did we actually do in Havana? We spent a lot of time walking around, eating, spotting old cars, strolling along the Malecón, and visiting museums and historical sites. On our way out each day, we’d stop by Hotel Inglaterra for Wi-Fi to look up information and message our hosts. I got really good at doing everything I needed online quickly to conserve our precious Wi-Fi minutes. Some highlights included Museo del Chocolate, Plaza de la Catedral, El Morro, Plaza de la Revolución, El Capitolio, and other museums. It was especially interesting to see the Cuban perspective on historical events involving the U.S.

Most importantly, Havana is a city best explored without a strict itinerary. Walk around, see what looks interesting, and let the city surprise you. Not having constant cell service to guide every step, search for the highest-rated restaurants, or book tickets instantly makes Havana feel more immersive and rewarding.

We spent about five days in Havana, and it felt like the perfect amount of time. From there, we headed to Trinidad to ring in the New Year where I rode a full sized horse for probably the last time, and then to the beach town of Varadero where I kept ordering the wrong style of eggs.

Cuba was an eye-opening experience, and I would love to go back someday. There’s something truly special about visiting a capital city untouched by global brands like Nike, McDonald's, or Coca-Cola. The absence of these familiar logos makes Havana feel like you are truly in another country, offering a unique and authentic travel experience.

Fast forward to March 2024, almost exactly four years to the date of our failed trip, and our trip to Tunisia finally came to life, this time with Keira in tow.

It is surprisingly easy to get to Tunisia. Multiple airports in France fly directly to multiple airports in Tunisia. We flew direct from SLC → Paris and got to spend some time at Paris Disneyland (our final Disney park), Lyon, Marseille, Nice, and Monaco before making our way across the Mediterranean Sea, flying from Nice to Monastir for around $80. While we took our time getting there, it’s completely possible to get there with a single layover from the US.

The filming locations are all in the middle of the country. Djerba and Monastir are both great airports to start your journey from. We started in Monastir and ended in Djerba since that was the way the flights worked out best, but you really can’t go wrong. It’s worth mentioning our hotel in Monastir was unbelievably nice, a large suite with a separate bedroom, a beautiful pool, and right next to the beach…for $80. Djerba also has nice hotels and is basically a European retiree tourist destination, complete with old people dancing and early dinners.

The US Department of State gives this warning regarding driving in Tunisia: "Drivers often fail to obey the rules of the road, even in the presence of police. Traffic signs and signals are often ignored, and drivers sometimes drive vehicles on the wrong side of the road or the wrong direction on a one-way street. Defensive driving is a must in Tunisia." Going in with that knowledge, driving around Tunisia wasn’t bad. Once you’re on the highway, everything is well maintained, doesn’t have much traffic, and aside from the occasional camel or sand drift, is pretty relaxed. The smaller cities are definitely a bit more chaotic with mopeds, horses, and carts, but we were fine just taking it slow. There are also areas that the US Department of State advises against traveling through and in. Unfortunately, Google recommends driving right through some of these areas, so paying attention to your route and planning ahead is key. You also have to keep an eye on the weather, as you wouldn’t be able to drive a sedan through the desert to some of the sites if it has recently rained.

Our schedule:

• Day 1: Short flight to Monastir

• Day 2: Drive to Tozeur, visit the Star Wars Canyon (Episode IV canyon shots)

• Day 3: Mos Espa, Oung Jamel (Darth Maul’s arrival, podracer scenes), Lars Homestead exterior

• Day 4: Drive to Djerba, Hotel Sidi Driss (Lars Homestead interior), Medenine (Anakin’s front door)

• Day 5: Djerba (Obi-Wan’s home, Tosche Station, cantina exterior)

• Day 6: Fly to Paris

We skipped Ksar Ouled Soltane and Ksar Hadada. Both of these were additional filming locations for the slave quarters in Episode I, but Medenine has the filming location for Anakin’s home entrance, and that felt sufficient. If you’d like to go to them, add another two hours to the 13-hour drive and additional stress from driving through some very chaotic (for US tourists) cities. Google sent me down a one-way road in Medenine (just like the Department of State warned!), and I only found out it was a one-way road when a guy came over and started directing traffic for me to back out. The Tunisian city of Tataouine, the inspiration for the name of Tatooine, is also along that route, but there isn’t really anything to see there other than road signs.

If you’re still following this far in, thanks! I’ll post more pictures and details in additional posts. This trip was so much fun and well worth the wait. Re-watching Star Wars and seeing the locations I've been to has made it all the more special to me. It's hard to believe one of the most iconic movies of all time was put together out in the middle of the desert.

Tours are booked online, with multiple options available. We did the lunch tour combo for $158 NZD each (~$90 USD) and were happy with it. Reservations fill up fast, so you’ll want to make them as soon as you know the dates you’ll be there and even double check availability before booking flights. The “Evening Banquet Tour” is said to be the ultimate experience, but with a three-year-old in tow, we weren’t ready for the 4.5-hour commitment.

On arrival, you check in and wait for your scheduled bus ride, which takes about 10 minutes from the gift shop to the site. Once there, you stay with your tour group throughout the visit. The tour begins at the entrance to The Shire, winds its way up to Bag End, and concludes with a drink at The Green Dragon. Our lunch, included in the tour package, was hearty and fun, a chance to enjoy hobbit-style meals, but we’d still have enjoyed the experience without it.

The tour guide was great and covered a lot of information about the location and filming as we walked along. You do have to stay with your group, but there was ample time for photos along the way. We had one group inside our group that were a bit of a pain, always walking off the allowed paths, getting in the way of people’s pictures, and taking a ton of time for their own pictures, but they couldn’t put a damper on the great day.

Hobbiton is truly magical. The level of detail and meticulous upkeep is astonishing. You also get to explore the interior of one hobbit home, which is perfectly decorated and laid out. Keira had a blast running through the house, playing with hobbit kids' toys, jumping into their beds, and exploring their rooms.

The gift shop offers some great options, but I found a lot of the stuff they had was also available at the Weta Workshop in Auckland for slightly better prices. They do have some cool, unique items though, so pick up something if you like it.

I strongly recommend watching at least the first movies of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies before visiting to refresh your memory and help you recognize iconic locations. This was one of the most memorable experiences we’ve ever had, and I’d return in a heartbeat!

We’ve dreamed of visiting New Zealand (and Australia) for years, but it always felt challenging to prioritize compared to other destinations. The flights are 15+ hours, hotels/AirBNBs are pricey, things are spread out, everything just felt like it was “more”. Luckily, we were at a point where we needed to use up a lot of airline miles we’ve been saving up and this felt like the trip to do it. Getting extra summer time in the middle of winter was also a nice bonus!

Our flights took us from PVU → DFW → AKL. This was our first time starting an international trip out of Provo, and it turned into a stressful nightmare. We scheduled an earlier flight, but upon arriving, it was immediately delayed for a couple of hours. I quickly switched us to the next departing flight, but the issues didn’t end there. American Airlines had a luggage system outage which meant our bag was stuck on our previous flight’s plane, which had now been delayed several hours. Seeing our old plane just a few hundred feet away, knowing our bag was stuck on it, was painful.

We arrived in Dallas and made our way to the Capital One lounge while we waited for the flight with our bag to arrive. After a couple of hours in the lounge, Ash and Keira went to the gate while I went back through security to retrieve the bag. Fortunately, it arrived with about 20 minutes to spare. Luckily, there was an AA bag check location right next to baggage claim and a security line nearby. With a quick ride on the airport train, I made it to the gate just in time to board. The flight to Auckland was uneventful, and we managed to get some decent sleep, which helped us hit the ground running.

AKL is an excellent airport, not too much walking, and rental cars are easily accessible. We chose Huntly, a small town less than an hour from Auckland, as our home base. Its proximity to Auckland, Hobbiton, and the Waitomo Glowworm Caves made it an ideal location. Each of these spots will have its own post with more details and photos.

Our Airbnb in Huntly was one of the best we’ve ever stayed in. It featured two large bedrooms, a spacious living room, and stunning views. Keira spent hours playing with Daisy and Carnival, the Airbnb’s horse and donkey, which added to the experience.

Although our time in New Zealand was short, it was unforgettable. Visiting Hobbiton was worth every minute of driving on the “wrong” side of the road. People often say the South Island is even more beautiful than the North Island where we stayed, so we’re already planning a return trip to see for ourselves.