Many expedition travellers argue this is the greatest wildlife spectacle on the planet - and the extraordinary story of Ernest Shackleton's survival adds a layer of human history few other destinations can match.
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Over a million king penguins crowd the black-sand beaches of St Andrews Bay alone - a density of wildlife that has to be seen to be believed. Elephant seals bellow across the tussock grass nearby, wandering albatross wheel overhead on wingspans over three metres wide, and rockhopper penguins pick their way across the rocks with the same stubborn determination that gives them their name.
South Georgia is also where Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition ends: his grave sits at Grytviken, a former whaling station, and the story of his 800-mile open-boat rescue voyage across the Southern Ocean is told in vivid detail by expedition teams on almost every landing here.
South Georgia sits on the route between the Falklands and the Antarctic Peninsula, so most voyages combine the two rather than visiting in isolation.
Seabourn Expeditions names South Georgia explicitly among its itineraries, and several of the operators running Antarctic Peninsula voyages combine it as an extended sailing - Rich can identify exactly which departures include it in a given season.
It's rare but not impossible - most itineraries combine the two into one longer voyage. Rich can flag the occasional departure that treats South Georgia as the primary destination.
Landings are similarly straightforward - mostly wet or dry Zodiac landings onto beaches - though weather in the Southern Ocean can be more unpredictable than closer to the Peninsula itself.
Independent advice on which Antarctica-and-South-Georgia combination voyage suits your timeframe and budget.
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