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South Pole tourist information
South Pole tourist information
Although there's more than one definition of "the South Pole", the most popularly accepted one (and a travel destination) is a fixed location in the southern hemisphere at the Earth's axis of rotation, latitude 90�S (longitude not applicable). Unlike the North Pole, which is nothing but a sheet of ice floating on the surface of the Arctic Ocean, the geographic South Pole is located on solid ground, allowing a permanent research station to be built at the site of the pole itself. Although it was once an elusive goal that took the lives of many explorers, thanks to modern technology, it has been permanently staffed since 1956, and is now a destination of commercial travel expeditions.
"The South Pole" is also defined geomagnetically. This pole drifts around, and since there's nothing particularly interesting about it other than perhaps watching your compass not work, it receives no visitors. There's also a southern pole of inaccessibility, the point in Antarctica farthest from any coastline. This is a fixed location (barring major sea level changes that might redefine coastlines) at 85°50'S 65°47'E, but as the name suggests, travel to this point is generally impractical.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about South Pole
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in South Pole - updated Apr 2024
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WHERE TO TRAVEL NEXT IN 2020
South Pole Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
