Antarctica to Hobart: Ponant’s ultra-luxury icebreaker is headed Down Under

Innovation

The world’s first ultra-luxury icebreaker is charting a course for Hobart, bringing billionaires, scientists and an idea born over dinner in Brittany to Australia’s edge.

The Ponant Le Commandant Charcot is set to reach Hobart after a 31-day Antarctica voyage, marking the icebreaker’s first visit to Australia.

In 2015, over dinner and a bottle of wine in Brittany, France, a handful of Ponant executives discussed an idea that sounded implausible. They wanted a ship strong enough to crush through Arctic ice but quiet enough to serve a bottle of Bordeaux in complete silence.

At the table sat Captain Étienne Garcia, already a veteran of more than a decade of polar navigation. “We said, ‘Now we can start to build a real vessel capable of going to the North Pole and to put the Brittany flag there.’ The idea came exactly like that,” he says.

Six years later, that idea became Le Commandant Charcot – a 150-metre hybrid LNG-electric icebreaker built at Vard Søviknes in Norway and delivered in 2021. It carries a Polar Class 2 rating, two full classes higher than most expedition ships. “The gap between that and PC2 is huge,” Garcia says. “We are almost like a nuclear icebreaker.”

Next January, the ship will make history of its own when it sails into Hobart after completing a 31-day half-circumnavigation of Antarctica – a voyage from Ushuaia through the Ross and Amundsen Seas. It will be the first time the French-flagged icebreaker reaches Australian shores, ending one of the most ambitious polar itineraries ever offered to the public.

The vessel’s twin ABB Azipods generate 34 megawatts of power, enough to push through 2.5 metres of dense sea ice and manoeuvre stern-first through ridges of heavy multi-year ice. Despite that power, the ship runs with minimal vibration thanks to a suspended-deck design that isolates guest areas from the engine room. “You can drink a glass of wine while the hull crushes the ice,” Garcia says.

Inside, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d just stepped aboard Jeff Bezos’ Koru. French studios Wilmotte & Associés and Jean-Philippe Nuel designed the interiors in pale oak, slate and leather. Each of the 123 suites and staterooms has a balcony. The 115-square-metre Owner’s Suite includes a private terrace and outdoor jacuzzi; the 94-square-metre Duplex Suites span two levels.

There are two restaurants – one supervised by Alain Ducasse – plus two swimming pools, a cigar lounge, a theatre and a spa with a snow room and sauna. The capacity is approximately 245 guests, served by a crew of 215.

So, what does it cost you? The 31-day half-circumnavigation of Antarctica from Ushuaia to Hobart in January 2026 starts at approximately A$91,100 per person, rising to more than A$188,000 for the 1,237-square-foot Owner’s Suite.

Le Commandant Charcot isn’t new to Forbes Australia readers. The ship featured in these pages last year for its extraordinary mix of power and polish – a half-billion-dollar vessel capable of slicing through pack ice in near silence. But the view from the bridge tells a different story.

Below deck, the same space that serves caviar upstairs also houses two working laboratories – one wet, one dry – with a rotating cast of scientists from NASA, Italy, and Japan, Garcia says. “It’s invaluable for them because it’s free.” Ponant covers its costs on the condition that all data remains open-source.

Those scientists must also present their work to passengers during daily briefings and lectures. “They have to do a presentation of their mission to the guests,” he adds. “We have a science coordinator who organises the visits.”

But long before Le Commandant Charcot hit the ice, Garcia found himself at another historic table. Early in his career, he sat at a dinner with Australia’s Bob Hawke and France’s Michel Rocard as they finalised the Antarctic Treaty’s environmental protocol. The treaty, signed in 1991, banned mining and set the continent aside for science and peace.

Captain Étienne Garcia, — Captain Etienne Garcia, Le Commandant Charcot, the High Arctic. North Pole Dry Run September 2021. Image: Ponant

That legacy shaped his view of exploration. “You must be patient. The ice decides,” Garcia says. “You can’t be arrogant. Always be humble in front of the elements.” He applies the same rule to how the ship operates. Routes are not fixed. If a whale breaches nearby or the light catches the ice in a new way, they change course. “We call it slow cruising,” he says. “You take what the ice gives you.”

Every voyage includes scientists, photographers and paying guests – often billionaires, researchers and retired engineers sharing the same bar. “The passengers are curious,” he says. “They come for the comfort, but they stay for the experience. They want to understand the environment, not just see it.”

Chiens de traîneau sur la banquise à Qernertivartivit, au Groenland. Image: Ponant

When the ship reaches Greenland, Le Commandant Charcot becomes a supply line as well as a cruise. “We bring twenty pallets of fresh food,” Garcia says. In return, the crew buys fish and crafts from local hunters. “They bring small gifts for the guests.”

The ship operates roughly 200 days a year, alternating between the Arctic and Antarctic seasons. Onboard, researchers collect long-term climate data; ashore, communities gain supplies and visibility; passengers witness parts of the planet few humans will ever see.

Its next chapter begins in Tasmania, where Le Commandant Charcot will arrive in February before departing Hobart for East Antarctica and the French Southern Lands.