travel

Several celebrities went on a holiday to Antarctica. It cost at least $5 million.

How did you spend New Year's Eve?

Go for drinks at your friend's place? Have a picnic? Watch the 9pm fireworks then head to bed?

Not these celebrities. Oh no.

To ring in the new year, The Vampires Diaries actress Nina Dobrev and her partner, Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, travelled to Antarctica.

Jared Leto was also there, along with Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, actress Zoey Deutch and several others.

They went heli-skiing, hung out with penguins and posed with icebergs. It seemed simultaneously chill (sorry, we had to), and really, really over-the-top.

Weeks later, as the dust settled on their trip, TikToker Ben Keenan did some digging to find out how much the holiday might have realistically cost. And looks like it was just a casual few million.

In Keenan's series, "How Much Did That F**kin' Cost?", the content creator estimated and added up their flights, the price to travel around Antarctica, and cost of the sizeable yacht they stayed on.

He said that business flights from Los Angeles cost approximately $3,500 USD return per person. Just to travel around Antarctica was another $11,000 on top of that, depending on your ship and departure date.

The "ship" they chose was the mega-yacht Octopus - the 126-metre, $200 million yacht built for the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

It was the most expensive superyacht sold in 2021. In 2022, it became available for charter for the first time, and one of the first super-yachts to cruise Antarctica.

It has eight decks, 13 suites, two helicopters, a gym, spa, cinema, pool, basketball court, glass-bottom observation deck, dive centre and personal submarine.

And comes with 42 crew members.

So, how much does it cost to stay aboard?

According to Keenan, the yacht is 2.2 million USD to charter per week. Although unclear, it looks like the group were there for at least two weeks on their socials.

Then there are the expenses (fuel, etc), which are estimated to be 25 per cent of the cost of charter ($500,000 USD), with a 30 per cent tip on top of that ($660,000 USD).

In total, Keenan estimated the trip to cost $3,488,088 USD in total just for the big-ticket items listed above (not to mention incidentals and spending money.) That's $4,997,262 AUD.

And although our maths isn't great, that's... a hell of a lot.

We just want to know how they split the bill.

Watch the full TikTok video here.

@ivebentraveling How much did #shaunwhite & #ninadobrev New Year’s trip to #antarctica cost?? 🇦🇶 #zoeydeutch #jimmytatro #jaredleto #paulallen #octopussuperyacht #luxuryvacation #celebrityvacation #traveltiktok #visitantarctica #drakespassage ♬ Sunroof - Nicky Youre & dazy

Feature image: Instagram/@nina /@zoeydeutch

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Top Comments

rush a year ago 2 upvotes
I'd better not hear a single one of these people talking about climate change or the environment from now on. Half a million dollars on fuel, are you kidding me? 
laura__palmer a year ago 1 upvotes
@rush Even just going there as they have, to party it up, has an environmental impact. It just seems repugnant to me. 
rush a year ago 1 upvotes
@laura__palmer my first comment talking about that part was removed, but I absolutely agree.

gu3st a year ago 1 upvotes
Is there a drinks package? Like a wristband, or something?

Crucially, is there enough room on that megayacht to get away from Jared Leto?
laura__palmer a year ago 1 upvotes
@gu3st I know, he's not someone I'd want around when I ring in the new year. Bleh.