🇬🇸 St Andrews Bay, South Georgia — Cruise Port Guide
The largest king penguin colony on earth — well over 100,000 pairs packed across a black beach beneath three glaciers. From the ridge above, the ground appears to move. It is the single most overwhelming landing in the Southern Ocean.
Updated September 2026
Quick facts
Getting ashore
When to visit St Andrews Bay
The season runs October to March. South Georgia is milder than the peninsula — 2 to 8°C — but far wetter and windier, and the katabatic winds off the glaciers can arrive with no warning at all.
Good to know
Wildly exposed. Katabatic winds off the three glaciers behind the bay can rise from nothing to gale force in minutes, and the expedition team will pull everyone off the beach without discussion if that happens.
Things to do in St Andrews Bay
Climb the moraine ridge
A short scramble up the loose ridge behind the beach gives the view everyone comes for — the whole colony spread beneath you, moving and steaming in the cold.
Walk the colony edge
Guides mark a route along the perimeter. The noise is a physical thing: a hundred thousand birds calling at once, layered over the surf.
Watch the crèches
Brown chicks huddle in enormous crèches while parents commute to sea. Adults find their own chick by call alone, in that racket, which is the part that beggars belief.
Elephant seals on the beach
Bulls up to four tonnes lie in wallows near the landing, roaring and throwing sand. Keep the distance the guides set, and never get between one and the water.
Photograph from the stream mouth
The meltwater channel cutting the beach reflects the colony and the glaciers behind. It is the classic frame, and it works best in low light.
Weather by month
Best time to visit: Oct–Mar; Nov–Dec for king chicks and elephant seals
| Month | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 47° | 37° | 4.5" |
| Feb | 47° | 37° | 4.3" |
| Mar | 44° | 35° | 5" |
| Apr | 40° | 32° | 5.2" |
| May | 36° | 28° | 5" |
| Jun | 33° | 25° | 4.6" |
| Jul | 33° | 25° | 4.4" |
| Aug | 34° | 26° | 4.3" |
| Sep | 38° | 29° | 3.9" |
| Oct | 41° | 31° | 3.8" |
| Nov | 44° | 34° | 4" |
| Dec | 46° | 36° | 4.4" |
A little history
Estimates run from 150,000 pairs upward, making this the largest king penguin colony anywhere, and one of the densest concentrations of large wildlife on the planet.
Three glaciers — the Cook, Buxton and Heaney — feed the plain behind the beach. All three have retreated sharply, and the colony has expanded onto the ground they left.
There is no shelter. The bay faces the open ocean and the katabatic wind off the glaciers can arrive without warning, which is why so many attempted landings are called off.
Sir David Attenborough has filmed here more than once; the aerial shots of a moving carpet of penguins in Life in the Freezer and Frozen Planet were taken at this bay.
The beach also holds one of the biggest elephant seal breeding aggregations on the island, peaking in October before the cruise season really gets going.