Most people travelling to Antarctica will pass through one of five Antarctic gateway cities: Cape Town, Christchurch, Hobart, Punta Arenas and Ushuaia. The use of these cities as a portal to Antarctica for national programmes and tourism will depend on geography, reputation, experience, political decisions, infrastructure and mutual interest between the parties involved.   Cape Town is an important aerial gateway to Antarctica, for both national programme and adventure tourism; Christchurch’s main connection is as a logistics centre for national programmes, but it has not yet attracted Antarctic tourism operations; Hobart, which has the most complete infrastructure of any gateway city serves a relatively small portion of Antarctic activities; Punta Arenas shows the best balance between national programmes and tourism support; Ushuaia is the most popular gateway for Antarctic tourism but has not yet attracted national programme operations.      While the quality of infrastructure is important, the extent of a gateway’s Antarctic involvement is more dependent on a mixture of geography and political determination.