Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego: penguins, the Beagle Channel and the End of the World Train

Arrive in Ushuaia

Ushuaia airport to your hotel in the centre

• Repas libres
• Nuit : Ushuaia
• Environ 12 min de route

Après-midi

In the late afternoon your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing and an easy walk along the waterfront and San Martín street, past the tourist pier where the boats leave and the old prison that now holds the Maritime Museum. The guide explains how the week bends around the wind, and which day is kept free as a spare.

Soir

Dinner is your own: centolla, the southern king crab, is the local thing to try.

Compris

• Pick-up at Ushuaia airport (USH)
• Briefing with your guide
• Orientation walk along the waterfront and San Martín street

The End of the World Train and Tierra del Fuego National Park

Ushuaia to the End of the World station, by train into the park, then Lago Roca and Lapataia Bay

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ushuaia
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

A short drive west of town brings us to the End of the World station for the morning train. The narrow-gauge line follows part of the route of the old prison railway, which carried convicts out to cut timber, and the ride of under an hour climbs the Pipo valley past stumps from those years and a stop at the Macarena waterfall before it enters Tierra del Fuego National Park.

Après-midi

From the park station we walk the coastal path, through lenga and coihue forest and along small coves where the sea meets the trees, to Lago Roca, where a sit-down lunch waits by the lake. In the afternoon the van takes us to the boardwalks at Lapataia Bay, where National Route 3 ends more than 3,000 km from Buenos Aires, and to the beaver dams and peat bogs on the way back. We start early so the paths are quiet before the midday tour buses arrive.

Compris

• End of the World Train from the End of the World station into the park
• Tierra del Fuego National Park entry
• Guided walk on the coastal path to Lago Roca
• Sit-down lunch in the park
• Lapataia Bay and the end of National Route 3

Estancia Harberton and the penguins of Isla Martillo

Ushuaia east along Route 3 and Route J to Estancia Harberton, by boat to Isla Martillo, and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ushuaia
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Back on the mainland we have lunch at Harberton, at the estancia's tearoom (or a packed lunch on the shore if it is not serving that day), on the farm Thomas Bridges founded in 1886, then visit its museum of southern whales, dolphins and seabirds before the drive back.

Compris

• Drive along the Beagle Channel on Route J with your guide
• Boat crossing to Isla Martillo
• Penguin landing and guided walk with the licensed operator
• Lunch at Estancia Harberton (tearoom, or a packed lunch)
• The estancia and its museum of marine mammals and birds

The Martial Glacier and the Beagle Channel by boat

Ushuaia up the Martial road to the glacier trail, then the Beagle Channel from the tourist pier

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ushuaia
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

In the morning we drive the few kilometres up the Martial road behind town to the trailhead and climb through lenga forest and then open scree towards the Martial Glacier. It is a short but steep walk, roughly 500 m of climbing, and the reward is behind you as much as ahead: Ushuaia, the channel and the mountains of Chile's Isla Navarino laid out below. The glacier itself has shrunk a lot in recent decades, which the guide uses to explain how this ice has changed.

Après-midi

We are back in town for lunch together at about 1 pm, with time to rest, and at about 3 pm we board a catamaran at the tourist pier for the Beagle Channel. The boat passes Isla de los Lobos, where South American sea lions haul out on the rocks, and the cormorant colony on Isla de los Pájaros, then circles the red and white Les Eclaireurs lighthouse, often mistaken for the lighthouse in Jules Verne's novel, which stands far to the east.

Compris

• Guided hike towards the Martial Glacier
• Sit-down lunch in Ushuaia
• Beagle Channel boat: Isla de los Lobos, Isla de los Pájaros and the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse

A free day, and a Fuegian lamb farewell

Ushuaia

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ushuaia

Matin

Day 5 is yours, and it also protects the trip: if wind cancelled the penguin landing or the Beagle Channel boat earlier in the week, the guide moves it here, so a bad morning does not cost you the best part of Tierra del Fuego. If everything has run, sleep in and choose your own pace. Your entry to the Maritime and Prison Museum is included: the old prison, in use until 1947, now holds displays on the convicts who built much of early Ushuaia, on the Yámana people of the channel, and on Antarctic exploration. Other ways to spend the day are a guided hike to Laguna Esmeralda in the valley north of town, a drive inland to the lakes Escondido and Fagnano, or simply coffee and a book with a view of the channel.

Soir

In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner of Fuegian lamb, slow-roasted on an iron cross beside an open fire, the traditional way in this part of Patagonia.

Compris

• Maritime and Prison Museum entry
• Farewell dinner of Fuegian lamb roasted over an open fire

Activités en option

• Guided hike to Laguna Esmeralda (about 9 km return, often muddy)
• Drive to Lago Escondido and Lago Fagnano

Ushuaia and home

Ushuaia to Ushuaia airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 12 min de route

Matin

A last breakfast with the channel outside the window, and then the morning is free until your airport transfer. Walk the waterfront once more, look into the shops on San Martín street for Fuegian wool and local jams, or sit with a coffee and watch the boats come and go from the pier where the Antarctic expedition ships also tie up in summer. The airport is only about 5 km away, so even a late-morning flight leaves time for a short walk. Your guide checks your flight times on day 5 and sees that the transfer suits each guest; if several of you fly together, you ride together. Many guests fly on to Buenos Aires for a few days in the city, and some come the other way, having started with our Patagonia trip from Punta Arenas to El Calafate. Either way, this is where the trip ends, at the bottom of the Americas.

Compris

• Drop-off at Ushuaia airport (USH)