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

1. Day 1: Arrive in Ushuaia

   Ushuaia airport to your hotel in the centre

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Meals on your own
   • Stay in Ushuaia
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Ushuaia (USH), on a peninsula in the Beagle Channel about 5 km from the centre; most guests come from Buenos Aires or straight from El Calafate at the end of a Patagonia trip. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall, and the short ride into town already shows the shape of the place: a strip of houses between the water and a wall of mountains. Your hotel is central, and you stay all five nights. 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. Dinner is your own: centolla, the southern king crab, is the local thing to try.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon briefing, and the evening is yours

   Activity: Arrive by about 3 pm to join the briefing and walk; the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

2. Day 2: 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

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ushuaia
   Day 2 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Skip the coastal path: the van takes you from the park station to Lago Roca for lunch, with short boardwalk walks at Laguna Verde and Lapataia.

   More active option: Walk the Hito XXIV trail along the shore of Lago Roca towards the Chilean border marker after lunch, about 8 km return on a mostly flat path.

   Free time: Back in Ushuaia by late afternoon; the evening is free

   Activity: About 6 to 8 km on forest and shore paths, some roots and short climbs. Take a waterproof layer: the coast is often wet and windy.

   

3. Day 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

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ushuaia
   Day 3 details

   Today is the one most Ushuaia stays sell as an extra. We drive east out of town, over the shoulder of the mountains and down the mostly gravel Route J along the Beagle Channel, about 85 km and an hour and three quarters, past wind-bent trees and quiet bays. From the shore near Estancia Harberton a small boat takes us across to Isla Martillo, where the one operator licensed to land walks small groups among the colony on a marked path. Magellanic penguins nest in burrows here and a smaller group of gentoo penguins stands on the open shore; now and then a king penguin turns up too. The guide keeps us at the distance the rules require, and the hour ashore passes fast. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: The walk on Isla Martillo is short and flat; if you prefer not to take the small boat, stay at Harberton for the farm and the museum while the group crosses.

   Free time: Evening free in Ushuaia

   Activity: The longest drive of the trip, about 3.5 hours in all, split into two legs of under two hours by the landing, lunch and the museum. The landing time and capacity are set by the operator; if wind stops the boat, we move the day to day 5.

   

4. Day 4: 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

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ushuaia
   Day 4 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Walk only the lower forest section of the trail with a guide and wait at the trailhead, or spend the morning at the Maritime and Prison Museum in town (entry included).

   More active option: Continue past the viewpoint to the foot of the glacier, weather and trail conditions allowing.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: The Martial trail is steep and loose in places, about 3 to 4 hours return with roughly 500 m of climbing. The boat trip is about two and a half to three hours and runs only when the wind allows.

   

5. Day 5: A free day, and a Fuegian lamb farewell

   Ushuaia

   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Ushuaia
   Day 5 details

   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. 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.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

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

   More active option: The Laguna Esmeralda hike with a local guide, booked and paid locally if you want it; your guide arranges it the day before.

   Free time: The whole day is free until the farewell dinner, unless a boat day needs to move here

   

6. Day 6: Ushuaia and home

   Ushuaia to Ushuaia airport

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 6 details

   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.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Ushuaia airport (USH)

   Free time: Morning free until your transfer

   Activity: Any flight time works: the airport is about 15 minutes from the hotel. Book a flight after about 11 am if you want a free morning in town.

Wildlife and weather: Penguins come ashore on Isla Martillo in the southern spring and leave in autumn, so the trip runs November to March. December and January bring up to about 17 hours of daylight; wind is common all season and can cancel boats, which is why day 5 is kept free.

• Ushuaia5 nights