Patagonia and other adventure travel destinations
A blog for adventurers who like to travel in style
Surrounded by sky-piercing, snow clad peaks and just 620-miles (1000 km) north of Antarctica, the location of Ushuaia is both unique and striking. Whether you visit during the windy months of the austral summer or venture to the globe’s southernmost city during its freezing yet enchanting winter, you’ll never be short of things to do or Ushuaia tours to keep you occupied.
A major destination for hiking and adventure sports, it also caters to those looking to explore marine animal colonies, learn about the region’s intriguing history or merely wander through the colorful streets of Argentine Patagonia’s most enthralling city.
Charting the history of Tierra del Fuego’s first settlers, the Yámana indigenous people who survived in the fiercely inhospitable climes of the region for over 10,000 years, this museum is a must visit when in Ushuaia.
Learn about this nomadic tribe of hunter-gatherers, who lived in Tierra del Fuego despite the bitter cold by covering their naked bodies with a layer of seal grease. In the museum, you’ll also be able to read about the ultimately tragic interactions between the Yámana people and the European missionaries and other settlers who arrived in Patagonia in the 19th-century.
Located in Ushuaia’s former prison, this museum provides a detailed history of the Beagle Channel and the ships that have ventured into its waters in the centuries since its initial discovery in the early 1800s.
What’s more, explore the many cells that have been preserved, where you’ll encounter stories about the lives of former inmates who only left in 1947 when the prison’s closed.
Various cruises embark from Ushuaia, venturing to some of the region’s most enchanting locations including windswept but historic Cape Horn, squawking Magellanic penguin colonies on remote islets, the distinctive red and white striped Les Eclaireurs lighthouse, as well as voyages that sail across the border into Chilean Patagonia and further into the secretive depths of the Beagle Channel.
A receding glacier that supplies the region with water, Martial Glacier is located a short distance from the city and is one of the most popular destinations to visit on Ushuaia tours. Throughout the year, take the chairlift up the mountain and hike the one-and-a-half-hour trail to the foot of the glacier from where epic views of the ice, Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel await.
From late May to early September, adventure sport lovers are in their element thanks to Ushuaia tours to the world’s southernmost ski resort, Cerro Castor. 26 runs weave through forest of lenga beech with spectacular views of the imposing mountains and the ocean beyond.
With one of the longest ski seasons in the continent thanks to its long period of cold weather, it’s also regarded as having some of the finest powder snow in South America, making Ushuaia an unmissable location if visiting Argentina during winter.
Located a short distance from the city, and easily accessible via tour, Tierra del Fuego National Park hosts spectacular wildfowl, such as diving petrels and black-browed albatrosses, as well as a series of hiking trails into dense Patagonian forests. Take a tour in the morning and hike up to bewitching viewpoints across the entire Beagle Channel or wind through the region on board the Southern Fuegian Railway or End of the World Train.
Located in Valle de Lobos, Laguna Esmeralda is a lake renowned for the emerald color of its waters – a phenomenon that arises from the sediment contained in the glacial meltwater that feeds the lake. Surrounded on all angles by subpolar forests, Laguna Esmeralda is set in a remote, wild landscape, but one that can be easily reached with a tour from Ushuaia and a short hike up to its shores.
Australis
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