The flight down to Ushuaia was early but easy. Once we had arrived we jumped in a local taxi and headed to a cafe recommendation given to us by our AirBnB host as we couldn’t check in for another couple of hours. El Mercado had nice coffee and pastries, they also did larger plates but they weren’t being served until later in the day. It was only a 5 min walk up the road to our AirBnB and after we had checked in, we both had a nap! We’d had far too many 5am starts and long walks recently. It was also so nice being able to spread out in our own space. Even though the apartment was extremely basic (not even 1 picture on the bright white walls), it had a kitchen, a TV with Netflix and a massive bed, so it was enough for us. Once refreshed, we walked into town, bought our shuttle bus tickets for the national park, our boat tickets for both the penguin and Beagle Channel tours and went to the supermarket to buy food for dinner for our movie night.

In the morning we got the 10am shuttle bus to the ‘Post Office at the End of the World’ in Feugo National Park. Shuttle buses leave from the station every hour from 9am-12pm and you can buy your ticket on the day, just turn up 15-20 mins before and explain where you want to go and where you want picked up from. There are multiple bus stops in the park and they come at 3pm, 5pm and 7pm. It’s $18 for a return ticket and all very easy – you can also pick up a park map from the information centre.

We decided to do the costal walk (Senda Costera) from the Post Office to Alakush. Before setting off we went into the Post Office. This is a unique place, run by a man in his late 60s called Carlos who settled on Redonda, a small island about 2km from the shore. Funnily, Carlos is now fighting for Redondanian independence from Argentina as he is the only inhabitant.

After sending a couple of post cards we started walking. The route is only 8km and they say it takes 4 hours, it does not. It’s a flat route with only very small inclines, it took us 2.5 hours including 1 stop so you can comfortably do it in 3 hours. The trail is really pretty, weaving through forests and beaches which was a nice contrast from the mountains we’d been hiking in recently. There is a visitors centre at Alakush which has a restaurant and a small museum/information section on the national park (the signs are in English which was also a novelty!). We had brought a packed lunch so only had a coffee and a cake, but they do burgers and sandwiches that look decent and were reasonably priced ($8-13).

We got the 3pm bus back and it all ran like clockwork. We got lucky with the weather as it was supposed to rain but despite it being dry, it was really cold waiting for the bus so bring layers – we’re also here in the tail-end of summer so I can only imagine what it would be like in the winter! We only did 1 hike during our time in Ushuaia but there are so many more you can do, also your second bus ticket into the park is 50% off. If you’re even unsure of what to do/where to go, ask at the information centre, they’re really helpful.

For dinner we went out to Salitre, this was another recommendation from our host and the food was decent although we’d had nicer on our trip. Saying that, it was a cute restaurant with nice staff and a calming atmosphere, it was also only a 5 min walk from the Airbnb which was a plus.

On our final full day in Usuahia we did the boat trip to visit the penguins. Nearly all tour operators will take you close to the island but you can’t walk with the penguins, Piratour is the only one which allows you off the boat. We were close to booking this tour but it was really expensive ($160pp) and we’d heard from others that you don’t see any more of the penguins than just staying on the boat! After reading what felt like 100 blogs on the activity, we decided to just do the boat tour.

Luckily, a friend of ours had just done the tour a couple days prior and suggested to go with Paludine as the boat is small (20 people max) and they land on the beach with the penguins. This cost $75pp which is the standard price across all the operators. Also, if you also do the Beagle Channel boat with them you get 20% off the penguins so we booked it all at the same time, $140pp for both trips. If you’re unsure of what you’d like to do, just go down to the dock a day or so before and you will see loads of kiosks for different operators, so just go speak to some of them and see what you can get!

Most people do both boat trips in the same day, the Beagle Channel is 2.5 hours and the penguins 5 hours. However, when we were there strong winds had halted the Beagle channel tours so we split them across 2 days, squeezing in the Beagle channel the morning before our 1pm flight to Buenos Aires!

Our penguin tour was pushed back a couple hours because of the wind but we finally set off on the bus at 4pm. The bus to Puerto Almanza was 1.5 hours and we spent 2 hours on the boat including 1 hour at the island. There were so many penguins and because of the time of year we got to see 2 different types, Magellanic and Gentoo. The boat also takes you to points all around the island so you see as many penguins as possible, it was really cool. As we didn’t get home till 9:30pm, it was a quick dinner, pack our bags and headed to bed!

In the morning, we went down to the dock again and stored our bags in the operators kiosk before boarding the boat for the Beagle Channel tour. This boat was smaller than I was expecting but this turned out to be a blessing as we saw so many Sei whales and were able to get so close because of our size! It was really special, I’d never seen whales in the wild before and there was at least 6 of them, constantly coming up to the surface and blowing their blow holes. We also saw the famous lighthouse, sea lions, seals and a lot of sea birds including albatrosses. It was a really cool morning. Once we’d arrived back, it was a rush to grab our bags and jumped in a taxi to the airport, time for Buenos Aires!

Ushuaia Summary

• Length of stay: 2-4 nights, depending on how many hikes you want to do, 3 nights was enough for us
• Where to stay: As we stayed in an Airbnb I’m not really sure, but anywhere near the main street or dock will probably be fine
• Itinerary: Day 1 – explore town & book boats/buses, Day 2 – National park, Day 3 – Beagle channel and penguin boats
• Top tip: Book your boat trips when you arrive, just in case there are any issues due to weather etc. No need to book your bus tickets to the national park in advance, you can just arrive 15 mins before departure time