The southernmost city in the world has become a place people pass through rather than visit. Ships for Antarctica and the South Atlantic leave from its pier, so most travellers arrive the day before boarding, spend an afternoon buying gloves, and see the town again only as a receding line of lights. That is a shame, because the country behind those lights is as good as anything on the voyage ahead. Ushuaia sits pinned between the Beagle Channel and a wall of jagged peaks, with sub-Antarctic beech forest running down to the water and glaciers hanging above the rooftops, and it rewards the days almost nobody gives it.
Start with Tierra del Fuego National Park, half an hour west of town, where the Andes finally run out of continent. A coastal trail follows the shore through lenga forest to a bay where the Pan-American Highway simply stops, there are lakes and peat bogs and beaver dams, and the walking ranges from flat strolls to a stiff climb with the whole channel underneath you. The narrow-gauge tourist train that runs to the park boundary follows the line prisoners once used to haul timber, which tells you most of what you need to know about how the town began. It pays to compare flights and hotel prices for Ushuaia and give the place three nights rather than the one your itinerary probably allows.
The water is the other half of it. Catamarans leave the pier all day for the Beagle Channel, passing sea lion rocks, cormorant colonies and a squat red-and-white lighthouse on its islet, with landings on small islands for a guided walk. In the warm months some boats continue to an island with Magellanic and gentoo penguins, and a limited number of visitors are allowed ashore to walk among the burrows with a guide, which needs booking well ahead. Back in town, the old prison has become a museum complex that is far better than it sounds, and the fish restaurants along the front serve the local king crab.
Where you sleep changes the character of the stay more than the price does. In the centre, hotels and guesthouses sit within a few streets of the pier and Avenida San Martín, the main shopping street, ideal for an early embarkation. On the hillside above, under the Martial Glacier, lodges and cabins look down over the channel and the rooftops, quieter and better for a longer stay. Out along the western road towards the park, self-catering cabins and small inns stand among the trees near the End of the World train station. And at the eastern edge of town, larger hotels and apartments near the airport suit late arrivals and early flights.
The practical layer is straightforward with one twist. Most Argentina travel into Patagonia routes through Buenos Aires, and flights from there take a few hours, with the airport minutes from the centre, so most people fly. Reaching the city by road, however, means leaving Argentina, crossing into Chile, taking a ferry across the strait and crossing back, which is a border-by-border journey rather than a drive; the buses from Punta Arenas do exactly that. A hire car is useful for the park, the inland lakes and the eastern coast, though nothing needs four wheel drive in summer, and tours cover all of it if you would rather not drive. Entry is undemanding: no visa for short stays on many European, North American and Australasian passports and no arrival fee, though rules differ by nationality and deserve a check before booking. Money is fiddlier: foreign cards are charged at a market rate close to the street cash rate, and hotel nights paid by card have been exempt from local sales tax, worth confirming when you book. It costs nothing to check car rental and lodge prices for Tierra del Fuego, and book the penguin walk before you book the car.
Seasons here are sharper than the latitude suggests. Summer brings long light, all the boats running and the busiest weeks, and it is when the expedition ships come and go. Autumn turns the beech forest deep red and is arguably the most beautiful and least crowded time to walk. Winter is a proper ski season, with a resort outside town, snowmobiling and dog sledding, and the shortest days anywhere in the Americas. Spring is unsettled and cheap. Wind and sideways rain are possible in every month, so bring layers whatever the calendar says. Personally, I would arrive three days before an Antarctic sailing rather than one, because if the flight from Buenos Aires goes wrong you have a buffer, and if it does not you have Tierra del Fuego.
Q: How many days do you need in Ushuaia?
A: Two full days covers the national park and a channel cruise comfortably. Three lets you add the penguin island, the museums or the lakes inland. If you are boarding a ship, treat the extra nights as insurance against flight delays as much as sightseeing.
Q: Can you see penguins from Ushuaia?
A: Yes, in the warmer months, on boat trips to an island in the Beagle Channel with Magellanic and gentoo colonies, the easiest penguin encounter in Argentine Patagonia. Only a limited number of people may land and walk among them each day, so that version books out early; other boats view the colony from the water.
Q: Do you need a car?
A: No. Buses and shuttles run to the national park, tours cover the lakes and the channel, and the town centre is walkable. A car helps for the inland lakes and the quieter coast at your own pace, and it is easy driving in summer.
Q: Is Ushuaia worth visiting outside the cruise season?
A: Very much. Autumn gives red beech forest and empty trails, winter turns the place into a ski and snow sports destination with the year's shortest days, and both are cheaper than the summer weeks when the expedition ships sail.
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