Ushuaia shore excursions

[idnas71]

Happy Friday, everyone. I have a question about timing for activities in Ushuaia. Will be there from 12:00 to 8:00 according to my cruise itinerary. (I realize weather could interfere, but am just going to go with that time frame for now.)

 

Of all the shore excursions offered on the entire 14-day cruise, the first one that appealed to me was the horseback riding to the end of the world in Ushuaia. It is listed as a 3-hour activity and should have me back to the ship by 3:30.

 

One other thing I would love to see is the lighthouse. I know there are Beagle Channel cruises that include this, but I'm concerned about time constraints. Are there shorter cruises that include the lighthouse that I may be able to take advantage of and be back in plenty of time for the 8:00 ship departure?

 

Thanks so much for any opinions or advice.

 

Sandi

[BurBunny]

Sandi, on the Beagle Channel cruise I took last year, the light house was at the farthest point away from Ushuaia we went. However, as we were leaving Ushuaia that evening, heading up to Punta Arenas, the ship passed right by the light house as well. So if it's just to see it, and doesn't have to be up close and at water level, you'll likely be able to see it from the ship.

 

That said, the rest of the Beagle Channel cruise was wonderful, too, and I highly recommend it.

[idnas71]

Hmmm... that's good to know. Thanks for that information. I wonder if the cruiseship will be close enough to get a good picture of it. That's really my motivation... would like to photograph it.

[mike@sea]

Sandi, on the Beagle Channel cruise I took last year, the light house was at the farthest point away from Ushuaia we went. However, as we were leaving Ushuaia that evening, heading up to Punta Arenas, the ship passed right by the light house as well. So if it's just to see it, and doesn't have to be up close and at water level, you'll likely be able to see it from the ship.

 

That said, the rest of the Beagle Channel cruise was wonderful, too, and I highly recommend it.

 

Question: Do I have to book the Beagle Channel cruise via the cruiseline or is it easily available once we get ashore? The day we get in, Star Princess is there along with "our" Radiance, so quite a few cruisers will be in Ushuaia that day. Is it likely that the cruise lines book up all the seats or is it no problem to hop on one of the vessels to do the channel cruise and save some $ over what the cruise line charges? Thank´s for any comment on this.

[JEBurton]

Here's a blurb that someone posted on CCMB you might find useful. Sorry, I didn't record the date or author of this post.

 

John

 

If you want to get up close and personal with the penguins and sea lions, get off the ship in Ushusia and walk to the end of the pier. Go outside of the dock and cross the street. There you will find small kiosks where at 8:30 you can buy tickets for small boats. We waited and 7 other people joined us ( I think I paid $40pp) and they took us to down the beagle channel to the small islands where ther were literally thousands of penguins and sea lions. We were this close to them becaue the boat was so small. They gave us cookies and tea, coffee and hot chocolate and I will tell you it was the highlight of our trip. NCL does a similar tour for much more $$$ and they use a catamaran - can't get close to the islands and everyone is pushing and shoving to get their photos. We were outside on the small deck and I could have leaned over and touched them. What a great day. Don't worry about timing - they dock right on the pier and you get back to the ship with time to spare. In fact, after that, I stopped on the way back to the ship and bought myself onyx penguins to take home. I think the company we went with was patagonia adventure, but baraccuda was right next to it and we got good reviews about them as well. Good luck and Happy travels...

[KBC]

John

 

Thanks for posting this interesting info. I did a little digging and the info you quote was post #20 on the following thread :)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=13888148&highlight=baraccuda#post13888148

 

Katie

[Toots]

Our Star Princess is in port from noon to 8 p.m. You mentioned going to the sightseeing boat at 8:30. I wonder if there will be any after noon.

 

Last time we were in Ushuaia, we took a taxi right off the dock to Tierra del Fuego national park. Rough roads, but beautiful views. This time we want to see more penguins.

[2552phxcrzr]

We were in Ushuaia December 29-31, 2006. Here's a snippet from the small ship Antarctica review I posted last year. If I recall correctly, we left the dock around 3:00p (or it might have been 2:00p ... I apparently did not make a note of it):

 

"We spent much of the afternoon on the water. After checking out the many Beagle Channel boat tours — on vessels ranging from small sailing boats to fairly big catamarans — we settled on the Barracuda, the first boat to start offering channel cruises. The sun was warm and the boat traveled slowly enough that it was comfortable sitting topside. Even though the clouds moved in shortly after we sailed from the dock, it worked to our advantage by cutting the glare on the water. We enjoyed our three-hour cruise, which took us to a sea lion and shag [cormorant] colony where we had our first experience of South American wildlife. A stop at the lighthouse, which is Ushuaia’s symbol, concluded the outbound leg of our boat trip. On the return journey, we made ourselves comfortable in the small dining salon, where hubby enjoyed a café con leche [coffee with milk] and I had a terrific hot chocolate drink laced with cognac and crema."