16 day South Ameica Passage

Please suggest excursions worth their value either from the Zaandam or outside excursions.

Volunteer Point in the Falklands is a must do.

Please suggest excursions worth their value either from the Zaandam or outside excursions.

A little more information would be in order before anyone can give a helpful answer. Such as:

What are your ports?

What are your interests?

Are there any physical limitations?

Volunteer Point in the Falklands is a must do.

Thx, checking into this

A little more information would be in order before anyone can give a helpful answer. Such as:

What are your ports?

What are your interests?

Are there any physical limitations?

Puerto Montt, Chile

Punta Arenas, Chile

Ushuaia, Argentina

Stanley/Falkland

Montevideo, Uruguay

Punta del Este, Uraguay, I think I am set with Buenos Aires. Not a biking tour or anything very strenuous

Do enjoy nature and want to explore and get a feel for those cities/towns. Thx

Puerto Montt, Chile

Punta Arenas, Chile

Ushuaia, Argentina

Stanley/Falkland

Montevideo, Uruguay

Punta del Este, Uraguay, I think I am set with Buenos Aires. Not a biking tour or anything very strenuous

 

Do enjoy nature and want to explore and get a feel for those cities/towns. Thx

Punta Arenas has two opportunities to see penguins up close and personal. I have taken the one out to the area where you can walk a boardwalk through the land where they are; you can see their burrows.

At the end of the boardwalk there is a pavilion at the sea. You can watch hundreds (thousands?) of them all over the beach, and in the water. It's a really neat tour. You can also arrange this privately.

The other, similar, tour involves a boat out to an island. I haven't done it, so can't say too much, but I remember people raving about it.

Puerto Montt has at least one tour that goes out to a large lake, and there's a mountain. One of the tours has a short walk out to a waterfall; another has a tour in an old German village. Most of the tours out there have a shop-stop in the City of Roses.

Stanley has another opportunity to go out to see penguins up close. I have never taken this tour, as I understand it can be tough on the back riding there. But people love it. It's a nice town to ride around, too. Terribly British in the cold South Atlantic. Sort of blows my mind.

Oh, this is an easy stop to miss due to rough seas. I've made it in once, out of three tries.

Montevideo is a large, cultured city, with some interesting history and sculptures.

In Ushuaia, there's a good boat tour around some of the islands. You can see the seals/sea lions (and smell them). There's also a tour through the National Park, which is pretty good.

Hope this gives you a good start.

Please suggest excursions worth their value either from the Zaandam or outside excursions.

If you check the roll call for your cruise or others doing a similar itinerary you can find many ideas. The Zaandam will be doing multiple South America cruises. Here is the link to all of the Zaandam roll calls. You will have to scroll through and click on the ones that are going to South America:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=324

And even though you are sailing with HAL, the roll calls from other cruiselines and ships doing a South America route would be a good resource.

Also check out the South America forum for other ideas. Here is the link:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=30&f=76

FALKLANDS: The 4x4 excursion to see the huge penguin colony. Very rugged trip overland, but if you can stand it can be the highlight of the whole cruise. In the town itself is a gift shop totally devoted to things "penguin". Very fun place to shop.

Please suggest excursions worth their value either from the Zaandam or outside excursions.

In Puntarenas, the tour that Ruth mentioned is called the Magdalena island tour, you can take a speedboat($$$$) or the slowboat, which is more fun.

Stanley, Volunteer point, rough ride, but you'll be walking with 1000 King Pinquins, not roped off.

Punta del Este, no tour, enjoy the tender ride and walk through the town, great restaurants, great people..

Another vote for Volunteer Point in the Falklands. An incredible tour - however the ride out to the point over the bumpy bogs in the 4x4's can be hard esp. if you have back or hip problems.

Another vote for Volunteer Point in the Falklands. An incredible tour - however the ride out to the point over the bumpy bogs in the 4x4's can be hard esp. if you have back or hip problems.

Nor would I recommend it for someone who gets carsick ;p

Had my Better Half been with me, he would have had at least an hour of misery going and returning.

It is one great trip!

Punta Arenas has two opportunities to see penguins up close and personal. I have taken the one out to the area where you can walk a boardwalk through the land where they are; you can see their burrows.

At the end of the boardwalk there is a pavilion at the sea. You can watch hundreds (thousands?) of them all over the beach, and in the water. It's a really neat tour. You can also arrange this privately.

The other, similar, tour involves a boat out to an island. I haven't done it, so can't say too much, but I remember people raving about it.

Puerto Montt has at least one tour that goes out to a large lake, and there's a mountain. One of the tours has a short walk out to a waterfall; another has a tour in an old German village. Most of the tours out there have a shop-stop in the City of Roses.

 

Stanley has another opportunity to go out to see penguins up close. I have never taken this tour, as I understand it can be tough on the back riding there. But people love it. It's a nice town to ride around, too. Terribly British in the cold South Atlantic. Sort of blows my mind.

Oh, this is an easy stop to miss due to rough seas. I've made it in once, out of three tries.

 

Montevideo is a large, cultured city, with some interesting history and sculptures.

In Ushuaia, there's a good boat tour around some of the islands. You can see the seals/sea lions (and smell them). There's also a tour through the National Park, which is pretty good.

 

Hope this gives you a good start.

Ruth,

Ottway Sound has been closed the last 3 or so years ( I believe this will be the fourth) as the penguins have not returned.

Such a shame as it’s a lovely spot. Joseph Rosendo had an episode that played locally last week that included Ottway and The Horn. Great photography.

If you check the roll call for your cruise or others doing a similar itinerary you can find many ideas. The Zaandam will be doing multiple South America cruises. Here is the link to all of the Zaandam roll calls. You will have to scroll through and click on the ones that are going to South America:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=324

 

And even though you are sailing with HAL, the roll calls from other cruiselines and ships doing a South America route would be a good resource.

 

Also check out the South America forum for other ideas. Here is the link:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=30&f=76

Thank you for your good info

If you are interested in history, Colonia Sacramento is a nice shorex. I did it with HAL from Montevideo. It was a long ride (2 hours each way). It takes less time via BucaBus from BsAs. If I were to do it again from montevideo, I would opt out of the sit down lunch and spend the extra time exploring.

Also if you like history and ships, in Punta Arenas there’s Nao Victoria, a small private museum with 4 ship replicas recreated in 1:1 scale. You can do this on your own with a taxi driver. This is not a good option if you have mobility issues. We ended up doing it on our own when our private tour stood us up (thank you GV Tours).

Ush: we did a half day with Edgardo Callao’s Group (spelling?) (tour guides Ushuaia. We saw a good amount of the park and had a few nature walks. The great advantage was being in locations when the big busses were not.

Ruth,

Ottway Sound has been closed the last 3 or so years ( I believe this will be the fourth) as the penguins have not returned.

 

Such a shame as it’s a lovely spot. Joseph Rosendo had an episode that played locally last week that included Ottway and The Horn. Great photography.

Thanks for this.

If you are interested in history, Colonia Sacramento is a nice shorex. I did it with HAL from Montevideo. It was a long ride (2 hours each way). It takes less time via BucaBus from BsAs. If I were to do it again from montevideo, I would opt out of the sit down lunch and spend the extra time exploring.

 

Also if you like history and ships, in Punta Arenas there’s Nao Victoria, a small private museum with 4 ship replicas recreated in 1:1 scale. You can do this on your own with a taxi driver.

good comments, much appreciated.

Another vote for Volunteer Point in the Falklands. An incredible tour - however the ride out to the point over the bumpy bogs in the 4x4's can be hard esp. if you have back or hip problems.

We many need to reconsider this???

Oh. You didn’t ask- but be sure to try the ice cream. In BsAs and Ush. It’s seriously good.

I’m now making lots of flavors of homemade gelato.

There are far less rigorous options than Volunteer Point (but if king penguins are a must, that's what you'll have to do).

I wrote this up for the South America board after our Zaandam trip last winter.

***

Ruth,

Ottway Sound has been closed the last 3 or so years ( I believe this will be the fourth) as the penguins have not returned.

:eek: I did not know this, and am sorry to learn it.

Thanks, though, for letting me/us know. I'll stop recommending it, but it was a great tour. I did it twice it was so good.

Lots of good South America info in this thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2477057

In Puntarenas, the tour that Ruth mentioned is called the Magdalena island tour, you can take a speedboat($$$$) or the slowboat, which is more fun.

Stanley, Volunteer point, rough ride, but you'll be walking with 1000 King Pinquins, not roped off.

Punta del Este, no tour, enjoy the tender ride and walk through the town, great restaurants, great people..

Helpful, thank you