South America Ushuaia End of The World Train

[Semolina]

Has anyone tried taking the End of The World Train from the ship in Ushuaia. If so is it easy to get to the station and should we buy tickets ahead of time?.

Was it worth doing?

We are in port from 12 pm till 8 am and so is it feasible?. If not does anyone have recommendations for Ushuaia?

Thanks for your help

Jennifer

[hondorner]

The train is probably not what you think. It's a tiny, very narrow gauge railway originally constructed by prisoners to transport wood. Today, it uses small steam engines to pull replica passenger cars along a route into the Tierra del Fuego National Park.

 

 

I tried to find some information about the length of the route, and came up with two numbers -- 14 km (about 8-1/2 miles) and 25 km (about 15 miles). Regardless, the station is about 8 km (about 5 miles) from Ushuaia, and is reached by bus. The end of the line is in the National Park, and the return to the city is usually by bus.

 

It's a fun novelty, well worth doing once. This will give you some idea of the relative size on the tiny passenger cars:

 

 

We did it on the ship tour which, while not inexpensive, I believe offers the best combination of tours. We departed from Ushuaia on a fairly large catamaran traveling on the Beagle Channel past Seal Island, Isla de los Lobos and Island of the Birds, which are incredibly abundant with wildlife. The catamaran then docked at the National Park, where we enjoyed a moderate guided hike to awaiting buses. the buses took us to the park's train station where we boarded the End of the World train, then the buses sped ahead to meet us at the end of the train line. After the train ride, the buses took us back to Ushiaia where we could get off the walk through the town, or back to the ship.

 

The tour also runs in the opposite direction, taking the bus to the train, then from the train to the short hike, to the dock, then the catamaran back to the ship. I don't think it makes any difference which direction your tour goes.

 

This is one of the most memorable tours we have taken and highly recommend it. I wouldn't want to try to make all those arrangements on my own, and and would want to miss any segment of it.

[wripro]

Very touristy!

[no fuss travel]

We did it with a private guide. Glad we did it, but would not do it again. There are nice trails to hike at the stop half way through the train trip.

[Skeezics]

Ditto Wripro, very touristy. Recall it is about an hour....kills time. I enjoyed walking around the town. On another trip, did a shore excursion which took you to the end of the Pan American Highway (Boat and bus). That was interesting.

[lais]

We took a boat ride to the "Lighthouse at the end of the world". We picked up the boat/tour right at the pier. There were only 4 other people and it was a great tour. Stopped at a little island and walked around looking at the beautiful views. Afterward we walked around town. Had a great day.

[Semolina]

Thank you everyone for your helpful information and suggestions. Now we have to make a decision. We leave on 23rd January from Lima, so we still have some time.

Any other suggestions are always welcome.

Jennifer