Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel

[S Dakota]

Princess offers an excursion for a catamaran tour on the Beagle Channel, and I've read in tour books that this is a must do in Ushuaia. I am hesitant to take this excursion because I'm thinking we'll see the same scenery from the cruise ship. But then it occurred to me that maybe the ship can't go there, because the channel is too small and the ship too big? Can anybody who has been there tell me if this type of tour would be good or would it just duplicate what you can see from the ship? Can the ship cruise through the Beagle Channel? Thanks for any help you can provide.

[J-D]

I went on morning catamaran trips during two of our three stops at Ushuaia, and would be happy to do so again if we ever get back to that very scenic area.

 

Princess (and other) ships of necessity cruise east or west along the Beagle Channel en route to and from Ushuaia. However, as compared to the catamarans, the ships do not come nearly as close to most of the small islands, channels and shoreline east of and near the town, which are the primary destinations during the catamaran cruises.

 

Also, the ships often transit into and out of Ushuaia early in the morning or in the evening, with light conditions depending on date, etc. In contrast, the catamaran trips during port calls are (of course) during the main part of the day.

 

The highlights of the catamaran cruises include very close (in some cases within a few meters) approaches to large colonies of seabirds and seals, which one would see only from a distance (if at all) from the cruise ship. That is one of the highlights of the catamaran excursions, along with seeing the distant scenery. The distant scenery is, to some degree, visible from the ship, but the close-up views of animals are not.

 

Incidentally, the catamaran cruises depart from berths that are within about a 5 min walk from the base of the pier to which the cruise ships either tie up or (sometimes) tender. Though our catamaran trips were Princess excursions, you could almost certainly go on the same type of catamaran trip at lower cost by doing it independently.

 

As a typical catamaran trip in the Beagle Channel occupies only about 3 hours, that would (during a normal full-day port call) leave time for a second excursion or to wander around the town, visit its interesting museums, etc.

 

John

Edited October 26, 2016 by J-D

[S Dakota]

J-D thanks very much for your reply. This will be very helpful in making my decision.

[DougH]

Count me down as the opposite. On my visit I did some sort of Beagle channel cruise, we had a large CC roll call aboard the ship and about 100+ of us all did a channel cruise. While we did get close to several islands with seals etc I thought the scenery was overall pretty much the same as from the ship. I did have time to walk around town afterward but really feel I missed out by not taking one of the tours that went to the National park and into the mountains.

 

Overall I enjoyed the SA cruise so much I decided to repeat the following year but missed out as I was on the infamous Princess "Earthquake cruise" when most passengers could not get to the ship. I later joined the ship in BA but missed the first 10 days of a 30+ day cruise.

Hope to one day get back again.

[J-D]

Count me down as the opposite. On my visit I did some sort of Beagle channel cruise, we had a large CC roll call aboard the ship and about 100+ of us all did a channel cruise. While we did get close to several islands with seals etc I thought the scenery was overall pretty much the same as from the ship. I did have time to walk around town afterward but really feel I missed out by not taking one of the tours that went to the National park and into the mountains.

 

Overall I enjoyed the SA cruise so much I decided to repeat the following year but missed out as I was on the infamous Princess "Earthquake cruise" when most passengers could not get to the ship. I later joined the ship in BA but missed the first 10 days of a 30+ day cruise.

Hope to one day get back again.

 

Whether it is a good idea to go on the catamaran trip at Ushuaia no doubt depends in part on how interested in the seabirds and seals one is. For anyone keenly interested in them, the catamaran trips are excellent. I agree that the mountainous scenery can be enjoyed from the ship as well as the catamaran, and that there are other interesting destinations in and near Ushuaia. One cannot "do it all" in a single brief port visit, and has to make choices. That was one reason why we also repeated this cruise, in our case 3 years later.

 

As an aside, another reason why we repeated was that we were on the 2010 Star Princess cruise, BA to Valpo, that preceded the "infamous earthquake cruise" to which DougH refers. Rather than disembark and deal with the earthquake problems in Santiago (including cancellation of international flights), we stayed aboard for 6 extra days, returned by ship from Valpo to Ushuaia, and flew home from there. Things worked out much better for us than for those like DougH who couldn't get to Santiago and to the ship to start their cruise. Of course, our problems were inconsequential compared to those of many local residents. Over 500 people were killed by the magnitude 8.8 earthquake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake

 

John

Edited October 28, 2016 by J-D

[4774Papa]

Princess offers an excursion for a catamaran tour on the Beagle Channel, and I've read in tour books that this is a must do in Ushuaia. I am hesitant to take this excursion because I'm thinking we'll see the same scenery from the cruise ship. But then it occurred to me that maybe the ship can't go there, because the channel is too small and the ship too big? Can anybody who has been there tell me if this type of tour would be good or would it just duplicate what you can see from the ship? Can the ship cruise through the Beagle Channel? Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

We took that same excursion on a Celebrity cruise that also include the Tierra Del Fuego National Park. Excellent tour.

 

Our ship arrived very early in the morning and we did not see much of Beagle Channel coming into the port.