Ushuaia - Must See Destinations with Local Tour Guides

[TheChicagoDude]

On our recent cruise around Cape Horn, there were several ports that have "must see" attractions.  Ushuaia is one of those ports.

 

Our cruise had scheduled a truncated day at Ushuaia, so getting everything done was going to be a challenge.  The challenge was tested to the max when HAL announced that due to a port "technical issue", our berth was occupied by another (non-cruise) ship and we would have to tender into the port.  HAL had already proven to be mostly incompetent at their tendering operations in Punta Arenas, but that's a separate discussion.

 

We booked a tour with tourguideushuaia.net, which was highly reviewed on TripAdvisor.  We booked a private car trip for the three of us, paying a small deposit via PayPal with the balance due, "in cash, large US$ currency please" on the day.  Total was $270 for the three of us.

 

Instead of the noon exit from the Zaandam, we battled our way into a tender and onshore at about 2:30pm.  Our guide was dutifully waiting at the gate despite the chaotic, late arrival. 

 

The guide and driver was extremely competent and spoke excellent English.  Off we went to the Tierra Fuego National Park, the primary and vital attraction in Ushuaia.  

 

The guide encouraged us to get on walking trails at three points in the park, all worthwhile and not-too-strenuous hikes.  (We're all 64 years young and without mobility issues.  YMMV)

 

We noted some of the other cruise passengers visited the same locations, on big tour buses, missing the finer details that we were able to see.

 

We stopped at several other local, smaller attractions on our way back to town.  Our truncated schedule did not leave much time in Ushuaia city for shopping, but we had time for a nice walk-around.  With huge crab a feature in local restaurants, we were disappointed that the schedule didn't allow us to eat locally as well.  

 

We recommend tourguidesushuaia.net highly.  

[4774Papa]

We usually book private tours, but for that port we picked the Celebrity excursion that included the Beagle Channel on a catamaran as well as tour of the Tierra Fuego National Park.  It was nice.  We paid a little more than you did, but it was a full day tour, since our ship arrived early in the morning.

[AryMay]

23 hours ago, TheChicagoDude said:

 HAL had already proven to be mostly incompetent at their tendering operations in Punta Arenas, but that's a separate discussion.

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing your experience! 

 

We will be on the SA/Antarctica itinerary on the Zaandam next month and I was hoping you could elaborate on your experience with tendering. Did you actually tender in Punta Arenas? I would prefer to tender nearer the city, but I am under the impression that we will be docking outside of town.

 

What was the tendering process like for other ports...especially Stanley in the Falklands? Were tender tickets distributed the morning of or the day before? Could one person get multiple tickets or did the whole group have to be present?

 

We have private tours booked in almost every port and will want to get off the ship early if possible. We were on the Zaandam last spring and in visiting with the cruise director it sounded like the tendering process was a total mess last season. I was hoping they had learned from experience and things would be better this year.

 

 

[TheChicagoDude]

On 12/22/2018 at 4:22 AM, AryMay said:

 

Thanks for sharing your experience! 

 

We will be on the SA/Antarctica itinerary on the Zaandam next month and I was hoping you could elaborate on your experience with tendering. Did you actually tender in Punta Arenas? I would prefer to tender nearer the city, but I am under the impression that we will be docking outside of town.

 

What was the tendering process like for other ports...especially Stanley in the Falklands? Were tender tickets distributed the morning of or the day before? Could one person get multiple tickets or did the whole group have to be present?

 

We have private tours booked in almost every port and will want to get off the ship early if possible. We were on the Zaandam last spring and in visiting with the cruise director it sounded like the tendering process was a total mess last season. I was hoping they had learned from experience and things would be better this year.

 

 

 

Happy to share more details.  

 

The first tender port was Stanley, in the Falkland Islands.  We were told that tendering tickets would be distributed beginning 8am the day previous.  One of our group (3 people) happened by the Explorer Lounge at about 7:15am - and there were about 80 people already in line.  No one from HAL was evident, no "crowd control" had been instigated.  A couple young crew members showed up precisely at 8, and then the real chaos began.  There was NO attempt to determine if the people in line wanted to go ashore to meet an organized (non-HAL) tour, or just go ashore and wander around.  Sadly the biggest issue were the larger groups of Mainland Chinese (this isn't an ethnic comment, but is related to the lack of travel experience by this particular group).  They were asking for 4, 5, 8 tender tickets and they were allowing other of their group to "cut" the line.

 

As an aside, I have been going to Mainland China since 1984, and speak fairly fluent Chinese.  I'm well aware of the inexperience these people have with international traveling and standards.  These same passengers were seen filling plastic bags with food from the Lido deck restaurants, and handling food in what we considered to be in unsafe ways.   

 

Despite the fact that HAL is actively marketing these trips to the Mainland Chinese, it is irresponsible for them to NOT have any Chinese-speaking crew members on board to assist.  

 

And the morning of tender at Stanley, large groups of Mainland Chinese tourists were seen and heard on Deck 1 (above the tendering deck A) "trading" for lower-number tickets with their friends.  None had organized tours in Stanley, as best I could determine.  

 

As I previously noted, the tendering at Ushuaia was not originally in the plan, and was required because of some anomaly at Ushaiua.  The chaos with this tendering was even more pronounced, as tickets were issued only an hour or so before anchoring.

 

We docked at Punta Arenas.  The local port authority provided a free shuttle into the city (necessary).  We waited about 40 minutes to get onto the bus.    We had originally called an Uber, but they were not allowed into the port area (unlike the taxis) and were were not allowed to walk to the port gate (about a block).  The Uber was 1/4 of the taxi price to the city. . .