Punta Tombo Shore Excursion (Shared tour for cruises) - PUERTO MADRYN
Overview
Inclusions
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- Lunch
- All Fees and Taxes
- Professional local tour guide
What to expect
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: C. Pichalao 697, Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina
You will visit the most important Magellan penguins colony in Patagonia.Almost one million of these lovely creatures arrive from the Atlantic to this place every year in order to breed, incubate their eggs, and prepare their offspring for migration.
When your cruise ship docks at the Puerto Madryn port, you will be picked up by your professional guide and taken to Punta Tombo, located 2.5 hours south.
This peninsula, a fauna and penguin preservation area created in 1979, is home to the most important Magellan penguins colony in Patagonia.
The first penguins arrive in September and stay until April, the best season to see them is after November, once the babies were born, so this is the perfect opportunity for you to experience the penguins!
Your guide will lead you down the 2-mile (3-km) stretch of beach so you can get up close to these amazing animals. Walk among the penguins, witness their habits, and see how they feed their babies, fight for the defense of their territories, and build their nests. You will watch these tender animals more closely than you ever imagined you could!
After this unique wildlife experience, you will be taken back to the Puerto Madryn port
Additional information
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Infant seats available
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Most travelers can participate
- We will operate the tour at 70% of vans capacity as precautionary measures due to Covid.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 17 travelers
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Ticket delivery
Cancellation
What a wonderful experience. Our tour guide was Madriana. She was kind, and very informative. We saw so many Magellanic penguins. It was heaven. We had a nice boxed lunch and a bottle of water. It was a perfect trip, and so worth it! Keep in mind, the penguins do NOT live in town. There is a lo...
What a wonderful experience. Our tour guide was Madriana. She was kind, and very informative. We saw so many Magellanic penguins. It was heaven. We had a nice boxed lunch and a bottle of water. It was a perfect trip, and so worth it! Keep in mind, the penguins do NOT live in town. There is a long drive out, and then a very long walk out to see them. Be prepared! Bring good shoes, and a walking stick. If you can’t walk a long way (several miles) this isn’t for you.We were driven to Punta Tombo in an air-conditioned bus. The guide was very informative and pointed out lots of interesting things along the way. The penguin rookery is very well managed with clearly defined and in some places elevated walkways. A most interesting tour and highly recommended.
We were driven to Punta Tombo in an air-conditioned bus. The guide was very informative and pointed out lots of interesting things along the way. The penguin rookery is very well managed with clearly defined and in some places elevated walkways. A most interesting tour and highly recommended.We bought this directly from the organizer on their website (tour guide ushuaia) about 4 months in advance for $130 each (including admission and box lunch), a GREAT savings over the ship price. Edgar was a GREAT tour organizer as he was friendly, helpful, and always super responsive to question...
We bought this directly from the organizer on their website (tour guide ushuaia) about 4 months in advance for $130 each (including admission and box lunch), a GREAT savings over the ship price. Edgar was a GREAT tour organizer as he was friendly, helpful, and always super responsive to questions at any time. Our boat arrived around 6:30AM (early) and we were met by our guide Adriana at 6:50AM as the instructions say the tour leaves promptly 30 minutes after ship arrival at 7:25AM. Well......we waited....and waited.....and asked Adriana if we were leaving "yes in just a minute".....waited.....and waited...."we are just waiting on a couple of more people"....and waited. We ended up not leaving until 8:15 - about 90 minutes after arriving and after 95% of all the other tourist vehicles had left as well (including the huge fleet of large official cruise ship tours). SO, we were definitely the last bus to arrive at Tombo which was now packed. Other than that poor decision, everything was great, including the guide. But, when you are driving 5 hours in order to get about 2 hours of penguins.....wasting a lot of that time in the parking lot is very frustrating. The bus was a nice smaller size vehicle, our guide was very professional and friendly, and she had a lot of great information to share. This is a shared tour, so a lot of people take bookings and put people on this tour (we had a group of about 6-7 from babel viajes on this tour) - our total was about 10 people, excluding the guides. The drive is about 5-hours and generally flat and boring. Punta Tombo is a hot dry area which is professionally managed for the penguins benefit (humans are kept to a roped off designated trail at all times). Since we were so late, it was definitely crowded but the site can handle a lot of people pretty well. There is probably about a 1.5 - 2.0 mile distance (roundtrip) of walking to see everything, so be aware. There are a lot of penguins but some of them, in particular the water areas, are a little distance away. We had just taken the Volunteer Point excursion in Falklands prior to this, and that experience was worlds better - mainly because everything is wild and the crowd size is limited. However, this was different and still definitely a lot of penguins. Anyhow, I definitely recommend Edgar and his company, but the guide definitely screwed over the 10 on-time passengers in the hopes of trying to get 2-4 more people to show up.We were 16 people off of cruise ship. I have to say dealing with Edgars company, Tour guide Ushuaia, was a pleasure. His site is easy to use and making payments for down payment were easy. Edgar was always quick to reply to any questions we had. We were picked up promptly after we walked off a v...
We were 16 people off of cruise ship. I have to say dealing with Edgars company, Tour guide Ushuaia, was a pleasure. His site is easy to use and making payments for down payment were easy. Edgar was always quick to reply to any questions we had. We were picked up promptly after we walked off a very long pier. Our tour guide Sergio was excellent and his English was very good. He gave us a running commentary on our 2 hr drive out to Punta Tombo . Once there we left to walk the paths through the penguins at our own speed. Sergio followed the slowest walker so he could make sure he had all the group ahead of him. That is quite a feat as there are hundreds of tourists coming off of buses and private vans. He was available to answer any questions we had. I found him most informative and he was keen to pick up new English words to add to his vocabulary. The site was amazing to see, very different then the Falkland Islands volunteer point. There were 1/2 a million penguins over a vast area. As far as the eye could see. You walk on a boardwalk or designated paths but you can see the penguins up very close. These penguins burrow and the young ones were standing by the burrows calling to be fed and sound Ike donkeys braying. It was well worth the long drive out and back.This is where the Magellanic penguins come every year to breed and you will see penguins at different stages of their lives. The drive from Puerto Madryn where our ship was docked was about 2 hours each way and we saw some animals like guanaco and some birds on the way. The penguins are scattered...
This is where the Magellanic penguins come every year to breed and you will see penguins at different stages of their lives. The drive from Puerto Madryn where our ship was docked was about 2 hours each way and we saw some animals like guanaco and some birds on the way. The penguins are scattered in a big area but most of them congregates by the beach. It’s an amazing sight to see them as far as your eyes can see. The walk from the parking lot to the end of the walkway where most of the penguins are is quite long. Make sure you have enough time to do the round trip, at least one hour each.The guide was efficient and speaks English quite well. All in all, an amazing tour if you like penguins and are interested in their life development.No me lo imaginaba así! Muchos pingüinos caminando, buscando a su pareja, en sus nidos, conociendo que tienen prioridad de paso por los caminitos. Y llegar al mar y ver tanta belleza!! También había guanacos. Hay pocos sanitarios y el comedor es pequeño, mucha gente y mucha demora. Nosotros nos ...
No me lo imaginaba así! Muchos pingüinos caminando, buscando a su pareja, en sus nidos, conociendo que tienen prioridad de paso por los caminitos. Y llegar al mar y ver tanta belleza!! También había guanacos. Hay pocos sanitarios y el comedor es pequeño, mucha gente y mucha demora. Nosotros nos llevamos una viandita. El día no fue de lo mejor, mucho viento, frío y lluvia. Nos hubiese gustado hacer el recorrido con más tranquilidad.