Best of Chilean Patagonia: From Torres del Paine to Cape Horn

Days 1-2

U.S. / Santiago, Chile

Depart on an overnight flight to Santiago, Chile. We check in to the centrally located Mandarin Oriental Hotel (or similar) before our guided overview of this vibrant city backed by the inspiring Andes. Discover sites like the Plaza de Armas and get a feel for the mix of old and new that makes this city so great. This area is excellent for photos! In the early evening, we gather for an informal reception and a drink at the hotel.  

Day 3

Punta Arenas / Puerto Natales

Today we take a commercial flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas, Chile’s southern gateway to Patagonia. From there, we will drive to the outpost of Puerto Natales and check into our hotel for the evening. Enjoy a group dinner before retiring.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 4-6

Torres del Paine National Park

Drive into this UNESCO Biosphere reserve and spend three days at Tierra Patagonia Hotel or Explora Patagonia (or similar), discovering one of the most wildlife-rich areas in the Americas, covering 450,000 acres of glaciers, forests, grasslands, rivers, and colorful lagoons. Choose among a variety of possibilities, including walks and hikes, horseback riding, sailing among icebergs to the foot of the immense Grey Glacier, visiting the Salto Grande waterfall, and seeing the towers of the central massif from the Blue Lagoon. Look out for guanacos, gray foxes, rheas, and Andean condors.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 7

Torres del Paine National Park / Puerto Natales / Embark Ship / Kirke or White Narrows

We have a final morning to explore Torres del Paine. We then drive to Puerto Natales, where we embark our ship. Be on deck to look for condors and other wildlife on our way out of Puerto Natales as our Captain and local pilots guide us through the Kirke or White Narrows, accessible only to small ships like National Geographic Explorer or National Geographic Resolution—always a challenge to navigate because of the powerful currents that flow through the pinch point.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 8-9

Chilean Fjords

Today and during the following days you’ll be treated to the spectacular features of an active glaciated landscape with hanging valleys and tributary glaciers. This region was navigated by Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, and it took most of November 1520 for his ships to find a way through the channels that lie between the continental mainland and Tierra del Fuego to the south. We’ll look to make a first stop in the extensive maze of channels and islands of the Chilean fjords, where we may go out by Zodiac and kayak.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 10

Tierra Del Fuego / Karukinka Natural Park

Tierra del Fuego is one of Patagonia’s crown jewels. We visit its newest and largest protected area: Karukinka Natural Park. Established in 2004 through a gift from Goldman Sachs, Karukinka is one of the largest donations ever made for conservation. We are thrilled to have special permission from the Wildlife Conservation Society to visit this private reserve, which spans 1,160 square miles and harbors the endangered culpeo fox, Andean condors, albatrosses, grebes, petrels, fulmars, shearwaters, and many other kinds of wildlife. We may explore Jackson Bay, backed by a skyline of rugged mountains, and look for wildlife including black-browed albatrosses, which nest on one of the nearby small islands. We may walk a trail to a lovely waterfall and look for elephant seals resting on not only the beach but also high in the grass meadows and even in the small river draining the valley inland.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 11

Chilean Fjords / Beagle Channel

We experience more stunning wilderness as we explore the fjords and glaciers of the region by Zodiac, kayak, and on foot. A vast area of snowcapped mountains, gigantic glaciers, thousands of verdant islands, serene lakes, and waterfalls, this region is scarcely touched by man. We take Zodiacs out to explore these protected waters and rugged shores, keeping watch for the Andean condors, albatrosses, grebes, petrels, fulmars, shearwaters, and many other birds that inhabit this otherworldly realm. Then we sail the Beagle Channel and look to hike and kayak one of the wild areas in this region of beech forests, mountains, and rivers.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 12

Cape Horn

Today we visit Cape Horn, near the southernmost tip of the South American continent, named in 1616 for the Dutch town of Hoorn. These waters are famously difficult to navigate, and over the centuries have been the graveyard of many ships—which before the opening of the Panama Canal had to round the Cape to sail between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Of course, we use our modern equipment to explore safely. Weather permitting, we take our Zodiacs ashore and walk to the top of the hill for panoramic views and to see the memorial placed there in 1992, showing an albatross in silhouette.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 13-14

Isla de Los Estados (Staten Island), Argentina

We have been given special permission to visit extraordinary Staten Island, and our ship is one of the only expedition ships ever allowed here. It is a place of superlatives, barely touched in recent decades and visited primarily by a few scientists and the staff of the tiny naval observatory. The island was named by Dutch explorers in 1615. Its mountainous, forested landscapes and rugged fjords are beautiful, and there is much to discover here. Our exact schedule remains flexible to take best advantage of conditions. We search for southern rockhopper and Magellanic penguins, other waterbirds, fur seals, and sea lions. We also look for otters on our landings ashore, and we see the replica of the 1884 San Juan de Salvamento “lighthouse at the end of the world,” which inspired Jules Verne’s novel by the same name. There are chances to walk in the southern beech forests. These days are bound to stand out as a unique chance to explore a very remote place.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 15-16

Ushuaia, Argentina / Disembark Ship / Buenos Aires, Argentina (National Geographic Explorer) or Santiago, Chile (National Geographic Resolution) / U.S.

Disembark in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Take a charter flight to Buenos Aires (National Geographic Explorer) or Santiago (National Geographic Resolution) and connect to your overnight flight home. Breakfast and lunch are served on Day 15.