Falklands Shore Excursions

We have a stop at Stanley, in the Falklands in January for the day. Is the all day trip to Volunteer Point worth it or do you have any alternate suggestions?

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We have a stop at Stanley, in the Falklands in January for the day. Is the all day trip to Volunteer Point worth it or do you have any alternate suggestions?

 

 

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Hopefully I have copied and pasted link correctly.

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=591815

It was one of the highlights of our SA cruise! The drive is about 2 hours, most of it off-road in 4 to 6 vehicle caravans (necessary for pulling one another out of the boggy - it had rained for a couple of days before we arrived - ground). We enjoyed everything about it:

• The drivers are locals who take the day off from their usual jobs to act as driver/guides . Our driver was a nurse, her husband (also driving in our caravan) was a mechanic. Her aunt was the leader of our caravan. When we got to Volunteer Point we passed the house of her parents who are the wardens of the Point. Our guide was great describing life in the Falklands and the history of the islands and answering our questions.
  
• The penguins are amazing! You can see pictures but until you are surrounded by them you can't imagine it.
  
• We also had time for a short tour of Stanley upon our return.
  

We went with Patrick Watts who we highly recommend. Other members of our roll call also had a great time with Estancia. On the other hand, the Princess caravan never made it to Volunteer Point - they turned around because of the boggy ground.

We also went with Patrick Watts and absolutely loved our tour. We were lucky enough to have Patrick as our guide. I will never forget the penguins they so amazing, especially the king penguins.

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Any of the 3 companies which give tours to Volunteer Point are almost identical. We had a wonderful day with Estancia Tours in January. It was definately worthwhile.

We, too, had a tour to Volunteer Point with Estancia and it was excellent. We had two hours to spend with the penguins which was a nice amount of time. We were even given a tasty boxed lunch! I highly, highly recommend going to Volunteer Point. It's an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity and a very memorable experience. It was a highlight of our South American cruise! We were SO glad we did it!

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The ride is long....but the experience was once in a lifetime. Highly recommend Watts.

Does anyone know who the guide or company is that has a large bull horns on the front of his SUV? Where does his tour take you?

I sent a mail to Watts and nobody answer. Seems to be the only one. Do you have more info about other tour guides or companies there?

I sent a mail to Watts and nobody answer. Seems to be the only one. Do you have more info about other tour guides or companies there?

Did you check TripAdvisor? I know that folks on our roll call also enjoyed Estancia very much. The season is over, maybe Patrick is taking time off. The email address we used last winter was pwatts@horizon.co.fk.

Is there any other option? I dont want to insist. Anyone know someone else?

Is there any other option? I dont want to insist. Anyone know someone else?

Did you try contacting Estancia? http://www.estancia-excursions.com

Thank you

returning from Volunteer Point did you have sometime to tour also stanley?

returning from Volunteer Point did you have sometime to tour also stanley?

Our driver took us around town as we were returning from Volunteer Point. It took no more than 10 minutes. Then we walked through town, stopped at a shop or two, another 10 minutes. Stanley is rather small....even tiny.

Wait! almost forgot, we stopped into a pub for a cold beer! That was about 20 minutes.

Great time! We so enjoyed the Estancia Excursion and it was priced at about 1/2 of the same trip through the ship.

Finally, thinking about it, I would recommend, for US cruisers, to acquire GBP for excurstion payment through your bank before you leave the US. This is because, even tho the tour operators will take USD, there is a hefty difference charged for them to do conversion, AND there are NO ATM's in the Falklands.