Ushuaia and Antartica Boarding and Tours

[dandbuk]

We are boarding our trip to Antarctica tomorrow, and are currently in Ushuaia for 3 days having flown from Buenos Aires. We’ve never posted on CC before but used it extensively for previous pretrip cruise advice and support, especially for independent traveller advice. As background, we’ve cruised many times on multiple lines, even this trip started Transatlantic from Southampton on Sillouette and ends with a week on Regent’s Mariner in Carribean.  
This is however predominantly about the port of Ushuaia, which we struggled to find much information on. 

For anyone looking at the choice between “flyby” big ship cruises or the expedition ship actual landing on Antarctica, please factor in the value of the chance to have a 2-3 days here. It’s a beautiful area, and has really surprised us. The value is outstanding and we genuinely believe as a stand-alone destination it should be classed in the same way as boarding in Rome, Athens, Rio or Vancouver. Places where local pre and post trips are as much a part of the cruise as the actual shipboard experience.

 

For those having Ushuaia as a port stop, the options are a relatively simple choice, due to geography and available on shore time. It’s explore East….Or West …. Or Cruise Beagle Channel. For those with 2/3 days all are obviously possible.

 

We spent our 1st afternoon west of the city, in the National Park area. The headline tourist “attraction” is a little train, research on it had been very polarised between good & bad, and it had been parked in the “try it if we don’t find anything better” box. We actually started the afternoon just planning to get a taxi to the end of the world post office, to send old school postcards to the grandkids. It’s about 20km from city, but drives past the railway stations and line. Trust us, it’s rediculously short, and for the tour charges appears pretty bad value, in a great value environment. We’re really glad we hadn’t prebooked and consider a bullet was dodged!

 

What was apparent though, was the local knowledge of our taxi driver (literally hailed off Ushuaia street), in the 30 minute ride to the post office, he was constantly pointing stuff out. Flora, fauna, mountains, the history of how Ushuaia has developed etc. He wasn’t a taxi driver he was a tour guide…and a dammed good one at that! Certainly in the top 3 we can remember. He never tried to upsell us, so while we were sorting and writing cards to post, we decided to ask him about taking us around the other bits of the National Park for the rest of the afternoon. He then gave us the most wonderful 4hr private guided tour through the NP, seeing all the possible places the commercial tours mention and many more where the buses are too large to stop at. He even gave us a lesson on tree fungus when I showed him a photo I’d taken earlier, proceeded to find much bigger examples, and stopped at a random old house that had used it as decorative woods as part of their fence! All of this was provided for $60 for 3 in his car. The fare to the post office (and back) was due to be $20. Now obviously prices in Argentina fluctuate MASSIVELY on daily, and weekly basis, even as we’ve been in the country for 5 days the exchange rates chanaged 10%, so please don’t assume that price is constant, we just wanted to give an indication for clarity.

 

In conversation, it turns out he’s one of only a handful of Ushuaia taxi drivers who speaks English, so we got very lucky. This is certainly verified by our other experiences, since our Spanish is non existent! 
 

If anyone is traveling to Ushuaia and wants his WhatsApp details just let us know, we want this guy to get the business and reputation that his skills deserve. We will always see meeting him as a very fortunate accident, he had no real idea of cruise critic etc, but we told him how accurate and honest reviews can be on here.

 

His name is Mario Miraglia. and of Italian descent but lived in Ushuaia for over 30 years.
 

 

[PerfectlyPerth]

Good info. I have always been able to fill 3-5 days either side of my polar trips and love Ushuaia as it has so much to offer for a tiny place. 
 

Technically - it's in Argentina so your post should be on the Ports of call - South America board - and a search there will find you many other Ushuaia posts. (Just a heads up in case moderators move the thread there). 
https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/forum/47-south-america/

 

The Ushuaia board on Trip Advisor also has a heap of info. Not as busy as big city travel boards - but plenty of regular posters ready to respond. 
https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowForum-g312855-i6870-Ushuaia_Province_of_Tierra_del_Fuego_Patagonia.html

 

It's a shame you judged the End of the World train solely by looking at the length of the track. 
The train journey goes slowly so people can really take in the scenery - but also it's the commentary (in various languages) that enriches it. Explaining the history of the indigenous population, through to the UK convict population who built the train line itself. 
I guess as an Australian the history is very much aligned with ours so it's interesting. 
My experience based on being in travel forums for over 20 years and listening to people after my various trips on the train - is that many Americans in general have zero interest in the history of the location itself and that seems to be the reason for bad reviews. Every Australian and Brit that I've met who has done the train has loved it. 
 

I always recommend the Maritime Prison Museum. My visit took me over 4 hours and I felt I skimmed a few bits! It included the history of the indigenous population, the UK convict history, polar exploration history through to modern era, and so much more. It's huge. I definitely felt like I got my moneys worth there. And its souvenir shop is choc full of books on so many topics. It was a real find. Allow an hour just for the shop 😆📚📚 

[00649]

Hi Dandbuk, can you please send me Mario whatsapp.We are english speaking and visiting Ushuaia in January.

[2552phxcrzr]

23 hours ago, dandbuk said:

 

If anyone is traveling to Ushuaia and wants his WhatsApp details just let us know, we want this guy to get the business and reputation that his skills deserve. We will always see meeting him as a very fortunate accident, he had no real idea of cruise critic etc, but we told him how accurate and honest reviews can be on here.

 

His name is Mario Miraglia. and of Italian descent but lived in Ushuaia for over 30 years.
 

 

Could you send me the info for Mario ... my email is eerkun (it's a yahoo address).  We've spent quite a bit of time in Ushuaia pre-expeditions and agree that there is plenty to see and do in the area when you have the time to do so.

[dandbuk]

Mariomiraglia@hotmail.com

[Koz1]

Thanks dandbuk.   After reading your  review of your tour with Mario I sent an email to him and his daughter Antonela replied, telling me that she handles his bookings etc and she sent me details of the different tours that he offers.   We booked a city tour, a National Park tour and a tour to Escondido & Fagnano Lakes for early January and all tours were wonderful and we are very pleased that we booked with him.  Mario was very friendly and knowledgable about all of the places that he showed us.   We went to a lot of places that the big tour buses wouldn't have taken us and we didn't feel rushed at each stop as we took a lot of photos.   We would highly recommend using Mario for any tours while you're in Ushuaia.   

This website has links to contact Mario and Antonela through WhatsApp if you would like to make any enquiries.
https://www.atom.bio/ushuaiaprivatedriver

  

[perrysburg]

Thanks for the info on Mario Miraglia. We wrote to the email provided and received a reply from his daughter, Anto:   antomiraglia17@gmail.com

 

We tried to book Mario for a 3 hour tour of the National Park (price quoted for 3 hours at $140). Unfortunately for us, Mario was already booked on the day we needed him.

 

We then checked out getting a Remis ( a driver reserved in advance).   It was easy to make a reservation by email and the price quoted for 3 hours was 59,000 AR pesos (~$60). www.remiscar.com.ar | transfers@remiscar.com.ar 

 

But then we heard from Mario's daughter again who referred us to cab driver Diego Joel Giles, who speaks English. The price for 3 hours in the National Park was $140. We booked him and he waited at the cruise port gate for us with a sign. He took us exactly to the places we wanted and could talk to us easily. We spent 4 hours with him and were very pleased. Diego can be reached at +54 290 146 4119  or diegojoelgiles@yahoo.com

 

[randomwalk42]

Chiming in to post on this. 

My family and I were in Ushuaia on the 9th of March (Celebrity Eclipse) and set up a 2 part tour of Ushuaia with Mario Miraglia. 
The Prices were 150 USD for the Tierra Del Fuego Park and 120 USD for the Escondido/Fagnano Lakes Tours. 
He also took us around the city to various vantage points, took us to a gin distillery to sample local gin and to a fantastic all-you-can-eat grilled lamb lunch. 
He was prompt, thoughtful and a great guide and was mindful of the mobility issues of one of my family.
Can't recommend enough, for a personalized experience in Ushuaia that was way less expensive than the shore excursion offerings from the Cruise ship.