Any suggestions for local tours for Ushuaia and Punta Arenas? Thank you.

[gam888]

We are going on a South America cruise with Sapphire Princess in February. We have booked some excursions with the ship. We are still looking for some excursions for Ushuaia and Punta Arenas. We are not that keen on the tours Princess is offering for these 2 ports. We are hoping to find a cruise that goes around the Beagle Channel in Ushuaia, or a tour that we can see more penguins. In Punta Arenas, we are looking for some local tour possibilities as well. 

If any folks have had a good experience with any tours with the local vendors, please share with us. Any other ports in South America you would like to share would be welcome as well. Thank you in advance.

[Liz Masterson]

On 1/17/2024 at 9:19 AM, gam888 said:

We are going on a South America cruise with Sapphire Princess in February. We have booked some excursions with the ship. We are still looking for some excursions for Ushuaia and Punta Arenas. We are not that keen on the tours Princess is offering for these 2 ports. We are hoping to find a cruise that goes around the Beagle Channel in Ushuaia, or a tour that we can see more penguins. In Punta Arenas, we are looking for some local tour possibilities as well. 

If any folks have had a good experience with any tours with the local vendors, please share with us. Any other ports in South America you would like to share would be welcome as well. Thank you in advance.

Have you returned yet? Any suggestions for these two ports? 

[CraigPotton]

If you still don't have any arrangements in Puerto Montt, try with www.chileshoretours.com

 

Excellent service!!

 

Good luck!!

[cccole]

We had a fabulous tour with Sebastian Mansilla Teodori in Ushuia.  We arranged him thru Tours By Locals but he can be contacted directly at 5492901476656.  We customized a tour for 4 of us and it was just perfect. Sebastian was such a good guide and fun to be with.  Cherie

[Gphan]

We did a similar cruise on Princess in March of 2023 but without the Antarctica portion and if you prefer to book your tours with an independent provider as we always do, we can highly recommend Calaio Viajes y Turismo an Argentina based operator.  We had originally booked this South America cruise for March 2022 but due to COVID, Princess cancelled it.  We rebooked the identical cruise for 2023.  When planning for 2022, I contacted Edgardo Calaio, the General Manager, and arranged a total of 8 tours – Buenos Ares, Montevideo, Puerto Madryn, Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt, San Antonio and Coquimbo.  Edgardo was a pleasure to work with.  There were six of us and we made a number of revisions during the planning process.  Edgardo was patient and professional over an almost two-year period.  When we had to change to 2023, he was able to switch everything to a year later.  It was a great help to be able to arrange all our tours with a single contact.

 

Our vans were comfortable and clean.  All our guides spoke excellent English and were able to answer all the many questions we threw at them.  Edgardo let us know the name of our guide shortly before each port so we knew who we would be with.  We made a small deposit for the tours a few months before sailing.  At our request, rather than pay the balance to the driver in every port, we paid via PayPal shortly before sailing.  If you are planning tours, by all means contact Edgardo and ask what he can arrange for you.  The website is https://calaioviajesyturismo.tur.ar/ .  In over 30 cruises on Princess arranging tours all over the world, our experience with Edgardo was the best.