Cape Horn & Glaciers Cruise

Board your ship at Ushuaia’s pier in the afternoon and set sail southwards this evening, across the Beagle Channel and into Chilean waters. During dinner, you’ll meet your ship’s staff and expedition team, as you embark on the trip of a lifetime on some of the world’s most remote waterways.

The lights of Ushuaia disappear as you turn into the narrow Murray Channel between Navarino and Hoste islands and head due south, en route to Cape Horn for tomorrow’s first landing.

After dinner, you might like to enjoy the open bar featuring stunning panoramic windows for you to appreciate the breathtaking landscapes at 'the end of the world'. All drinks (alcoholic or not), are included on this voyage.

You're unlikely to spot any other cruise ships during your time aboard, given that very few operators have permission to sail in these magnificent waters.

Meals: Dinner

Around dawn today, the cruise crosses Nassau Bay and enters the remote archipelago that comprises Cape Horn National Park. Weather and sea conditions permitting, you'll go ashore on the windswept island that harbours the legendary Cape Horn (Cabo de Hornos). Discovered in 1616 by a Dutch maritime expedition – and named after the town of Hoorn in West Friesland – Cape Horn is a sheer 425m-high (1,394ft) rocky promontory overlooking the turbulent waters of the Drake Passage and is the world’s southernmost national park.

For many years this was the only navigation route between the Pacific and Atlantic and was often referred to as the 'End of the Earth'. In 2005 UNESCO declared the park a World Biosphere Reserve and the Chilean navy maintains a permanent lighthouse on the island, staffed by a lighthouse keeper and his family. The tiny Stella Maris Chapel and modern Cape Horn Monument are also located here. If you land here today, you will get a chance to explore this small, iconic, island on foot.

Sailing back north across Nassau Bay, you'll anchor at the fabled Wulaia Bay, one of the few places in the archipelago where the human history is just as compelling as the natural environment. Originally the site of one of the region’s largest Yámana aboriginal settlements, the bay was described by Charles Darwin and sketched by Captain FitzRoy in the 1830s during their voyages on HMS Beagle.

This area is also renowned for its stunning beauty and dramatic geography. After a visit to the museum in the old radio station – which is especially strong on the Yámana people and European missionaries in the area – passengers have a choice of three hikes (of increasing degrees of difficulty) that ascend the heavily wooded mountain behind the bay. On all of these hikes, you'll stroll through an endemic Magellanic forest of Southern beech trees, winter's bark and verdant ferns to reach amazing panoramic viewpoints overlooking the bay. Your expedition guides will accompany you and impart their knowledge, insight and passion for the region’s history and wildlife.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Overnight you’ll be sailing westwards through the sheltered waters of the Beagle Channel and by morning the ship will enter the magnificent Pia Fjord - one of the most beautiful stretches of water in the entire region.

Two immense glaciers slide into the seawater with verdant forests encroaching as the ice recedes. Once anchored in this magnificent aquatic and mountainous amphitheatre, you’ll disembark by small zodiacs for a shore excursion to Pia Glacier. You'll take a short hike to a panoramic view of the spectacular glacier, which extends from the mountaintops down to the sea. There is also the option of a longer, much more difficult walk up a lateral moraine of the old Pia Glacier.

Both options are detailed by the expedition staff before disembarking, so each guest can analyse and choose which hike they’d like to take. On both options, your expedition staff will guide you for the duration of the excursion and impart valuable information about the glaciers, geography and wildlife in this region.

No one knows for certain how the hulking mass of snow and ice got its feminine moniker, but one theory says it was named for Princess Maria Pia of Savoy (1847-1911), daughter of the King of Italy, but standing in front of this magnificent wall of ice as it calves off into the surrounding waters is a truly regal experience.

You’ll return to the ship for lunch, and in the afternoon take to the zodiacs once more to the frigid waters of the Porter Glacier. You’ll be in your zodiac for about an hour, so wrap up warm, as you get a remarkable sense of scale as you approach this 2.5km-wide (1.5 miles) tongue of ice that meanders its way from the peaks of the Darwin Mountain Range into the waters of the bay.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Early in the morning, you'll sail through the Cockburn Channel and enter Agostini Sound. From there it is possible to see the glaciers that descend from the centre of the Darwin Mountain Range, some of them reaching the water - truly a sight worth getting up early for.

Later in the morning, you’ll disembark for a relatively easy 2km walk (1.5 miles) along the beach and lagoon which was formed by the melting of the Águila Glacier. You’ll eventually reach a spot right in front of the beautiful glacier with truly stunning views. Your guide may take you into the verdant forest in order to explain how the forest grows in these latitudes before you return to the landing site and board the zodiac back to your ship.

After lunch and a short sailing, you’ll approach another one of the region's impactful glaciers, Cóndor Glacier, by zodiac and hopefully see some of the abundant Andean condors in the area. Your guide will get you as close to the glacier as is safe and give explanations to help you understand how these magnificent blocks of ice are formed and eventually disappear.

All members of the expedition team are specially trained to interpret the flora and fauna of the region. They are seasoned travellers, local residents, and many participate in the scientific enhancement of knowledge of the region’s biodiversity. They will hugely enrich your learning experience.

Return to the ship for your final dinner, accompanied by the captain, as your ship sails northwards and enters the famous Strait of Magellan.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

After an overnight cruise through the Magdalena Channel and back into the Strait of Magellan, you'll anchor off Magdalena Island* which lies about halfway between the island of Tierra del Fuego and the Chilean mainland. Crowned by a distinctive lighthouse, the nowadays protected island used to be an essential source of supplies for navigators and explorers and is inhabited by an immense colony of Magellanic penguins.

At the break of dawn, weather permitting, you will go ashore and hike an easy circular path that leads through thousands of penguins to a small museum lodged inside the vintage 1902 lighthouse. Many other bird species are also found on the island. It's a fitting finale to your expedition cruise as you get the opportunity to see the nesting Magellanic penguins from close proximity.

Finally, after a short cruise south along the strait, disembarkation at Punta Arenas is scheduled for about 12:30pm (weather permitting). Here you’ll say farewell to your travel companions and expedition staff and continue your adventure into Chilean Patagonia.

Meals: Breakfast

 In September and April this excursion is replaced by a ride aboard zodiacs to Marta Island to observe South American sea lions.

Note that camera extension poles are prohibited on Magdalena Island.

Please note that the same route can be taken in the opposite direction – see full details.