Martillo Island: Boat Trip To The Penguin Colony & Beagle Channel

It was comfortable boat trip for a few hours in the afternoon. Very good catering at the boat. The penguins are so lovely. We had 30min to observe them from the boat.

The Beagle Channel is stunningly beautiful and we enjoyed the scenery immensely. The island with the sea lions and cormorants is very interesting and the Fin Del Mundo lighthouse is very picturesque. But if you are going on the penguin to see the penguins, choose someone else. When our boat approached the island to see the penguins, there were 2 other boats there already. Our boat headed for a small group of penguins. They waddled away and stopped about 50 meters from our boat. The other boats - which were the same size as our boat, and directly across from other penguins on the beach - left. Our boat made no effort to get closer to penguins. When I asked if they were going to, tour staff said our boat was too big to get near the penguins. But the boats that left were as big as ours. Whether our boat was too big, or the tour staff didn’t want to move, being so far from the penguins was unacceptable. All the other boats got a much closer look at the penguins than we did. And this tour was very expensive. We knew we would not be able to walk on the island, but we expected and deserved a lot better than seeing them from A distance, especially given the exorbitant price we paid for this trip. My recommendation is to take a penguin cruise on the Beagle Channel, but use some other operator than Canoero Catamaranes.

So glad we did the longer and more expensive trip to the penguin colony. The scenery was amazing throughout, and we saw so many birds, sea lions and of course penguins. Getting only a few metres away from them was really special. The boat was comfortable, had reasonably priced good and drink onboard. Lovely friendly knowledgable guides and staff.

Excellent 5 hour tour of the Beagle Canal and Oenguin Island, the staff was fluent in English. Remember Penguins make people happy !

What a fun experience. We saw many different types of whales, sea lions, many different types of birds (including Magellenic, Gentoo penguins of course), etc. The captain did a great job at positioning the boat to see the animals but it didn’t feel like we were being overly aggressive / invading their territory. I also appreciated the guide’s information - so knowledgeable and provided all of the information in Spanish and English which was an impressive feat (learned so much). He did a great job at rotating people so everyone could enjoy the penguins. It was a great experience. I would definitely do it again if I have the fortune of returning to Ushuaia!

Wonderful. Exactly as it was promised. We saw a lot of penguins, very up close. In addition to the penguins (<3), there were sea lions, cormorans, and other species. All very close. The ride was very pleasant, the catamaran is very comfortable, and the staff was really nice. The guide talked about every site we passed, giving very interesting insights. The food onboard was good enough

⸻ We went on a large, very comfortable catamaran carrying around 200–300 people. The journey out to Isla Martillo was calm and incredibly scenic. Along the way, we saw sea lions, Imperial cormorants, and a stunning lighthouse standing proudly against the landscape. One of the absolute highlights was spotting about eight sei whales — such an unforgettable sight! When we arrived at the penguin rookery, we were delighted to see both Magellanic and Gentoo penguins. They were absolutely gorgeous. The rookery was huge, and we were able to spend at least 45 minutes observing their behaviour up close, which made the experience even more special. The trip out and back was smooth, the scenery was breathtaking, and the entire day was simply beautiful. I highly recommend this tour.

An excellent and well organised tour. The boat was comfortable and it was great to see the penguins. But the team pulled out all the stops and span the boat around when a whale was spotted. They also ensured all sides of the boat got to see the wildlife. A great afternoon.

This was a lovely and memorable experience, and one I would absolutely recommend. Seeing the penguins in their natural habitat was a real highlight. We observed them from the boat, which felt respectful and in line with responsible tourism practices. It was disappointing to see another tour operator arrive and walk on the island itself — I really hope this is something that will be restricted or stopped in the near future, as watching wildlife without disturbing it is so important. The scenery along the Beagle Channel was stunning, and the overall experience was smooth, well organised, and easy to enjoy. Everything ran on time and the crew were professional and friendly. One aspect I found a little strange was at the end of the return journey. Throughout the day, all commentary had been interpreted into English, which I appreciated and expected as part of the tour. However, towards the end, the guide gave a long explanation in Spanish and then asked whether it was necessary to interpret it into English. The decision was left to the Spanish-speaking guests downstairs, who said it wasn’t necessary. As someone who doesn’t speak Spanish and was sitting upstairs, this felt awkward — especially since the microphone could be heard throughout the boat. I had paid for an English-interpreted tour, so this information was clearly intended for everyone. To the guide’s credit, he later came upstairs and checked individually, and when I said yes, he did provide the English interpretation. Still, it felt unnecessary and a little discourteous to ask in the first place. Food options at the onboard bar are fairly limited, but I was able to get a glass of wine and a basic sandwich, which was perfectly fine for the duration of the tour. Overall, this was a beautiful, responsible, and well-run experience, and I’m very glad I did it. With consistent English interpretation throughout, it would be excellent. .

The experience was great! My brother and I thought the online information was a little confusing; however, the tour guides / smooth boat ride / friendly photographers for the tour / and boat snack bar made up for it! We loved it and would highly recommend the experience to all.

This was a beautiful leisurely voyage surrounded by snow capped mountains from both Argentina and Chile on the Beagle Canal. We got to see grunting Sea Lions basking in the sun and sweet penguins waddling over a nesting zone. Friendly staff will answer all your questions and a snack bar with drinks, coffee and a yummy pizza. Book with confidence. It’s worth it.

Excellent views of seals, cormorants, and penguins. The boat ride is long, 5hr, but comfortable. The bilingual explanations are informative.

A trip down the Beagle Channel. We saw penguins but did not get out of the boat. They were trying to up-sell us photos and various trinkets. I guess that makes sense…

Excellent! The best tour to see the Lighthouse, Beagle Channel and Martillo Island. Totally recommend it! Very easy to find location, expedite boarding and reasonable prices for snacks during sailing. Time to take pictures and a very interesting history telling from the guide.

This is a once in a lifetime experience to actually be walking around on an island that inhabits two different penguin species. Wish we could have spent more time as it was so fascinating observing them. Our tour guide was Tomas who kept us well informed about the area and the penguins. The boat ride in the afternoon was also really nice getting to see sea lions and other birds.

Comfortable catamaran. No motion sickness at all. We saw everything that was promised and it was a great! It was raining when we went out but that didn’t affect our ability to see the critters, and it did clear up. Lots of busy penguins 😁 Really fun excursion

Great up close views of penguins and sea lions. Bonus for bird watchers.. saw tern and imperial cormorant colonies. Weather constantly changing. So come prepared. Went from hot to cloudy to rainy to sunny and cold all in 5 hrs.

This was a nice relaxing boat trip and it was really fun to see the penguins! The mountains were beautiful and we were lucky that the water was calm.

Ushuaia is a beautiful city with many different attractions such as the Martillo Island penguin tour which was one of the best tours I have ever been on as being in the tour allowed me to get up close and personal with a penguin colony and seals with the beautiful Ushuaia landscape all around me. This is one of the best trips I have ever had and I will remember this for my whole life!

Great trip on this boat to see penguins sea lions and we also got to spot some Orcas along the way. Great views and educational staff on board. Very friendly and helpful. Nice spaces indoor and out for the cruise in any weather. Would recommend this to anybody

It’s a nice boat trip with a great payoff at the end. The sites of Patagonia are amazing and the trip out is beautiful. The main focus of this trip is to see the penguins and you do get a ton of time with them while being fairly close. Bring a camera with a good zoom lens and you’ll walk away with some amazing photos.

This was an amazing experience. Yes, there’s a lot of people on the boat, but you have your own space and there’s even a cafeteria on board where you can buy food. You stay on the boat to see the penguins, but you get very close to them. This was our favorite part of the Ushuaia trip!

Great experience - penguins and sea lions on full display. Good show! Staff on the boat were excellent. Exceptional commentary along the route, and plenty of opportunities for photos.

We just came back several hours ago from the tour. The Penguins were so charming and friendly. There is no Ushuaia without seeing the penguins. The boat approaches closest possible to watch them and to take close pictures. On the other hand, due to the strong wind and tide, the return trip to town of Ushuaia was very rough. More than half were caught sea sick, and the journey was very long. However, the attitude and service of the staffs were very kind and attentive to take care of the person who felt sick. It was an unforgettable journey to mark a end of year of 2023 at the end of the world. Thanks to the friendly penguins and the crew! Happy New Year.

The boat was nice but the tour way too long and boring. If you don’t speak Spanish, the information provided during the tour was sparse.

An excellent trip. Very comfortable seating and cosy cafe on board. Ideal for general seabird and cetacean watching, as well as 3 species of penguin. Black-browed Albatrosses everywhere. If you’re a birder into seawatching, most of the other guests go indoors after they’ve seen the penguins, leaving the deck to yourself.

Beware human thinkers! The boat was completely full and took awhile to board. It takes actually about 2h:30m to get to Martillo island. The guide was very knowledgeable and friendly, aways smiling and answering all questions. On each of the stops by islands on the way there. They’ve allowed plenty of time for the hordes of people to take turns on taking photos with the lighthouse, birds and seals. But unfortunately it didn’t happen that way. People that rushed to the front and to the straight sides of the catamaran would not give the chance to the other passengers to reach for the view. Very disappointing! At the Martillo Island it was worse! We could not move around at all and to reach the front view of the boat became impossible. To add to the situation, the scarcity of penguins made it worse. If we saw one small family of birds, we were to consider ourselves lucky. No good photos or pleasant view and enjoyment of the birds were possible. We felt deceived by both the tour organizers as well as the crowd of bad human companions. So sad! Later when we’ve asked our guide where were the penguins she said “they’ve migrated to Chile in order to have some peace and quiet. The need to mate…”, and laughed! Our conclusion is: this, as all the other tours that visit the penguin colonies in this area, are being very greedy and invasive on their visits to this sanctuary, causing extreme stress to the local nature, both fauna and flora. Not only we do not recommend this or any other penguin visit tour, but we regret and apologize that because of our ignorance we’ve participated on this damaging visit to this gorgeous environment! If you consider yourself a thinking human being, beware!

Great half day trip along the Beagle Channel, stunning scenery and the weather was remarkably kind I would recommend this trip to anyone who visits Ushuaia

We saw whales, dolphins, penguins, sea lions and lots of birds. An absolutely fabulous excursion with ample time for pictures

My wife and I signed up for this tour and Tangol assured us it will go as planned despite deterioting weather. Sure enough when we went to the meeting site, the tour was canceled due to weather. Totally understandable. I lieu of the planned Penguin Island tour, the operator offered a shorter(and cheaper) Sea Lion Island excursion. My wife opted out. I accepted the short excursion after I was told that were going to get a full refund for my wife(we did) and a partial refund on mine. This is where things started to fail miserably. For days after, I tried to explain that I should get around $70 refund which was the difference between the long and short excursion. Tangol repeatedly denied my claim for days until I escalated it to Viator. The day after, Tangol admitted to their mistake and said they were going to send me additional refund. The additional refund came for $10!!! And without any explanation how they determined that amount. I've explained in so many ways already how it needs to be around $70 but still no reasonable response. At this point have dealt with too much frustration already trying to get my fair refund. I have given them over a week to make things right. They failed. Miserably! TERRIBLE COMPANY TO DEAL WITH. If you continue to book with them, be careful with their cancelation and refund practices!!

It is a very nice trip that we got to see penguin very close by. Also, there are many birds and sea lions when we sail through the canal. There are both English and Spanish during the trip. The return trip back to Ushuaia was a little bumpy. I'd suggest to take seasick pill during the trip if you are not ready for a rough ride. Overall, the trip is great with a very memorable experience.

This was a great trip cruising the. Beagle Canal. Lots of wildlife viewing including sea lions, cormorant bird colonies and of course, penguins. Note that this tour doesn’t include walking with the penguins but you’re close enough for some good photos. I downgraded the trip by one star as it was advertised to have no more than 35 passengers onboard. We specifically asked for this tour because of a smaller size. This vessel had at least 75-100. We requested a refund of half the price paid but we’re denied. Oh well, live and learn. You’ll still have a great trip with some amazing views of the scenery as well as the animals.

Enjoyable boat ride to see sea lions and penguins! Gorgeous scenery. Do realize that this is a boat tour only - no disembarkment on Isla Martillo. We went in November which was early. Don’t expect to see a ton of penguins until January. Make sure you go early to the tour huts to get your voucher for entry to the port (this extra step was not well advertised).

I would highly recommend the trip . We left at 3.30 and arrived back 8:20. Quite a long trip but definitely worthwhile

Definitely worth the trip!! A great way to spend half a day. The crew make sure to come as close to the islands as possible and to stay long enough for everyone to see the animals. Absolute must-do. The boat is comfortable and provides refreshments.

The description of the activity sneakily avoids saying that you will not actually walk on the island with the penguins. You just view from the boat. I double checked the description and someone else said the same thing in another review. Otherwise it was a nice but fairly expensive boat ride with many many other passengers

The scenery, penguins and sea lions are all beautiful and it is worth seeing them. But note that this tour is on a boat with a big group (more than 100) and that the tour is only in Spanish. Overall, I would say that this tour is overpriced for what if offers.

Rough seas led to lots of people losing their cookies. The winds were too strong and we had to turn around. We probably never should have went out. Hard to believe there was no mention of refund or credit to go another day.

This was one of the bst excursions we have ever done. It was a little confusing where to meet. It was right off the pier in a little hut. After that it was no problem We saw seals, sea lions & of course penguins. As an added bonus we were able to see whales. would highly recommend this tour.

We enjoyed a fantastic half day trip down the Beagle channel. The boat was spacious and comfortable with decent English commentary about what to look for and interesting facts etc. It was great to be able to see the Penguins and sea lions so close but the real excitement was the sighting of two whales which we definitely not expecting

I enjoyed the tour as I got to see the penguins and sea-lions, we even had the luck to see some whales during the tour. However, I felt very disappointed as we actually don't go on the Isla Martillo itself. The boat is big, with close to 150 people on board. This isn't specified in the details of the tour, and I find it especially misleading since in the inclusion of the price it says "entry/admission to Isla Martillo". To me, that meant we get off the boat, and it is again reinforced by pictures of people on the island in the reservation booth in Ushuaïa. More info would be great so that people can buy the tour knowing exactly what they'll do. Bottom line, if you expect to get off the boat onto the island, don't book the tour.

The low rating is due to the treatment we received from the tour operator (Tangol tours)that we were connected to by Viator. We booked (and received confirmation) for a morning tour to accommodate the time we had based on the ships scheduled arrival and departure time. Two days before we arrived the tour operator switched the tour time to the late afternoon which would have been bnb impossible for us. When we tried to work with them to change back or find another alternative they stopped communicating with us so we had no confirmed tour upon arrival in Ushuaia. Terrible customer service. Never use Tangol tours. Fortunately the local agent Juan Manuel negotiated with another tour company to accommodate us. He deserves credit for the good tour we received. In this case Viator should review its local tour partnerships.

Were denied boarding at the meeting point indicated on 3 emails from provider and viator. I want full refund.

Our trip was canceled by the operator when we showed up in their booth. The reason was that we didn’t have enough time to return to the cruise ship on time and the got our information only in the morning. What a disappointment and surprise to us. We book the tour months ago and provided detailed information about our cruise ship arriving and departing times. Spent more than one hour on phone because the person needs to confirm our booking with the operator. I had the worse experiences with Viator for many of the bookings. The confirmed bookings were canceled multiple times. They took your money for one to five days repeatly。 Every time, your spent one to two hours on phone with them because they said the need to confirm with their operator. I just can’t believe that Viator belongs to TripAdvisor can run business in this way.

This tour was very pleasant. The boat was in great condition and the crew was friendly. The sites that were visited are very picturesque. The boat gets very close to the cormorant and sea lion islands. At first when I booked I was disappointed that I hadn't booked the tour to walk with the penguins. After the trip, I was no longer disappointed. The boat beaches at the shore and the penguins are within a few feet of you. We were very satisfied. An added bonus, a whale surfaced and was swimming in front of the ship as we cruised.

Fantastic half day tour on a catamaran to see the Pinguins and other animals. The boat had comfortable seats between viewings. The guide was knowledgeable and friendly. Enough time was given to see the Pinguins very closely. So close you could almost touch them!

Best thing to do and once in a lifetime experience . No need to do walk with penguins as it is roped off limited

It was interesting trip overall, but there was very bad organization in the port. We had to stay in a line for a voucher mor then 40 minutes and around 20 minutes in a line to get back to the port.

After the non-cancellable schedule, Trip Adviser informed to me, no longer has a reservation for the originally purchased AM, so a request has been made as to whether it can be changed to PM. We replied that only AM is available because our flight is in the evening. No replies from Trip Adviser afterwards. In this case, it is a mistake of Trip Adviser, so please return all the fees you have already paid.