Ushuaia

Why go

The southernmost city on earth — and the departure point for the great majority of Antarctic voyages. The Beagle Channel — sea lions, cormorant colonies and the lighthouse at the end of the world. Tierra del Fuego National Park — Andean forest running straight into the sea at the continent's last latitude. King crab — pulled from the channel and served plainly, the best reason to eat in Argentina's far south.

The character

Ushuaia began as a Anglican mission to the Yámana people and became a penal colony in 1902 — a prison at the end of the world whose convicts built the town, the railway and the port. The prison closed in 1947, the navy took over, and the modern city grew on duty-free industrial incentives and, more recently, on Antarctica. Fifty thousand people now live on a strip between the Martial range and the channel, in a place where the mountains fall into the sea and there is nowhere further to go.

That geography is the character. Everything faces south across the Beagle Channel toward water with no far shore until the Antarctic Peninsula, a thousand kilometres on. The town itself is functional rather than pretty — corrugated iron, steep streets, ships alongside — and that plainness is honest: this is a working port for expedition vessels, fishing boats and the navy, not a resort that happens to have a harbour. What visitors take away is not architecture but latitude: the light at 55° south, the wind, and the specific feeling of standing at the last place with a road.

Places of character

The port at sailing time — expedition ships loading for the Drake Passage; go and watch, it is free theatre. Tierra del Fuego National Park — Lapataia Bay, where the Pan-American Highway simply ends. Les Éclaireurs lighthouse — the striped tower on its islet, reached by boat through the sea-lion colonies. Museo Marítimo y del Presidio — the old prison, kept as it was, with a wing on Antarctic exploration. Martial Glacier — a chairlift and an hour's walk above town for the whole channel laid out below. Estancia Harberton — the oldest farm in Tierra del Fuego, founded 1886, with a marine mammal museum.

The way to do it

Give it two days beyond the ship — most people arrive to embark and leave having seen nothing. Take a boat on the channel whatever the weather; the wind is part of the experience. Book the national park early in the day. Eat king crab at least once at a plain place near the port and not a smart one on San Martín. And dress for four seasons in any month.

One perfect day

Coffee and medialunas, then the morning catamaran down the Beagle Channel — sea lions on Isla de los Lobos, cormorants, and the Éclaireurs lighthouse with the wind coming straight off the water. Back for king crab at lunch, cracked at the table with nothing but butter. Afternoon in Tierra del Fuego National Park, walking the coastal path to Lapataia where the road ends and the sign counts the kilometres to Alaska. Late light on the Martial Glacier chairlift with the whole channel and the ships below. Dinner of Fuegian lamb, and a last walk to the port at ten, when it is still not fully dark in summer and the expedition ships are lit and preparing to leave.

Grand hotels

Arakur — modern, above the town, with a pool facing the channel; the view and not the history. Los Cauquenes — on its own beach outside town, quieter, and the local choice for the last night before sailing.

When to go

Best expression: December to February, the austral summer, when the Antarctic season runs and daylight lasts until eleven. Consider: March, the end of the season, with autumn colour in the lenga forests and fewer ships. Avoid if possible: June and July, when much closes, though the winter skiing at Cerro Castor is genuinely good.

The frame

Ideal stay 3 nights · Minimum 2 nights · Best arrival by air from Buenos Aires, 3h30 · Airport USH, 4 km · Walkability the centre is compact and steep · Best without a car yes, with tours