Strait of Magellan cruises from Punta Arenas

Which cruise is which

From Punta Arenas there is really one full-length navigation of the Strait, and a set of shorter trips that cover parts of it. The full one is twelve hours, priced at US$ 365, rated 4.5 across 272 reviews, and it runs the length of the water from the Atlantic Mouth to the Pacific end, taking in the narrows, the whale route and the glaciers on the way.

The shorter trips are not lesser versions of it; they are different products. The 4.5-hour Fort Bulnes trip at US$ 55 reaches the 1843 fort on the near shore and comes back. The boat trips to Magdalena Island at US$ 170 and US$ 160 cross open water to a penguin colony and land you among the birds. The five to eight hour glacier cruises out of Puerto Natales are in a different region entirely.

So the first question is not which cruise is best. It is whether you want the whole Strait in one day, or one destination in half of one.

The full navigation

The twelve-hour trip is the one that makes the map make sense. You leave Punta Arenas before dawn, run out through the Atlantic Mouth, come past the narrows where the Strait is at its narrowest and the shipping has to thread it, cross the wide central basin, pass Cape Froward and the old port of Puerto del Hambre, and go past the fort at Fuerte Bulnes before turning back. The whales and the glaciers of the Beagle Channel are part of the same day.

It is a long day and it is weather-dependent from beginning to end. The season runs roughly from October to April, tied to the cruise schedule and to the conditions. There is no version of this trip that is eight hours instead of twelve; if you want the whole Strait, you want the whole day.

The operators worth taking are the ones with the review counts. The two most-reviewed trips in this catalogue — 272 reviews each — belong to the same operator, which is a reasonable signal that they have been running this route for years with the same crews.

Cruise passengers: a different product

If you are arriving on a cruise ship, the excursion you can book from the ship is not the same as the shore excursion. It includes the admission fees, which is why it costs more, and it runs on a tighter clock because the ship has a timetable. The version that covers the highlights of Punta Arenas — the historic centre, the fort and the Strait for the view — is the one to take if your ship leaves early.

If you are not on a cruise, the shore trips are cheaper, more flexible and usually better. They also let you choose the four-and-a-half-hour option instead of the twelve-hour one, and there is a difference between a trip you chose and a trip that fits into a window between the ship's departure and its return.

Practical notes

Book the full navigation for a day with slack in your plan. If it is cancelled for weather, you want to be able to take it again the next day rather than lose it.

Dress for wind and spray. A windproof layer, a warm mid-layer underneath, gloves and a hat that stays on. The temperature on deck is lower than the temperature in town, and it is lower than you would guess from the fact that it is summer.

Bring something to drink and eat: the day is long, and the food on board is not the point. Bring a camera with more zoom than you think you need — the seabirds and the icebergs are close and detailed.

And check the return time before you commit. Twelve hours from a departure that may be at seven in the morning means an evening return, not a dinner-hour one. That is one of the reasons the shorter trips exist.