The Strait of Magellan: the complete travel guide

What the Strait of Magellan actually is

The Strait of Magellan is a sea passage that runs roughly north to south between the Chilean mainland on the west and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago on the east, in the far south of the continent. It is about 611 km long, and it opens into the Pacific at one end and into the Atlantic at the other (SHOA official charts, checked 2026-10-28).

Two facts do most of the work in explaining what it is. The first is that it is the only sea route between the Pacific and the Atlantic that does not go through the Arctic, which makes it the southern alternative to the Panama Canal and the Magellan Passage around South America. The second is its shape: the Strait is 3.1 km wide at its narrowest point, at the Primera Angostura, and it reaches about 1.080 m of depth in its deepest basins, with an average depth of roughly 450 m (SHOA and Britannica, checked 2026-10-28). A 1.700 to 1 width-to-depth ratio is what makes it read as a canyon with a thread of sky above it rather than as an open sea.

The practical consequence is that almost everything in this guide happens in a narrow band of water. Ships go through it, not around it. The town that serves it, Punta Arenas, sits on its northern shore at 53°09'S. The park at the other end of the region, Torres del Paine, is reached from Puerto Natales, 110 km away on the same coast. And the two mouths, the narrows between them, and the two capes that flank them are the whole geography that a boat trip here is about.

The numbers, and where they come from

• 611 km — the length of the passage, from the Pacific Mouth to the Atlantic Mouth (SHOA charts, checked 2026-10-28).
• 3.1 km — the minimum width, at the Primera Angostura (SHOA charts, checked 2026-10-28).
• 30 to 1.080 m — the depth range across the whole passage (SHOA charts, checked 2026-10-28).
• 53°09'S — the latitude of Punta Arenas, on the northern shore of the Strait (INE Chile and SHOA, checked 2026-10-28).
• 247 km — the distance by road between Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales (SHOA and Route 9, checked 2026-10-28).
• 110 km — the distance from Puerto Natales to the Laguna Amarga gate of Torres del Paine; about 250 km from Punta Arenas (CONAF, checked 2026-10-28).
• About 305 km — the distance by water from Punta Arenas to Cape Horn (SHOA, checked 2026-10-28).
• 67 km — the distance from the Cape Horn headland to the island that carries the lighthouse (SHOA chart 13200, verified 2026-10-28).

The three sections, from the Atlantic to the Pacific

The Strait divides into three parts, and a full navigation covers all three in a single day. Knowing the order of them turns a boat trip from a string of stops into a map you can follow.

1. The Atlantic Mouth

The eastern mouth is where the Strait opens into the Atlantic, and it is marked by two headlands on opposite sides of the water. On the Chilean mainland coast is Cabo Vírgenes, which Magellan sighted on 1 November 1520. Just north of it, on the Argentine side, is Punta Dúngeness, the headland that marks the start of the land border between the two countries in this area. Further east along the north coast of Tierra del Fuego lies Bahía de San Sebastián, a wide bay that the 1520 route passes (SHOA charts, checked 2026-10-28).

This is the wetter and windier end of the water. The Atlantic side of the region receives the heavier rainfall and the westerlies arrive here with less of the barrier that the mountains of Tierra del Fuego put up on the Pacific side (Dirección Meteorológica de Chile, checked 2026-10-28).

2. The two narrows

Two constrictions define the middle of the passage. The Primera Angostura is the first one coming from the Atlantic, and the Second Narrows, the Segunda Angostura, lies further west. The Primera Angostura is the critical one for shipping, and it is also the narrow point of the whole Strait: 3.1 km at its minimum (SHOA charts, checked 2026-10-28).

The crossing at the Primera Angostura is also the point where the Strait can be crossed by ferry, in a service that takes about 40 minutes and runs seasonally for passengers who want to cross the Strait itself (checked 2026-10-28). It is worth being clear about what that is and is not: it is a crossing service, not a transport link between Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales.

3. The Pacific Mouth

The western end closes at Isla Desolación, the island that forms the Pacific Mouth together with Cabo Pillar. Magellan's expedition sighted the Pacific from there on 28 November 1520, after weeks of searching for the passage, and the cape still carries the name of the man who did not live to see what he had found (SHOA charts, checked 2026-10-28).

What is in the middle

Between the narrows and the Pacific Mouth, the working landmarks are the ones a day trip actually stops at. Punta Arenas is the city on the shore and the departure point for everything. Puerto del Hambre, the settlement founded by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa in 1584 as Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe, is where the 300 colonists he brought starved. Cape Froward, named in 1587 by the English navigator Thomas Cavendish, is the southernmost point of the American continent. Fuerte Bulnes, the fort founded in 1843, is the first permanent settlement on the Strait and the anchor point of two of the twelve tours in this guide (SHOA charts, checked 2026-10-28).

The six islands you see from the water

A Strait navigation passes six islands that carry a name, and our map gives each one the year of the event that gave it that name and the source of its coordinate. The years are the dates of discovery or naming, not the years the islands formed.

Coordinates and dates from our map marker set, verified 2026-10-28. The Penguin Island that the boat tours from Punta Arenas land on, Magdalena Island, is not in this table because our marker set anchors it to the city rather than dating it.

A short history, and one border line

Magellan's expedition was the first to navigate the Strait end to end, in 1520. Sarmiento de Gamboa founded Puerto del Hambre in 1584. Cavendish named Cape Froward in 1587. The schooner Ancud founded Fuerte Bulnes in 1843; the fort was abandoned six years later, in 1849, and Punta Arenas was founded in the same year, when the settlement moved to a better site on the bay. The Treaty of 1881 drew the border between Chile and Argentina along the Strait and split the Tierra del Fuego archipelago between the two countries. That is a geographic fact about where the border runs, and it is the last piece of history this guide needs in order to explain the map (SHOA and the INE Chile statistical yearbook, checked 2026-10-28).

How to get to the Strait

There are three ways in, and they suit different trips.

By air

Punta Arenas has the only airport in the region with international service, and almost every itinerary connects in Santiago. From there the flight south takes about 3 hours 20 minutes, and the number of frequencies rises in the high season from November to March. This is why the city, and not Puerto Natales, is where most itineraries start (LATAM schedule and Dirección Meteorológica de Chile, checked 2026-10-28).

By land

From Puerto Natales, along Route 9 on the shore of the Strait, 247 km and about 3 hours 30 minutes by scheduled bus. The road passes Fuerte Bulnes, Puerto del Hambre and Cape Froward: the same landmarks the boat tours pass at a distance, from the other side of the water (checked 2026-10-28). There is no direct train and no direct flight between the two towns.

By cruise ship

The port of Punta Arenas sits in the middle of the city, so a cruise call is a shore excursion rather than a transfer. The excursions sold on board are a different product from the tours sold on land: they include the entry fees and they run on the ship's timetable, which is strict. If you are not on a cruise, the shore trips are cheaper and leave you free to make your own plans (checked 2026-10-28).

What to do in the Strait section

The fort. Fuerte Bulnes is the cheapest way onto the water with a guide, and it is the shortest commitment of the twelve tours in this catalog: 4.5 hours and US$ 55, with hotel pickup and a stop at Puerto del Hambre on the way back. The fort itself takes about 40 minutes; the value is the crossing, not the ruins (price checked 2026-10-28).

The penguin islands. Magdalena Island holds a Magellanic penguin colony, and the boat trip there is the most reviewed product in the whole region: 6 hours, US$ 170, rated 4.5 across 272 reviews. A shorter version runs 5 hours at US$ 160 (prices checked 2026-10-28). King penguins are on Isla Dawson, which is a different and much longer day.

The full navigation. This is the trip that makes the map make sense: 12 hours from the Atlantic Mouth to the Pacific end of the Strait, covering the narrows at Cape Froward and the two angosturas, the whale route and the glaciers, with lunch included. It is also the most expensive thing in the catalog at US$ 365 (price checked 2026-10-28).

Cape Horn. You cannot reach it by road. It is about 305 km of water from Punta Arenas, and the lighthouse that carries its name sits on Hornos Island, 67 km from the headland itself (SHOA chart 13200, verified 2026-10-28). The realistic options are the full navigation with a cruise stop, or a longer expedition that reaches the Horn.

And what to do in the Torres del Paine section

Torres del Paine is the land half of the region and it is reached from Puerto Natales, not from Punta Arenas. The park covers about 2.420 km², of which roughly 1.700 km² is designated park area, and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1978 (CONAF and UNESCO, checked 2026-10-28).

The classic W Trek takes four days and three nights, and the O Circuit takes five. The one-day version most visitors take is the Base Torres trek: 14 hours out of Puerto Natales, US$ 115, rated 4.8 across 942 reviews, which makes it the best-reviewed trip in the region and the one that sells out first (price checked 2026-10-28). The full city page for Puerto Natales covers the park in detail.

One thing to sort early: the park runs its own booking system for camping and refugios through CONAF, on a separate system from the tours, and those beds go before the tours do (checked 2026-10-28).

How long to stay

Three days is the minimum that does the region justice, and five is where it starts to feel generous. Two days gives you the fort at Fuerte Bulnes and the penguin islands. A third day adds the full navigation of the Strait, which is the trip that makes the map make sense. Most itineraries use Punta Arenas for the first day or two and Puerto Natales for Torres del Paine, because the two are 247 km apart and the transfer is a three-and-a-half hour drive (checked 2026-10-28).

If you only have three days, spend two in Punta Arenas and one in Puerto Natales, and take the Base Torres trek on the day you are there. If you have five, add the 15-hour Tierra del Fuego day for king penguins on Isla Dawson, and treat it as two days compressed into one.

When to go

October to April is the workable season for boat tours, and December to February is the long, light one: the austral summer, with the longest daylight of the year and the most stable conditions on the water. The southern westerlies strengthen through the spring, and the windiest stretch of the year is generally the spring and the early summer (Dirección Meteorológica de Chile, checked 2026-10-28).

Everything on the water is weather-dependent, and that has a practical edge to it: a tour that runs in October may not run the same route in January, so leave a spare day in your itinerary if the trip depends on it. If your priority is one specific tour, book it before you book the flights, because the Base Torres slot is the one thing in Patagonia that sells out.

The 12 tours, with the price we checked

Every price below was checked on 2026-10-28 and is shown with that date. 12 of the 12 trips carry a verified price and 11 carry a measured rating with a review count; where a listing has no measured rating, the table says so rather than filling the gap (GetYourGuide catalogs for Punta Arenas l32360, Puerto Natales l32145 and Fuerte Bulnes l228695, checked 2026-10-28).

Prices change; this is the price on the date shown. Each tour page links to the listing it was priced from.

The map: 16 markers, each one with its source

The interactive map is the fastest way to understand the shape of this guide. It carries 16 markers, and every one of them states the source its coordinate was taken from: the SHOA official charts for the headlands and the narrows, the 1881 boundary treaty for the islands the treaty settled, and the INE for Punta Arenas itself. The coordinates were verified on 2026-10-28, and the 1520 navigation route is drawn across the markers in the order it was actually sailed, from the Atlantic Mouth to the Pacific Mouth.

Open the map of the Strait

The route of 1520, point by point

The passage was not found in one lucky afternoon. Magellan's expedition spent weeks looking for it, entered the Atlantic side after the terrible winter at Port St Julian, and found the way out on 28 November 1520. The order below is the order the water is actually sailed, and it is the same order a boat takes today: from the Atlantic Mouth in the east to the Pacific Mouth in the west.

1. 01Cabo Vírgenes — 1 November 1520. The Atlantic Mouth, on the Chilean mainland coast, sighted on the first day the expedition saw the entrance.
2. 02Punta Dúngeness — 1520. The headland north of the entrance, on the Argentine side, where the land border between the two countries begins.
3. 03Bahía de San Sebastián — 1520. A wide bay east of the Strait on the north coast of Tierra del Fuego.
4. 04Segunda Angostura — 1520. The second narrowing, east of the Primera Angostura. Past this one there is plenty of water ahead.
5. 05Primera Angostura — 1520. The first narrowing coming from the Atlantic, and the narrowest point of the whole passage at 3.1 km.
6. 06Punta Arenas — 1849. The city on the northern shore, founded after the abandonment of the fort up the coast.
7. 07Puerto del Hambre — 1584. The settlement Sarmiento de Gamboa founded as Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe, where the 300 colonists he brought starved.
8. 08Cabo Froward — 1587. The southernmost point of the American continent, named by the English navigator Thomas Cavendish.
9. 09Fuerte Bulnes — 1843. The fort founded by the schooner Ancud, the first permanent settlement on the Strait.
10. 10Isla Dawson — 1881. The island with the king penguin colony that the full-day Tierra del Fuego tours go to.
11. 11Isla Clarence — 1520. South of the Strait, part of the Fuegian archipelago, sighted and named by the expedition.
12. 12Isla Desolación — 1520. The island that closes the Strait on the west.
13. 13Cabo Pillar — 28 November 1520. The Pacific Mouth, at the end of Desolation Island, where the expedition finally sighted the Pacific.

The order and the dates come from our map marker set, which carries the source of every coordinate (SHOA and the 1881 treaty, verified 2026-10-28). The route is drawn on the interactive map in the same order.

Two towns, and the honest way to split a trip

The region is really two destinations that happen to share a coast. The Strait of Magellan is a water trip, and it leaves from Punta Arenas. Torres del Paine is a land trip, and it leaves from Puerto Natales. People who try to do both from the same base spend a third of the trip in a minibus.

The distances explain it. Punta Arenas is 247 km from Puerto Natales by road, about 3 hours 30 minutes on the scheduled bus along the shore of the Strait. Puerto Natales is 110 km from the Laguna Amarga gate of Torres del Paine, against Punta Arenas' 250 km from the same gate (CONAF and SHOA, checked 2026-10-28). And Punta Arenas has the only airport in the region with international service, so it is where the trip starts whether or not the rest of it happens there.

The order that works for most people is Punta Arenas first, Puerto Natales second, with the bus transfer between them. That way the flight in and the flight out both use the same airport, and the long transfer happens once, in the middle, when you are already tired of buses.