4x4s around the Tierra del Fuego

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
9
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
3
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
6
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
9
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
2
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
6
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
75 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
101st/453
Top 30%
continent
South America
country
Argentina
Length of time
1-2 days
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$160 ($200-$300 in 2019 prices)
Time of year visited
January
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
4WD Adventure Forests
All Tags
Hiking Kayaking Lakes Mountains
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐⭐⭐
Summary

The Tierra del Fuego – the southermost tip of the Americas and as strange as it is alluring.  Mountains and volcanoes surround you as you arrive in Ushuaia, the southern most city on earth, and you find yourself in the centre of a big playground of glacial lakes, channels and echoes of past culture of the original Fuegian natives.  Take the chance to explore by taking a 4×4 to see some of the lakes, national parks and breathtaking scenery.  You can usually do this in a day, but give yourself two so you can check out the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego and some of the lakes further afield and more remote like Escondido and Fagnano

Highlights
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#1 4x4 trips to Lake Fagnano and Lake Escondido - going off-road and seeing some of the isolated parts of the lakes, the surrounding breathtaking landscapes and stopping for some lunch by Lake Fagnano

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#2 Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego - whilst fairly small and compact, its fun to explore the ancient Fuegian forests of this coastal national park

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#3 Grabbing some well deserved lunch in some secluded part of the wild forest

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#4 Kayaking across the crystal clear Lake Fagnano

  • Base yourself in Ushuaia
  • Give yourself a full day for the 4×4 and canoeing trip
  • Only half a day needed for the trip over to the Tierra del Fuego National Park

Travel tips Including books

    • Tour – for both the half day trip around the Tierra del Fuego National Park and the full day of the 4×4 / canoeing trip to Escondido and Fagnano we went with the tour company Tierra Tourismo.  Couldn’t recommend them more and the guides were fantastic.  Prices below
      • Half day trip hiking around the Tierra del Fuego National Park.  Tour around the national park with a Landrover Defender (4×4).  USD63 per person
      • 4×4 & Canoeing.  Landrover Defender (4×4) to Escondido and Fagnano Lakes, 4×4 circuits, trekking through the forest, lunch at a shelter, and a canoe trip on Escondido Lake.  8 hours.  USD127 per person
  • Do parts yourself – that being said, you could easily arrange the Tierra del Fuego National Park part on your own through getting a taxi to drop you off.  Wouldn’t be able to see some of the spots as easily as with a 4×4 though
  • Local restaurants – we were pleasantly surprised at local restaurants and would highly recommend:
    • Kaupe
    • Kalma
    • Paso Garibaldi
    • Maria Lola
  • Ushuaia itself is actually quite a cool town.  We expected either a small village or some big industrialised port and its kind of both, in a nice way!  You have a lot of the ferries coming through, but you also have an adventury outpost feel in the main part of town with ski shops, outdoor gear, backpackers and general excitement for those about to head off into the wilderness / Antarctica
  • Accommodation – we stayed in the Los Yamanas hotel just outside of town.  Wouldn’t overly recommend it
  • Books
    • I couldn’t recommend more highly This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson, one of my favourite books.  This charts, in historical fiction-style, the true story of Captain Fitzoy’s journey to chart the Tierra del Fuego, meeting the native Fuegians and bringing the young Charles Darwin with him
    • In Patagonia.  Bruce Chatwin’s account of his journey through Patagonia to see the windswept landscapes, descendants of Welsh immigrants, forgotten legends and a feeling of adventure in seeing “the uttermost part of the earth”
  • Rest of Tierra del Fuego – make sure to check out some of the other things to do and general tips by checking out the Trip to the end of the earth, 4 days in the Tierra del Fuego entry
  • Wish I’d seen – some spots, looking back, I wish we’d have taken the time to check out were the Hikes Around Fort Williams on Isla Navarino; and biting the bullet for a cruise over too Antarctica – I wasn’t that fussed before I went, but now can see the awesome appeal
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The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences

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Score Detail

The scores you see above are really the point of this whole site, rather than just the individual travel review you're seeing above.  They fit into a much bigger summary of 20 years of travel, across 100+ countries, from dirt-poor backpacking to the luxury end, rushed weekends to months on the road.  Every one of the 500+ experiences have a "wow factor" score and a few other scores that add up to a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score.  For more info, have a look at the About page for the travel philosophy that drives them.

But, more importantly, have a play with the map above and on the Home page to see which of these experiences rank as really Maximum Wow-factor all the way down to the proper "Gash".

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