Guide · Penguin walk

The Ushuaia penguin walking tour on Martillo Island

Most penguin trips from Ushuaia stay on the boat. One tour lands you on the island itself. Here is how the penguin walking tour from Ushuaia works, who runs it and how it differs from the catamaran.

Check availabilityfrom $115 · cancellation is free

Editorial team, ushuaia-penguin-tour.comUpdated October 16, 2026Reading time about 6 minutes22 sources

The matching tour Ushuaia: Martillo Island Full-Day Tour - Walk Among Penguins 4.9 (25 reviews) 10 hours from$530per person Check availabilityCurrent price on GetYourGuide

Quick answer

01Where: Martillo Island, the penguin colony about 90 km from Ushuaia in the Beagle Channel.¹
02Who lands: The island belongs to Estancia Harberton, and the walk is run under a concession by Piratour.²
03How: The walking option goes to Estancia Harberton first, sails from there and includes a walk through the colony.³
04When: Penguins come to breed on the island between October and April.⁴
05Booking: A full-day walking tour from Ushuaia starts from $530 and is non-refundable.

What a penguin walk on Martillo Island really is

Seeing penguins from Ushuaia usually means standing at the rail of a boat while the colony shuffles along a pebble beach a short distance away. The walking tour is different: you step ashore and follow a marked route through the colony itself, with the birds going about their business on either side. It is the closest you can get to penguins in this part of Patagonia without joining an expedition ship, and it is what people mean when they look for a penguin walking tour from Ushuaia.

The island in question is Martillo, which the local tourism office calls the penguin colony and places about 90 km from Ushuaia.¹ Its owners also use an older name for it, Yekapasela, and describe a colony of more than 10,000 Magellanic penguins and about 100 Gentoo penguins.⁵ On foot, that means a beach and a slope full of burrows, birds walking to and from the water and a constant chorus of braying calls.

The island is small, the birds are breeding and access is tightly controlled: a single company lands visitors, groups are guided all the time and the walk follows a set path. That is good news for the penguins and, in practice, for you too: the guide keeps the group moving at the right pace, explains what you are looking at and makes sure nobody wanders between the nests.

The walking day

How a day on foot at Martillo is built

Start

Leave Ushuaia

The walking option begins with a transfer to Estancia Harberton.³
Harberton

Arrive at the estancia

The farm on Route J lies about 90 km from the city.⁶
Crossing

Boat to the island

From Harberton the navigation to Martillo Island starts.³
On the island

Walk the colony

A guided walk through the penguin colony on a set route.³
Museum

Back at Harberton

The Acatushun Museum shows birds and marine mammals of the region.⁷

Who runs the walk, and why only one company lands

Martillo Island is private land. It belongs to Estancia Harberton, the historic farm on the shore opposite, and the estancia has handed the walking tour to a single operator under a concession.² That operator is Piratour, and the Ushuaia tourism office lists it as the company that offers a navigation with a walk through the colony as well as a boat trip that stays on board.⁸ When you see a Piratour penguin tour from Ushuaia advertised with a landing, this is the arrangement behind it.

Other agencies in Ushuaia sell the walk too, but they book seats on the concession rather than land their own boats. Some listings warn that your place is only confirmed once the operator of the colony has accepted the request, and you are often asked for passport details in advance. Allow for that when you plan: book early in the season and keep a little flexibility in your dates.

The catamaran companies, including the one behind the tour on this site, sail to the island and show you the colony from the water instead. These trips cost a fraction of the walk's price, and on this site's tour you can cancel for free up to the day before.

The colony

Who lives on Martillo Island

penguins

Counts as given by Estancia Harberton, which owns the island: more than 10,000 Magellanic penguins and about 100 Gentoo penguins.⁵

Walk or boat

Martillo penguin tours side by side

Tour	Penguins	Duration	Price from
Walk among the penguins	On foot	10 hrs	from $530
This site's catamaran	From the boat	5.5 hrs	from $115
Beagle Channel and Penguin Island	From the boat	5 hrs	from $165
Almanza and the crab route	From the boat	7.5 hrs	from $250

From-prices per person on GetYourGuide; only the first tour lands on the island.

Three ways to Martillo

On foot, by catamaran or via Almanza

On foot

Penguin walk

Land on the island

Price: from $530
Duration: 10 hrs
Rating: 4.89

Check dates

Ushuaia: Catamaran Sailing to Penguin Island

This site's tour

Catamaran trip

From the tourist pier

Price: from $115
Duration: 5.5 hrs
Rating: 4.51

Check dates

USHUAIA: ALMANZA, THE CRAB ROUTE & PENGUIN WATCHING

Full day

Almanza route

Crab route and penguins

Price: from $250
Duration: 7.5 hrs
Rating: 4.85

Check dates

Decision helper

Is the walk worth it for you?

Pick what matters most on your trip

I want to stand among the penguins I have half a day and a small budget My dates may still change I use a wheelchair I love museums and history

The walking tour

It is the only tour that lands you inside the colony.²

The catamaran

About 5.5 hours from the pier, from $115.

The catamaran

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before, while the walk is non-refundable.

The catamaran

The catamaran listing is wheelchair accessible.

The walking tour

It stops at Estancia Harberton, founded in 1886.⁹

A magical experience on this unique island of the Beagle Channel called Yekapasela, also known as Martillo Island, walking among a colony of more than 10,000 Magellanic penguins and about 100 Gentoo penguins.

Estancia HarbertonSource 5

How the day on a walking tour unfolds

The walking option starts on land. According to the Ushuaia tourism office, it includes a transfer to Estancia Harberton, where the boat across to the island leaves, and then the walk through the penguin colony.³ The estancia sits on Route J at km 43, about 90 km from the city; expect a long and scenic drive along the channel and through forest before you ever see a penguin.⁶

Once at Harberton, small boats take the group across the narrow strait to the island. On the beach the guide gives a short briefing on how to behave around the birds, then leads the walk along the marked route. You stop often, because there is always something to watch: a pair at the entrance of a burrow, a line of birds heading for the surf, a Gentoo standing apart from its Magellanic neighbours.

After the walk most tours spend time at the estancia itself. Harberton was founded in 1886 by the Anglican missionary Thomas Bridges, and the buildings and the setting are worth seeing in their own right.⁹ The estancia also runs the Acatushun Museum of birds and marine mammals, with more than 2800 mammal specimens and 2300 bird specimens, and a visit there adds real depth to what you saw on the island.⁷

Map

From the Ushuaia pier to the penguins, and to the king penguins

Where the boats start, where Martillo Island and its penguin colony lie on the Beagle Channel, and where the only king penguin colony is found, across the border in Chile.

Map of the Beagle Channel from the Ushuaia tourist pier past Les Eclaireurs lighthouse to Puerto Almanza, Martillo Island and Estancia Harberton — Beagle Channel

Map of the eastern Beagle Channel with Puerto Almanza, Martillo Island and Estancia Harberton — Martillo Island

Map of Tierra del Fuego from Ushuaia via Tolhuin and Rio Grande to Parque Pinguino Rey at Bahia Inutil, Porvenir and Punta Arenas — King penguins

1
Ushuaia tourist pier
The catamaran on this site's tour leaves from the tourist pier, where the operator's office is.
In Google Maps ↗
2
Les Eclaireurs lighthouse
The red and white lighthouse on the Beagle Channel has been in service since December 23, 1920, and is now remotely operated.¹⁰ ¹¹
In Google Maps ↗
3
Puerto Almanza
Some penguin tours drive guests here first and start the boat trip from this small harbour.¹²
In Google Maps ↗
4
Martillo Island
The penguin colony, about 90 km from Ushuaia, with Magellanic penguins and a smaller number of Gentoo penguins.¹ ⁴
In Google Maps ↗
5
Estancia Harberton
The historic farm founded in 1886 that owns Martillo Island; the walking tour on the island starts nearby.⁹ ²
In Google Maps ↗
6
Ushuaia
The city where the Beagle Channel boat trips and the long day trip to the king penguins start.
In Google Maps ↗
7
Tolhuin
A stop on the drive north on the day trip from Ushuaia to the king penguins.
In Google Maps ↗
8
Rio Grande
The day trip from Ushuaia passes through this town on the Atlantic coast.
In Google Maps ↗
9
Parque Pinguino Rey
The king penguin reserve at Bahía Inútil in Chile, a little over 100 km from Porvenir.¹³
In Google Maps ↗
10
Porvenir
The town on Chile's side of Tierra del Fuego that the ferry from Punta Arenas reaches.¹⁴
In Google Maps ↗
11
Punta Arenas
From here the ferry crosses the Strait of Magellan to Porvenir.¹⁴
In Google Maps ↗

Open the map in Google Maps

Checklist

Before you book the walk

Plan ahead

Book early, seats on the landing are limited
Have passport details ready for the booking
Keep a spare day for wind on the channel

On the day

Warm, windproof layers even in summer
Sturdy shoes for a pebble beach
Stay on the marked path and keep your distance
Sunglasses and sunscreen for long daylight

Video

How To Walk With Penguins In Ushuaia, Argentina!

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The penguins you meet on Martillo

The island is above all a Magellanic penguin colony. These are the medium-sized penguins with black bands across the chest, and they nest in burrows dug into the soft ground and under bushes. Adults weigh 4.7 kg on average for males and 4.0 kg for females, and up close they look small and sturdy.¹⁵ Their calls, a loud braying, carry right across the beach.

Alongside them lives a much smaller group of Gentoo penguins, easy to spot by the orange bill and the white patch above the eye. The owners of the island count about 100 of them against more than 10,000 Magellanic penguins, which makes every Gentoo sighting feel like a small event.⁵ They tend to stand together on the open beach rather than in the burrows.

Now and then a third species turns up. Small groups of king penguins occasionally visit the island, and the tourism office notes the same.¹⁶ ¹⁷ Treat a king penguin on Martillo as a lucky bonus rather than a reason to book. If king penguins are your main goal, the only colony in South America lives on Tierra del Fuego, at Bahía Inútil across the border in Chile.¹⁸ ¹³

When the walk runs during the year

The walk only makes sense while the penguins are on the island. The tourism office in Ushuaia gives the window as October to April, the months when they come to Martillo to breed.⁴ Outside that window there are no breeding penguins to walk among, and there is no winter version of this trip.

Within the season the colony changes from month to month. Magellanic penguins arrive at their breeding grounds in early September and lay two eggs in late October.¹⁹ Incubation takes 40 to 42 days, and the first chicks appear in late spring.²⁰ The young usually fledge from January to the beginning of March, and the middle of the season is the liveliest time around the burrows.²¹

Weather plays a role at any time of year. The Beagle Channel can turn windy within hours, and crossings to the island depend on the conditions on the day. Keep a spare day in your plans if the walk matters to you, and dress for wind and cold even in summer: an average January day in Ushuaia peaks at 13.6 °C.²²

Walking tour or catamaran: what to book

The walking tour sold on GetYourGuide is a full day from Ushuaia. It starts from $530, lasts 10 hours and is rated 4.89 from 25 reviews. It is also non-refundable: book it only once your travel dates are fixed. For that price you get a morning boat trip on the channel, the drive to Harberton, the landing and an hour on foot in the colony, which is a very different experience from a few minutes alongside the beach.

The catamaran on this site is the other way to see the same colony. It sails from the tourist pier in Ushuaia, passes the sea lion and bird islands and Les Eclaireurs lighthouse, and shows you Martillo's penguins from the boat in about 5.5 hours. It starts from $115, is wheelchair accessible and can be cancelled for free up to 24 hours ahead.

If you only have a short stay, a tight budget or limited mobility, the catamaran is the sensible choice and still gets you close to the colony. If walking among the penguins is the reason you came this far south, the Isla Martillo penguin tour on foot is worth the extra cost and the planning.

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