Cape Horn Cruises

Cape Horn has been leaving sailors awestruck ever since the navigator Willem Schouten first sailed around it in January 1616, naming it for his Dutch hometown of Hoorn. Its fearsome reputation is down to its location in the storm-swept seas off the southernmost tip of South America between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

In 1833, Captain Robert Fitzroy and Charles Darwin discovered the Beagle Channel, an alternative and calmer route past Tierra del Fuego, but the Cape continued to claim ships and men until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 rendered the old and dangerous route between the oceans obsolete.

The lives of the seamen from every nation who perished in the battle against the Southern Ocean while crossing the Horn are remembered today at the Cape Horn Monument. Touching the monument automatically makes you an honorary member of the International Association of Cape Horniers.

On landing at Cape Horn visitors may also walk to the tiny Stella Maris Chapel and the world's most southerly lighthouse, maintained by the Chilean navy. Its resident keeper and family often extend invitations to tourists to visit inside.

Cruising around Tierra del Fuego to Cape Horn offers the chance to see some incredible landscapes that would be impossible to reach by any other means.

One of the greatest attractions is cruising through the sheltered waters of the Beagle Channel. Its so-called Glacier Alley offers a parade of epic blue-grey glaciers, flowing slowly down from the Darwin Range with their craggy frozen tongues poking into the channel’s many bays. The cruise includes excursions by inflatable zodiac boats to the glaciers, with landings to hike up moraines to viewpoints over the glaciers. Pia Glacier is the most famous and spectacular glacier visited during the cruises.

Other notable sights include Águila Glacier, which offers hiking around its lagoon and Condor Glacier, both in Agostini Sound. Other notable landscapes include beautiful Wulaia Bay, where Darwin once landed. This was the site of an early church mission to Tierra del Fuego and is now home to a fascinating museum housed in an old radio station, focussing on the story of the original Yámana inhabitants of the region. Wulaia Bay also offers a selection of tremendous forest hikes to viewpoints over the crinkled coastline. 

Penguins are an ever-popular highlight of cruising in Tierra del Fuego. Large Magellanic penguin colonies can be found on visits to the Tucker Islets and Magdalena Island. Rockhopper penguins also nest near Cape Horn, though you’ll need luck, a calm sea and a keen eye to see them out on the water.

The Beagle Channel is an excellent place for wildlife watching. The birdlife is particularly rich: you can see many species more traditionally associated with Antarctic waters such as black-browed albatrosses, southern giant petrels and imperial cormorants, as well as South American species such as Magellanic oystercatchers, South American terns and striated caracas.

Dolphins, including the pretty black-and-white Commerson’s dolphins, the dusky dolphin and Peale’s dolphin may sometimes be seen. More common sightings are of the South American sea lion, especially in the Beagle Channel where they haul themselves out on rocky islets. Southern elephant seals may also be seen in a colony at Ainsworth Bay if zodiac landings are made there. Day hikes here also offer plenty of evidence of the large beaver population – introduced in the 1940s to encourage a local fur industry.

One advantage of small-ship cruising to Cape Horn is that your trip starts and ends in either Punta Arenas in Chile or Ushuaia in Argentina, allowing you to easily extend your Patagonia trip.

Punta Arenas is just three hours by road to Puerto Natales, where most travellers arrive to explore the marvels of Torres del Paine National Park. Punta Arenas is also connected by air to the capital Santiago, as well as Puerto Montt for exploring the Chilean Lake District, and Coyhaique (Balmaceda) for hiking in Aysen. 

Ushuaia offers plenty of options for exploring Tierra del Fuego National Park. As well as flights to the capital Buenos Aires, you can also fly direct to El Calafate, allowing you to connect quickly through to the many hiking attractions of Los Glaciares National Park.

Small ship cruises to Cape Horn and around Tierra del Fuego operate between Punta Arenas and Ushuaia, sailing from the end of September to the very beginning of April. Two ships cover this route, the Ventus and the Stella Australis. Both carry a maximum of 210 guests, with 100 comfortable cabins in a variety of classes. The cruises are all-inclusive (including alcohol).

The experience on board is more akin to an Antarctic expedition cruise than a ‘traditional’ cruise, with daily excursions by inflatable zodiac boat and onboard educational presentations about Tierra del Fuego’s wildlife, landscapes and history given in English by an expert guiding team.

Cruises last four nights/five days in both directions. The itineraries in each direction do differ slightly in where they visit but Cape Horn, the Beagle Channel, Glacier Alley, Pia Glacier and Wulaia Bay are always included whether you choose to sail from Punta Arenas or Ushuaia.