Isla Martillo penguins: the colony 90 km east of Ushuaia

The Martillo Island penguin colony, species and season

The municipal registry is specific about this island: about 90 km from Ushuaia on the eastern side of the channel, and the single penguin colony in the province. Magellanic and Gentoo penguins breed there between October and April. King penguins show up now and then, which makes them a piece of luck on the day rather than something to plan a trip around.

Opposite the island stands Estancia Harberton, the 1886 ranch at Ruta J Km 43, roughly 90 km out of town by road and the embarkation point used by the landing tours. That geography explains why nothing short reaches the penguins: the short sailings stay within the first 20 km of the tourist pier, and the colony lies far beyond that, at the eastern end of the route.

• Magellanic penguins: present through the October to April window
• Gentoo penguins: the second breeding species on the same island
• King penguins: occasional visitors, never guaranteed
• Protected natural reserve status, with visits in small accompanied groups

Two ways to see the Isla Martillo penguins

The first way is from the deck. On the catamaran penguin navigations the boat holds position a few metres off the beach and nobody disembarks at any point, which one operator states plainly in its own itinerary. You get a long, steady look at birds coming in and out of the water, you stay warm and there is a toilet on board, and your closest approach is decided by the skipper rather than by you. Bring binoculars and the longest lens you own.

The second way puts you on the ground. There is no pier on Isla Martillo, so the crossing is made by zodiac, about 15 minutes of water, and you step off using stairs and a gangway. The walk itself runs about an hour with a specialist guide among the Magellanic and Gentoo penguins; the operator describes it as low difficulty, but states it is not recommended for pregnant women and not suitable for people with reduced mobility. The land version of that day is 7 hours in total, by road along National Route 3 and Ruta Complementaria J, with the return at sunset.

Treat these as two different products rather than two price levels of the same thing. The deck trip never becomes a landing because the weather improves, and only the landing day puts you on the ground with the birds.

• From the boat: no disembarkation, birds watched a few metres away, warm and sheltered, binoculars essential
• On the island: zodiac crossing of about 15 minutes, stairs and a gangway, roughly an hour ashore with a specialist guide
• Not for everyone: the landing is ruled out for reduced mobility and not advised in pregnancy
• Either way the colony is about 90 km from the pier, so budget most of a day

A protected reserve, and how that shapes the visit

Reserve status is what governs your hour here: the provincial tourism authority classes Isla Martillo as a protected natural reserve, open only to small groups and only with a professional guide alongside them. In practice that is why places on the walk are finite and why the island does not work on a turn-up-and-see basis.

Once ashore, the guide sets the line you walk and the points where the group stops. Stay on that line even when a bird crosses it, and let the penguins have the right of way: they use fixed paths between the water and their burrows, and stepping into one makes the bird change course. Keep your voice at conversation level, keep bags closed, do not reach out to touch anything and do not offer food of any kind. Crouching rather than looming over the birds also makes for better pictures.

Nothing here is enforced by a fence. The group is kept small so that the guide can see where everyone is standing, so stay within earshot for the whole hour.

Photographing the colony without a flash

Switch the flash off before you land, including the automatic one on a phone, and leave it off for the whole hour. A flash fired at close range at a nesting bird achieves nothing that the daylight here will not do better, and in high summer you have as much as 18 hours of it to work with.

From the deck the problem is distance and a moving platform: a long lens, a fast shutter and both elbows braced on the rail. On the island the problem reverses, because the birds are often closer than the minimum focus of a telephoto, so a wide or standard lens and a low angle do more work. Keep one hand free for the stairs and the gangway on the way out of the zodiac, which means a strap rather than a loose camera, and something waterproof around the bag for the spray on the crossing.

When to go, and the weeks worth avoiding

The penguin sailings are a high-season product, running October to March, and one operator says openly that fewer penguins may be seen at the very start and the very end of that window. The first and last fortnight are therefore a gamble: the boat sails, the island is there, the numbers on the beach are thinner. The timetable at a second company reflects the same slow start, with its penguin cruise opening on 21 October on afternoon departures alone and morning sailings added only once November arrives, then kept on until March.

The combined bus-and-boat walk day is sold from 15 October 2026 to 15 March 2027 and skips Tuesdays, which lines up with Estancia Harberton being closed to the public that day; the estancia receives visitors from 11 October to March, 12:00 to 19:00. It also closes on 25 December and 1 January, and one channel company runs no morning excursions on those two dates. Plan around them if you are here over the holidays.

For the colony itself, mid-November to February is the dependable stretch: averages of about 10-15°C, light until late, and both formats operating morning and afternoon. Put the trip early in your stay, because channel sailings are cancelled officially by the Prefectura Naval Argentina and a lost day needs somewhere to go. Departure times shift between operators and seasons, so confirm yours when you book and again the day before.

How to decide between the deck and the island

If walking among penguins is the reason you came to Ushuaia, commit to the island walk and commit early, weeks rather than days. It is a capacity-limited product on a protected reserve, with one operator stating on its own homepage that it is the only one authorised to walk with the penguins, and it does not run on Tuesdays. Keep a spare day either side.

If you are pregnant, have limited mobility, dislike small boats or are travelling with someone who will not enjoy stairs and a gangway in a swell, book the deck-viewing catamaran instead and pack binoculars and an extra mid layer. You give up the hour on land and keep the heat and a toilet on a trip of five hours or more. Do not book that trip in the hope of going ashore, because the itinerary states that nobody does.

If your dates fall outside October to April, the colony is not an option at any price, so sail the short route near town instead: the bird and sea lion islets, the turn at the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse, and a walk on an island trail. That part of the channel works all year.

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