The Valdes Peninsula is a UNESCO heritage site and a protected reserve within the Atlantic Patagonia. It is an incredible ecosystem of wildlife and a breading center for a number of animals, including the right whales and magellanic penguins.
The Best Time to Go to the Valdes Peninsula
Wildlife
One of the big reasons to visit this area of Patagonia is for the incredible wildlife, especially the ocean-life that makes this area so special. The wildlife that appears in the area is periodical and is never guaranteed.
Weather
Because the peninsula is in the southern hemisphere, the warmest months are December through March. Keep this in mind when planning your trip to the area. It can get pretty cold in the Argentine winter.
Day 1 : Getting to the Valdes Peninsula
THe best way to get to the peninsula
Second, you could fly into Trelew International airport (REL). It is a 45 minute drive from this airport to downtown Puerto Madryn. You can rent a car from this airport as well. This is the option that we chose and we rented a car from Rentar Low Cost. You can read more about our experience in the “Travel Tip” of this travel update. We recommend renting the car as soon as possible if you need an automatic vehicle.
Accommodations to Visit the Valdes Peninsula
There are three options for staying on visiting the Valdes Peninsula:
Puerto Madryn
The most economical option is staying in Puerto Madryn. This is the largest town in the area and it is just off of the peninsula. There are not many tourist activities in this town but there are a number of restaurants and it is a good landing place between many of the activities that the area has to offer. The town has many hotels and short-term rentals. In addition, all the tour companies of the area are stationed here. If you want to use them to tour the island, go whale watching, go to the penguin colony, etc. you can book them online or even here, in-person, after arriving in Puerto Madryn. (We booked our whale watching tour from here – see day 2).
Puerto Piramides
The second option is staying at Puerto Piramides. This is the only town on the peninsula and has some family-run hotels/hostels and camping sites. While this location makes it easy to tour the peninsula and eliminates continuous fees to get onto the peninsula, there are fewer restaurants and cafes in this area, and it adds an hour drive to see the largest colony of magellanic penguins (see day 3). If you want to prioritize seeing the colony, you may want to avoid Puerto Piramides.
Estancias
Food at the Valdes Peninsula
The only places on the peninsula that have food are Puerto Piramides and Punta Cantor. Because we did not want to schedule our day around where we could eat, we decided to grab snacks from the grocery store when we arrived to hold us over during the day.
Puerto Madryn had a number of restaurant, cafe, and bar options that allowed us to have a lot of flexibility in the evenings. Some of the seafood focused restaurants fill up but you can always make a reservation for the following day. That is what we ended up doing!
Day 2 : Exploring the Valdes Peninsula
What to expect when arriving to the peninsula
Entrance Fee
There is only one road to get onto the peninsula and everyone will have to stop at an entry gate to pay the entrance fee per person and per car. In November 2023, that fee was 7,200 pesos per person and 700 pesos per car. This fee will change based on inflation (find out more about this here) and the official peninsula website has the latest fees. The entrance, visitor center, and viewpoints in the park are open from 8 am to 8 pm.
Visitor Center
After paying for the entrance fee, we went straight to the visitor center. This is crucial for anyone visiting the peninsula. Here, they can give you a map, tell you the last orca sighting (if it’s the season), and show you the roads and viewpoints that are closed. (For us, Punta Delgada and all the roads that led to it were closed along with the road directly between Punta Norte and Punta Cantor.) Because the roads are not paved and the viewpoints are minimally invasive in the landscape, the wind and sand has a large effect on them. You can also learn about these closures from their Instagram story. They post every day in their stories about the state of the park.
Finally, they can tell you about the tide levels at the different viewpoints to help you plan your drive around the peninsula. It is easiest to see whales at high tide because they are closer to shore. You can also see this prior to your visit at their website here.
The visitor center is the last location that you will have service.
Driving the Peninsula and What we saw
The roads on the peninsula are all unpaved dirt roads. Make sure to drive with caution, especially since you will see many guanacos (llamas) running through the road. Besides the guanacos, we saw some sheep farms and dry barren land as far as the eye could see. The distance from the visitor center to any of the points is about 1.5 hours and we had downloaded some music and podcasts to help the drive go by faster.
Caleta Valdes
Based on the time of the tides, we decided to go to Caleta Valdes first. This spot has a small penguin colony. I thought the penguins would be down at the beach and hard to see, but to my surprise, they were standing right along the pathway! They were moving and making their mating call. Overall, it was a nice introduction into the marine life that is here.
Punta Cantor
Next, we decided to try our hand at spotting an orca at Punta Cantor. This beach had a number of elephant seals and we did a small walk to see even more of them laying out in the sun. The orcas here feast on baby seals laying out on the beach and actually jump onto the beach to try to catch them. It is the only place in the world where orcas behave in this way. We unfortunately didn’t see any orcas.
It is important to note that Punta Cantor is the only place on the peninsula, besides Puerto Piramides, where you can get food.
Punta Norte
Then, we went to Punta Norte to, once again, try our hand at orca spotting. There were some sea lions on the beach but no orcas to be seen. We would only recommend this viewpoint if there is a strong chance of seeing orcas because it really takes luck to see them at these specific viewpoints. If you do get the opportunity to see them, they are typically hunting in packs of five or more. For us, it was a long drive to get to this viewpoint for not as much wildlife as we would have wanted to see.
Punta Delgada was closed during our visit but we would have preferred to visit Punta Delgada over Punta Norte.
Punta Piramides
Day 2 : Searching for Right Whales
El Doradillo
Because of the high tide, we started our day at El Doradillo beach. This beach was 1 hour away from our accommodations and we got there an hour before the high tide of Golfo Nuevo. (Times can be found at the same website as the other tide information). At this beach, the pitch is so steep that whales can get close to the shore. Unfortunately, we did not get to see any whales here. When talking to a ranger, it was a little late in the season to see them close to shore and they are more active when the high tide is early in the morning.
Bird Island
Whale Watching Tour with Bottazzi
The highlight of our day was an incredible whale watching tour with the company, Bottazzi. Read about the whole experience here. We were able to get close to some whales and interact with them in their natural habitat. It was truly impressive and magnificent to be so close to such mysterious and large creatures.
Day 3 : Walking with Magelligan Penguins
Punta Tombo
Punta Tombo is a reserve with the largest colony of magellanic penguins, with 400,000 penguins. They use the area to lay their eggs and raise their young. The punta is 3 hours from Puerto Madryn (4 hours from Puerto Piramides).
Walking through this land with penguins living their lives around us was really cute. We got to see them laying on their eggs, calling to their mates, jumping into the ocean for food, and fighting each other over their homes and mates. You can read more about our visit to the reserve here.
Gaiman
We went to Ty Gwyn for our tea experience. There, they provided us with tea, toasts, and cakes. Kevin wrote about this experience in the “Best Thing I Ate” here in this travel update.
Two Itinerary Options
4 Day Itinerary
1st Day: Arrival in Trelew, walk around Puerto Madryn, book your whale watching tour this weekend
2nd Day: Drive around the Peninsula to the different viewpoints
3rd Day: Visit El Dorradillo beach and do a whale watching tour
(Days 2 and 3 are interchangeable and are dependent on weather for the whale watching tour)
4th Day: Punta Tombo, Gaiman, and leave from Trelew
3 day itinerary - without a car
If you do not want to rent a car, you could do this in 3 days. You could do this with a car but it would be exhausting to drive this much.
1st Day: Arrival in Puerto Madryn, walk around Puerto Madryn, book tours for Day 2 and Day 3. You can also book these organized tours online.
2nd Day: Take an organized tour of the Valdes Peninsula. Make sure to book the whale watching tour as well.
3rd Day: Take an organized tour of Punta Tombo and Gaiman, take one of the last flights out of Puerto Madryn airport
This itinerary will only work if you fly out of the Puerto Madryn airport. You will need an extra day if you are flying out of Trelew.