Tierra Del Fuego (Chile)

This trekking circuit offers impossibly raw and windswept vistas under Navarino’s toothy spires. Beginning at the Virgin altar just outside of town, the five-day, 53.5km route winds through a spectacular wilderness of exposed rock and secluded lakes. Fit hikers can knock it out in four days in the (relatively) dry summer months. Markings are minimal: GPS, used in conjunction with marked maps, is a handy navigational tool.

West of Ushuaia some 12km along RN 3, Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego was Argentina’s first coastal national park. Its 630 sq km span from the Beagle Channel to the south to beyond Lago Fagnano in the north. For information, visit the Centro de Visitantes Alakush.

There's public access to the southern edge of the park, with short, easy trails designed more for day-tripping families than backpacking trekkers. The rest is protected as a reserva natural estricta (strictly off-limits zone).

A busy port and adventure hub, Ushuaia is a sliver of steep streets and jumbled buildings below the snowcapped Martial Range. Here the Andes meets the famed Beagle Channel in a sharp skid, making way for the city before reaching a sea of lapping currents.

Ushuaia takes full advantage of its end-of-the-world status, and an increasing number of Antarctica-bound vessels call into its port. The town's mercantile hustle knows no irony: there's a souvenir shop named for Jimmy Button (a Fuegian native who was abducted and taken for show in England by the colonizer Captain FitzRoy) and the ski center is named for the destructive invasive castor (beaver). That said, with a pint of the world’s southernmost microbrew in hand, you can happily plot the outdoor options: hiking, sailing, skiing, kayaking and even scuba diving.

Tierra del Fuego’s comparatively high wages draw Argentines from all over, and some locals lament the lack of urban planning and loss of small-town culture.

If you want a slice of home-baked Fuegian life, this is it. Most visitors come on a quick day trip from Punta Arenas tainted by seasickness. But spending a night in this village of metal-clad Victorian houses affords you an opportunity to explore the nearby bays and countryside and absorb a little of the local life; birdwatchers can admire the nearby king penguins, and lively populations of cormorants, geese and seabirds. Porvenir is known for its inaccessibility (there's no bus route here), but the completion of roads through the southern extension of Chilean Tierra del Fuego will open up a whole untouched wilderness to visitors.

Porvenir experienced waves of immigration, many from Croatia, when gold was discovered in 1879. Sheep estancias (grazing ranches) provided more reliable work, attracting Chileans from the island of Chiloé, who also came for fishing work. Today's population is a unique combination of the two.

The ferry Yaghan sails from the Tres Puentes sector of Punta Arenas to Puerto Williams about six times a month, with departures from Puerto Williams back to Punta Arenas mostly on Saturdays. Travelers rave about the trip: if the weather holds there are good views on deck and the possibility of spotting dolphins or whales.

Incredibly scenic, this large resort 26km from Ushuaia via RN 3 has 15 runs spanning 400 hectares, beautiful cabins and multiple restaurants. Rentals are available for skis and boards. Multiday and shoulder-season tickets are discounted. Clear windbreaks are added to lifts on cold days. August is the most reliable month for incredible snow conditions.

A pristine private park owned by the Wildlife Conservation Society, Karukinka has 300,000 hectares of lush wetlands, lenga forests and snowy peaks. There's great birdwatching, and possible glimpses of guanacos, foxes, river otters, dolphins, seals and elephant seals. There's camping as well as a list of nearby accommodations on the website. No fires are allowed. Access is by car from Porvenir or seasonal flights from Punta Arenas to Pampa Guanaco, some 20 minutes away.