Peninsula Valdes - Car rental, penguins

The following is a previous report:

We thought we would share some info about our trip to Peninsula Valdes. The short story is: rent a car if you can or skip the tour of the peninsula all together, but do not miss the whale watching if you are there in season. The total cost of a tour and whale watching trip ranges from 53.00 US$ to 66.00 US$ per person, while you could do just the whale watching for about 30.00 US$ per person.

The long story is:

We were there in early November, and based ourselves in Puerto Madryn. We stayed at the Hostel Viajero, where we payed 25.00 US$ for a double room with TV and private bath. The room was fine, but we cannot recommend the hostel due to problems with the tour we booked through them (see below).

We went into nearly every tour agency in town looking into tours to Peninsula Valdes. Basically all of the tours cost between 30.00 US$ to 40.00 US$ per person. On top of that, you must pay 8.50 US$ to enter the peninsula, and another 20.00 US$ to go on a whale watching trip. Different agencies go around different parts of the peninsula. There seem to be 4 main routes: a northern loop, a southern loop, a return trip on the same road throught the middle of the peninsula, and one big loop around the whole island. When we were there, the main wildlife sites were in the middle of the penninsula on the east side. However, we were interested in exploring the entire penninsula, and really hoped to see an Orca, and someone we talked to had seen on the northern side of the penninsula the day before. We found suitable tours for 30.00 US$, but our hostel had offered a tour for 34.00 US$ and promised that it would loop around the whole penninsula.

Instead, our tour went out and back on the same road, spending only about 3 hours on the coast ( besides the time in Puerto Piramides for the whale watching ). This was the worst possible route, in our opinion, and we were quite disappointed. We saw penguins, Guacanos, mares ( look like big rabbits ), and elephant seals. When we were there there were not many seals and on the whole we found the tour to be a waste of money. For only slightly more than the cost of a tour for 2 people, you can rent a car and explore the penninsula at your own pace. We highly recommend renting a car, especially if you can find more than two people to do it with. For four people, renting a car is substantially less than the cost of 4 tours, and much superior.

Unlike the disappointing tour, the whale watching trip was absolutely incredible. Tons of whales jumping, spouting, and flashing their tails. Two whales hung out about 3 meters from our boat for about 15 minutes. Incredible. I have gone whale watching in Alaska, California, and Massachusetts, and this was easily the best trip I have been on. Highly recommended.

Given the wildlife present when we were there, we would probably skip the peninsula alltogether. At the very least, rent a car rather than going on the tour. However, if you are there in whale season, do not miss the whale watching trip. You can take a bus from Puerto Madryn to Puerto Piramides and then get on a whale watching trip on your own. This will save you lots of money.

We also looked into trips to Punta Tombo to see the huge penguin colony. The price for these trips was about the same from both Puerto Madryn and Trelew ( a town slightly to the south of Puerto Madryn ) at about 33.00 US$ per person plus extra fees for entering the reserve ( 7.00 US$ ), going to the archeology museum in Trelew ( 5.00 US$ ) and having welsh tea in Gaiman ( 8.50 US$ ). In the end we decided to skip it due to the cost, but again it can be done cheaply if 4 or 5 people rent a car together.

As for our hostel, they apologized when we told them about our disappointment with their tour ( we were promised a trip around the entire peninsula, but instead only drove through the middle ). They offered us a 1.00 US$ beer to make up for it, which I found rather insufficient. At the very least they should have refunded the difference between what we payed to go with them based on their promises, and the cost of the cheaper, yet superior, tours we found independently (about 10.00 US$ in all ).

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.

Piramides is a very small village. It makes no sense to travel there by bus from Madryn and hire a car there (anyway I don´t think there are cars for hire). Rent a car in Madryn and drive all the way by yourself. Its easy.

Rent a car for two days, drive down to Tombo one afternoon and do the loop around Valdes the other day. Well worth doing. You'll be amazed at the number of penguins at Tomba and how close you get to them (less than 5 feet away at times!).

You are much better off renting a car in Puerto Madryn or Trelew. We had really good service from the Trelew Budget office in February. If you want to see Valdez and the penguins in Punta Tombo, you'll need about 3 days. There is a lot of driving involved and it is nice to be rested and alert so the trip doesn't turn into a chore.

Seeing penguins in Punta Tombo is much, much, much better than Valdez. There are more, you get close enough to touch them (please don't) and the area is much bigger and spread out. It is about a 3 hour drive from Trelew on a very good gravel road. You can also get there early, before the tour buses, and have a much better experience. Also you have a good chance of seeing guanacos, which are skittish when cars pass.

Spending time with the penguins at Punta Tombo was the highlight of our trip; you won't be disappointed.

It is also nice to have the car to travel around Valdez. You can be much more flexible than on a tour bus. The roads are also very good gravel roads. Stay in Piramides so you can get an early start. The camping was horrible (lots of loud music, etc. going all night), but you can camp at the police station or closer to the beach.

Early morning, there will be fewer people and buses, and better wildlife viewing. We saw mauras early in the morning. I think once all the cars and buses come, they hide away from the road. Also be sure to see the sea lions near Piramides before leaving the peninsula.

Let me know if you need more information.

Alan