NeilB

I'm planning a little Argentine whale-watching in November and fly in to Trelew. I plan on visiting the Welsh villages to speak Welsh and have tea with my distant relations before heading off to the coast.

I'm not sure whether it is best to stay in Puerto Madryn and take a day trip or stay on the peninsula in Puerto Piramides or on one of the Estancias.

How easy is the driving for an unexperienced driver like myself - generally in the Trelew area and more specifically in the park?
Or would taxi connections between towns be very expensive?

Are there any tour operators you recommend or which I should avoid? The same for boat excursions.

Also anything I should know about the Welsh areas I should know about.

Any help would be very gratefully received.

crellston

We chose to stay in Puerto Madryn and we're glad we did as we probably got to see more whales up close than if we had stayed on the Peninsula itself.

I have driven in many parts of Argentina without too many problems but The peninsula is VERY barren and I really would not recommend driving yourself out there. The roads are just gravel and if you did have a breakdown then there is nowhere to get any help.

We booked a tour in PM and spent a day on the peninsula including a boat trip and a visit to the Penguins and seals. Despite having a useless guide that slept much of the time, we had a great day. Sadly I can't recall the name of the operator our I would suggest you avoid them! There are a lot of operators in the town offering trips so I would just shop around on arrival.

We passed through Trelew in the middle of the night and didn't stop (much to the annoyance of my wife whose grandparents were Welsh and who speaks a little of the language!) so I can't really comment except to say that it is possible to visit on a day trip either by taxi, a tour or maybe even by bus.

Here is a link to our blog entry of our time there (lots of photos of the whales).

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...3240/tpod.html

In addition to the trip to the peninsula, it is possible to see them close up from the pier in town - I think they usually turn up around 1.00pm. Also, don't miss the evening tour out to the beach where the whales swim up very close.

NeilB

Thanks so much for your help, and my apologies for my slow response! I'll take all that on board and do the sensible thing. I don't fancy being stuck in no man's land with no cellphone signal.