Falkland Islands, why no tag?
 

Have booked flights to the islands and came to fodors to do some reading about the destination. While I can understand the Falkland Islands are one of the lesser visited places in the world, shouldn't the destination have it's own tag? Every other country in South America does.

Just a thought.

The Falkland Islands are not part of a South American country nor do they belong to one, although the government of Argentina would disagree and call them the Malvinas. Guidebooks usually give indications for getting there.

You could say the same thing about French Guiana, which does get its own tag. It is not part of any South American country. It is part of mainland France the same way that Hawaii is part of the United States.

I have no idea so. It isn't connected physically or politically to SA yet you get there via Chile, so I guess it doesn't fit any category. It would have to sit all on its own or as a footnote to Punta Arenas re getting there. Lonely Planet has a guidebook to Antartica which includes it, perhaps because some cruises to Antartica also stop there.

I have just joined this board, and happy to have found it.

Re. the Falklands, I haven't had much luck finding flight's... so do you mind my asking, what have you found: who with and how much?

I am lead to believe minimum stay is 1 week (in on one Saturday, out the next) and the price is expensive (relatively), also not on any airpass (eg LAN)

Thanks,


John

johntoo, I went to the Falkands in January, 2009 so my info is pretty old but I couldn't find any flights then either. I flew LAN from Santiago for $1005 RT.

I found a website that quotes fares from different destinations and the prices were updated 5/1/12.
http://www.falklandislands.com/contents/view/24

Here are some pics from my trip. http://www.pbase.com/cjw/feb_2009_falkland_islands

The only flights will be from Punta Arenas on Saturdays with LAN (or the MoD flights from Britain). But you can connect to PA from Santiago if arriving from anywhere else. Note that this might involve a reciprocity fee for some nationalities when arriving in SCL and connecting to a domestic flight.

Nice pics, sundowner. Penguin paradise!

johntoo, I have my flights booked with LAN, as you know flights are only once a week on Saturdays and the flight goes from Santiago - Punta Arenas - Mount Pleasant. If you are flying on LAN to South American it might cost less to add the Falkland Islands to the same ticket. I couldn't do this as I'm flying to South America on American Airlines. My ticket from Santiago to the Falklands cost US$1100.

Your other option is to look at the RAF flights from Brize Norton, I don't know how frequent these flights are but they cost much more than the LAN flights.

The webstie that sundowner has provided a link for is the only place I've found some good information on the islands. Trying to find information on the Falklands is a challenge.


sundowner, your pictures are great.

Thanks for the comments. It was a photographer's paradise. :)

When I went I figured I might as well take advantage of being so far south and added a side trip to Easter Island. Other than the crazy money to get there it was great. Simply beautiful.

FYI, don't take any nuts in your luggage. One couple had some trail mix in their carry on and didn't think to declare it (Santiago). The rules said no fruit, seeds etc. They didn't think of nuts being seeds but I'm sure they'll know in the future because the fine was $250.00.