Wildlife and nature in Punta Arenas
 

Hi,

We have two days in Punta Arenas and have hire cars, some quick questions below:

- With hire cars is it easy to visit the King Penguins yourself?

- What is the best whale watching tour (that isn't too expensive and doesn't take all day, or do you recommend spending a whole day whale watching?)

- Is it worth going to isla Magdelana to see the Magellanic Penguins, (especially compared to seeing the king penguins?) and can this be done by yourself or does it need a tour?

As you can tell I am a wildlife enthusiast and would love any advice or recommendations on what people thought the most fulfilling and unique wildlife tours are from Punta Arenas, where is affordable, and what can be done transport wise ourselves (obviously respecting nature and the wildlife parks).

Thank you in advance :)

We've done both the King Penguins and Isla Magdalena. Isla Magdalena is a much better experience overall because there are way more of them and you can get super up close to them. The King Penguins are more majestic penguins and well worth the chance to see IMHO, but you're quite far away and there are only like 20 of them. We found both trips well worth it at the time.

Though, we went to South Georgia 3 years later, and seeing 20 king penguins from a far distance in Tierra del Fuego seems rather sad in retrospect.