Our highlights of Puerto Madryn
Puerto Madryn wasn’t the idyllic sea side town we had imagined, however it is an ideal gateway to what we see as the three main reasons to visit the area – the Valdes Peninsula, Punta Tombo and Gaiman.
Valdes Peninsula and Whale watching Full Day Tour
The tour of the Peninsula in the morning is approximately a 1.5 hour drive into the wildlife park where we saw Guanacos and Maras in their natural habitat. We also observed a small penguin colony and a group of elephant seals along the way. Finding over 50 elephant seals in a secluded sandy cove has to be our highlight for the morning. It cost us 1400 pesos pp plus an additional 400 pesos pp park entrance fee.
The Whale watching tour in the afternoon costs an extra 1400 but this is certainly worth doing. In fact this was our top highlight during our stay in Puerto Madryn. The ideal location of the gulf next to the Peninsula makes this area the perfect breeding and feeding ground for the Southern Right Whale. The thriving population of whales here and their naturally inquisitive manner, makes the tour an incredible experience as you are never far off from one of these giant sea creatures.
Punta Tombo and Welsh Heritage Full Day Tour
This tour took us to Trelew, Punta Tombo and Gaiman. This is a long day with the first stop in Trelew (about an hour away from Puerto Madryn) but there isn’t really anything to see there. We had the option of a museum but decided to just look around the town instead.
Its then another 2.5 hours to Punta Tombo, but it is worth the journey to see one of the largest penguin colonies. We visited in October, when there was a population of 250,000 but would recommend doing this during the Argentinian summer in January if you can when the numbers reach over a million.
In the late afternoon we reached our final destination – a traditional Welsh Tea House in Gaiman. We went to the “Casa Galles De Te” (in Spanish) “Ty Te Caerdydd” (in Welsh) Tea House which had beautiful gardens and a Welsh souvenir shop. Even Princess Diana has visited this place and we can see why. It cost 380 pesos pp for afternoon tea where we were served almost every kind of cake you can think off! If that wasn’t enough we also had fresh ham and cheese sandwiches, scones and jam, and bread and butter – all served with a pot of tea, of course. We also walked away with a huge doggy bag full of the cakes we couldn’t finish! A great end to the day!
We checked out a number of tour operators and the prices were all pretty comparable. We ended up booking ours through our hostel for ease.
Food recommendations:
Puerto Madryn isn’t really a place known for it’s food. There are a couple of decent restaurants scattered around the sea front though but we didn’t experience any worth recommending.
Top Tip:
Two full days on these tours is enough time to explore the highlights of this area.
