Patagonian Odyssey

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Itinerary

1. 1

   Day 1 London to Santiago, Chile.

   Fly by scheduled flight.

2. 2

   Day 2 Santiago.

   Arrive and transfer to our hotel for an overnight stay. The afternoon and evening are at leisure to relax and enjoy the hotel facilities or explore the city independently.

3. 3

   Day 3 Santiago.

   After breakfast in the hotel a morning city tour will include the Presidential Palace, Plaza de Armas and the cathedral. Later we drive out to the Casablanca Valley which is now one of the country's premier wine areas. We will learn about the cultivation of grapes and visit one of the vineyards for a tasting and lunch. We will continue on to San Antonio where we will embark the MS Island Sky. Enjoy welcome drinks and dinner on board as we set sail.

4. 4

   Day 4 At Sea.

   Spend a relaxing day at sea as we make our way down the Chilean Coast.

5. 5

   Day 5 Valdivia.

   From the port of Niebla, this morning's tour takes us to the colonial city of Valdivia, one of the oldest European settlements in Chile. Our guided excursion will include time at the Canelos Tower, built in 1774 and which at the time of its construction was one of only two land entrances to the city, equipped with a wide portcullis and drawbridge. We will see the San Francisco Church before spending some time exploring the historical and anthropological museum and the bustling Mercado Fluvial. Return to the ship for lunch and an afternoon at sea.

6. 6

   Day 6 Puerto Montt.

   Over breakfast we land at picturesque Puerto Montt, a resort town in the Lake District. Settled by German colonists in the mid-19th century, much of its early Middle-European styled architecture remains, rendering a slightly bizarre feel in such an obviously un-European setting. Leaving the ship we will head to the Vincente Perez Rosales National Park which is the oldest in Chile and contains three commanding volcanoes in Osorno, Calbuco and Puntiagudo. We will see the emerald Todos los Santos Lake at the foot of Mount Osorno as well as the mighty Petrohue River and the rapids that crash through lava channels creating a series of magnificent waterfalls. We return to the ship via Puerto Varas, situated in a stunning location on Lago Llanquihue with a backdrop of the iconic Osorno Volcano.

7. 7

   Day 7 Chiloe Island.

   Chile's second largest island, Chiloe Island was one of the first Spanish strongholds in the Pacific Southern South America. Once the island had been conquered, it was hard for indigenous uprisings to reconquer and as a result it became a major link in the Spanish trade route around Cape Horn. The island was also visited by Darwin aboard the HMS Beagle in 1831. Our visit ashore on this mainly forested island will include Castro, one of the oldest towns in the Americas, known for its unique wooden architecture, churches and stilted houses. Join an island drive which will include the wooden cathedral of St Francis and the historic old quarter.

8. 8

   Day 8 At Sea.

   Enjoy a leisurely day on board, listen to some lectures and spend some time relaxing and watching for wildlife on deck. During the next seven days we will enjoy some of the most stunning scenery imaginable and the MS Island Sky is the perfect vessel for the exploratory and scenic cruising that we will be undertaking. This vast area of mountains, glaciers, islands, lakes and waterfalls is untouched by man except for a few fishing villages which perch at ‘the end of the world'. We will make good use of our time exploring the beautiful, protected waters, enjoying the renowned fjords of southern Chile which rival those of southeast Alaska in their raw beauty and prolific wildlife. We hope for calm weather when crystal clear reflections of vertical walls and hanging glaciers are broken only by the ripples of seabirds or maybe a passing dolphin. See how quickly you run out of suitable adjectives to describe all you are witnessing. Our route will be managed by our experienced Captain and Expedition Leader alongside the local pilots. As well as stunning scenic cruising, the area is ideal for Zodiac forays. As we continue our journey we hope to navigate the Kirke Narrows, a remarkable channel leading between lush, forested shores, so narrow it can only be sailed at low tide. Dropping anchor at Puerto Natales, we enjoy a full day in South America's largest national park, the Torres del Paine. This is one of the most spectacular places on earth, a vast uninhabited wilderness of glacier-draped mountains, windswept pampas, turquoise glacial lakes and verdant valleys. Look out for herds of guanacos (a smaller version of the llama), rheas, Patagonian hares, foxes and rich birdlife and see the stunning rock formations of the Horns of Paine. We also hope to use our Zodiacs as we cruise through the fjords and past the glaciers of the Alberto de Agostini National Park before we sail to Cape Horn, one of the best known maritime landmarks in the world. Magellan was the first European visitor here in 1530 and prior to the opening of the Panama Canal, it was an important staging post. Weather permitting we hope to use our Zodiacs to land and enjoy a walk to the monument. On our final evening we will sail into the Beagle Channel. Here the mountains, still partly unmapped, drop as sheer, densely wooded cliffs into the channel and penguins, dolphins and South American sea lions abound in the channel.

9. 16

   Day 16 Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

   Disembark this morning and transfer to the airport for our scheduled flight to Buenos Aires. Upon arrival, transfer to a centrally located hotel for an overnight stay. The remainder of the day and evening are free for independent exploration.

10. 17

    Day 17 Buenos Aires to London.

    After breakfast in the hotel we will check out and transfer to the airport for our scheduled flight to London.

11. 18

    Day 18 London.

    Arrive this morning.

Meet your Experts

A distinguished team of guest lecturers, expedition leaders and specialist hosts will be travelling with you on selected departures — enriching your voyage with their insight, expertise and company.

Alexandra Edwards

Alexandra is a Chilean researcher in Cultural Anthropology, documentarian, and ethnoastronomer. For over 25 years, she has been working on projects that shed light on the life and times of the first peoples of the Americas and Oceania, more recently widening her scope to encompass the traditions and astronomical knowledge of indigenous cultures from other parts of the world. Alexandra is a Latin American Studies and Film double-major from Wesleyan University, spending several years in Connecticut, New York, and Washington DC before returning to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the place she has called home since 1995. Alexandra is an Explorers Club Fellow, having participated in six Explorers Club Flag expeditions and contributed to several documentary projects carried out by National Geographic, the BBC, the History and Smithsonian Channels, and CNBC Canada. She is the co-author of When the

Alexandra Edwards will be on the following tour dates: 21 November to 8 December 2026

Andy Schofield

Andy has had a passion for birds since a very early age, getting his first bird book and binoculars at the age of 9, and has spent all his 35-year career working for the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). Initially as part of the reserve network, managing sites for threatened wildlife across the entire UK from Dartford warblers and Nightjars in Dorset to Chough and Corncrakes on the whisky Island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides. More recently though Andy has had a much more roaming area of work, primarily in species research and community development and capacity building for fledgling conservation organisations as part of the RSPB's International programme of work, travelling through much of East, West and Southern Africa, America, Canada, China, Russia, The Middle East and South- East Asia working on critically endangered species and their recovery such as Spoon Billed Sa

Andy Schofield will be on the following tour dates: 21 November to 8 December 2026

Anthony Bentley

Anthony was born in Dorset, then moved to Lincolnshire as a young teen. Growing up with an active family interested in nature allowed him to spend much of his childhood outdoors and when not outdoors, watching David Attenborough documentaries. This moulded a fascination for all things nature. A wildlife experience like you'd expect in an Attenborough documentary sparked something, after watching an osprey dive into the water and successfully catch a fish before devouring it on a dead tree in Poole Harbour, he was hooked on birds. That fascination and passion for wildlife steered him to a career working in conservation, initially for the RSPB and Wildlife Trust in the United Kingdom. An opportunity arose to manage Aride Island in the Seychelles which was impossible to turn down. Managing a team to protect and monitor; 500,000 breeding seabirds, nesting turtles, tortoises and endemic landb

Anthony Bentley will be on the following tour dates: 21 November to 8 December 2026

Finlay Raffle

Born and raised in Scotland, Finlay has been working on expedition ships since 2023, operating with Noble Caledonia everywhere from the British Isles and the Indian Ocean to South America and the Antarctic. From a young age, he developed a passion for history (particularly maritime history) and heritage and pursued this at university with an undergraduate degree in History from the University of Glasgow followed by a postgraduate Masters in Heritage Studies from the University of St Andrews. He then spent several years in different curatorial and museum roles - including at Historic Environment Scotland, Captain Scott's RRS Discovery, and the South Georgia Heritage Trust (working as the curator of the South Georgia Museum on the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia). His primary area of interest is maritime history, and he has published several articles on the early 19th century history

Finlay Raffle will be on the following tour dates: 21 November to 8 December 2026

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