Best Cruises in Argentina in 2026: Views, Music, and Sea Air

Cruises in Argentina come in three kinds of water. The first is the Beagle Channel, about 240 km of strait shared with Chile and named after HMS Beagle, whose survey of 1826–1830 charted it. Darwin saw his first glaciers there in January 1833. Boats from Ushuaia pass Les Éclaireurs lighthouse, built in 1920 about 9 km east of town, and reach the sea lions of Isla de Lobos. The second is the Andean lakes. Nahuel Huapi, beside Bariloche, is a glacial lake with Isla Victoria in it, the arrayán forest of Los Arrayanes National Park on the Quetrihué peninsula, created in 1971, and Puerto Blest on its western arm. Further south, boats at El Calafate approach the Perito Moreno Glacier, which ends in Lago Argentino and from time to time dams one arm of it. The third is flat and brown: the Paraná Delta at Tigre, 28 km north of Buenos Aires, and the Río de la Plata crossing to Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo.

Argentina cruises tours are day excursions built around a boat. Ushuaia offers catamaran cruises of two and a half to three hours, a four-hour yacht trip, and longer days that add a penguin island or a canoe stretch. From Bariloche, Isla Victoria and Arrayanes take six to seven hours, Puerto Blest nine to ten, and the lakes crossing to Puerto Varas in Chile runs eleven hours on three boats and a coach. El Calafate sends boats to the glacier wall on a full-day trip, alone or after an ice trek. The Tigre Delta is a half-day of about six hours or a full day of eight, and Colonia or Montevideo can be a day or an overnight.

Practical. Ushuaia reaches 14C in January and 5C in July, Bariloche 23C and 7C, so a windproof layer, a hat and gloves are needed on deck in any month, and a rain shell on the lakes. Boats sail only when wind and swell allow. The Chile crossing and the Uruguay trips need a passport on the day.