Península Valdés is a name that brings the southern right whale with it, and for half the year the whales are reason enough. But the coast keeps its wildlife all year: elephant seals and sea lions on the beaches, penguins on the cliffs, guanacos, rheas and maras on the steppe behind them. This short loop drives it at its own pace, with one night in Puerto Pirámides and two on a working estancia at Punta Ninfas, on the far side of the Golfo Nuevo, on a coast with almost no one else on it.
Day 1 · Trelew to Puerto Pirámides
Highlight · Puerto Pirámides, the only village on the peninsula and the harbour for the whale boats.
Drive · 160 km · 2 h
The car is collected at Trelew, and the road heads north to the peninsula. Puerto Pirámides, on the Golfo Nuevo, is the only village on Península Valdés and the harbour for the whale boats.
Night · Península Valdés
Day 2 · Península Valdés to Punta Ninfas
Highlight · Southern right whales and their calves in the Golfo Nuevo, met by boat from Puerto Pirámides.
Drive · 165 km · 3 h
From June to early December, the morning is for the whales: southern right whales come into the Golfo Nuevo to breed and raise their calves, and the boats from Puerto Pirámides go out to meet them. Outside the season, the same boats watch sea lions, cormorants and sometimes dolphins under the cliffs. The other way to spend the morning is an early start for the outer coast, to the elephant seals and sea lions of Caleta Valdés and the lighthouse at Punta Delgada, with guanacos, rheas, maras and foxes crossing the estancia roads on the way, 140 extra kilometres, mostly gravel. In the afternoon the road goes back through Puerto Madryn and on to Punta Ninfas, at the southern mouth of the gulf, for two nights at El Pedral, a coastal estancia.
Night · Puerto Madryn
Day 3 · Punta Ninfas
Highlight · Elephant seals on the beach below the cliffs of Punta Ninfas, and the lighthouse at sunset.
A day at El Pedral. Eight kilometres away, the Punta Ninfas lighthouse stands on high cliffs over the Atlantic and the mouth of the gulf, a place for sunset or moonrise. At the foot of the cliff, a path leads down to a beach where elephant seals rest year round; the males arrive in mid-September to claim their stretch of beach. From September, a growing colony of Magellanic penguins nests on the estancia, and a guided walk goes among the nests. The rest of the day is for a ride to the beach, a walk, or nothing at all.
Night · Puerto Madryn
Day 4 · Punta Ninfas to Trelew
Highlight · A last morning walk on the coast of El Pedral before the road to Trelew.
Drive · 99 km · 2 h 30
A last walk in the morning, then to Trelew to return the car.
