Ushuaia

Ushuaia's claim to being "the end of the world" (fin del mundo) is more literal than most tourism slogans — it's the southernmost city on Earth with a genuine airport, hotel infrastructure, and year-round population, sitting closer to Antarctica than to Buenos Aires, over 3,000 kilometers to the north.

That remote position makes Ushuaia the departure point for the overwhelming majority of commercial Antarctica cruises, typically running from November through March when sea ice retreats enough for passage across the Drake Passage. Expeditions range from roughly week-long express crossings to longer itineraries including South Georgia's wildlife colonies and the Falkland Islands, and for many visitors, Ushuaia functions primarily as the practical staging point for that larger trip rather than a standalone destination.

The town itself, ringed by the jagged Martial Mountains and fronting the Beagle Channel, offers genuine subantarctic scenery on its own merits. Boat tours along the channel pass colonies of sea lions and cormorants on rocky islets, with distant views toward the notoriously stormy waters near Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.

Tierra del Fuego National Park, a short drive from town, protects a stretch of subantarctic forest and coastline along the Beagle Channel, threaded with hiking trails of varying difficulty. The End of the World Train, a narrow-gauge railway originally built in the early 20th century to transport prisoners from Ushuaia's penal colony to logging sites, now runs a scenic tourist route through part of the park — an unusual origin story for what's become one of the region's most popular activities.

Prices in Ushuaia run high relative to the rest of Argentina, driven by the logistics of supplying such a remote location and the town's role as an expedition gateway — travelers should budget accordingly, particularly if an Antarctica cruise, which can cost many times a standard trip budget, is part of the plan.