Cruising the Chilean Fjords and Glaciers Along the Southern Chile Coast
If you wish to commune with glaciers in their natural habitat, there’s no better way than on a small ship that can maneuver around and through the Chilean Fjords and Patagonian Icefields, along the Southern Chilean Coast.
It’s tough to identify one highlight among these near-polar beauties – but I’m sure you’ll find your favorites. I did.
The following photos were taken in mid-March 2025, and given the changeability of glaciers, might look different when you visit.
Looking for more Great Adventures around the world? The Getaway Mavens provide.
Start in Ushuaia, Argentina
With luxury hotels and yes, a Hard Rock Cafe, this “southernmost city in the world,” Ushuaia, isn’t exactly a backwater. But it does take a concerted effort to get to. Most visitors fly into Buenos Aires (an 11-hour flight from NYC), stay overnight, and then take a 3 1/2-hour flight from there to Ushuaia.
Closer to the South Pole than to Argentina’s northern border with Bolivia, Ushuaia is the jumping off point for both Antarctic expeditions and a tourism base for Tierra del Fuego. As you can imagine, the scenery is quite spectacular – especially the harsh mountains that loom behind the town.
From here, I’ll take you by small cruise ship, up the Chilean Coast, weaving in and out of the Chilean Fjords and Patagonian Icefields, stopping at significant (read: named) glaciers, and further north, to small villages and towns, some so remote there are no roads.
Most of these are accessible strictly by sea, so you’ll have to find expedition cruise ships small enough to navigate through tight spaces.
Garibaldi Fjord and Glacier
About ten percent of the world’s landmass is covered with glaciers – slow moving rivers of ice. The Garibaldi Glacier is one of the most picturesque tidewater glaciers: with its variable blue hues and surrounding mountains. Located within the Alberto de Agostini National Park in Chile, its best to explore by Zodiac boats for closer looks.
Agostini Fjord and Glacier
If you’re lucky, you’ll get a fine, sunlit day for a Zodiac “dry” landing – meaning that you can explore the Agostini Glacier and its surroundings as intimately as possible – by nearly walking up to it.
In March 2025, the Agostini Glacier creeps almost to the waterline, but doesn’t quite make it: instead, sending waterfalls of melting glacial ice, some more than 15,000 years old, coursing down to the fjord’s river.
Montanas Fjord and Glaciers
Montanas Fjord has got to be one of the most tantalizing channels along Chile’s Southern Coast. Sunlight plays off the mountains (the Montanas) on both sides, as you glide by several of the five glaciers within the fjord.
Hopefully, you can leave the ship and get on land – for a closer look at one of the inlet’s coolest glaciers that descends down through a mountain pass and melts into an icy green lake.
Amalia Glacier
Two miles wide, and crevassed like corrugated steel, the Amalia Glacier is tough to capture in its glory. Like snowflakes, every glacier is different, each with its own characteristics and features.
PIO-XI Glacier
At three miles wide, 41 miles long, and with a height of around 240 ft, the PIO XI Glacier – aka Bruggen Glacier – is one whopper of a field of ice. Not for nothing is this often the highlight of any Chilean Fjord tour.
A sacred site for the indigenous nomadic Kaweskar people, PIO XI is also the largest glacier – outside of Antarctica – in the Southern Hemisphere. Travel on a luxury expedition trip (like Silversea: see below), and you’ll have a rare opportunity to kayak around and through its iceberg filled waters.
Puerto Eden, Chile
Yay, civilization! If you call it that. In Puerto Eden, there are no roads, and hardly any people – just 80 souls live here as of March 2025. But the Kaweskar civilization runs long and deep – thousands of years as a seafaring, nomadic people. Learn about their history of actually dwelling in large canoes and their current lives on land, in a brand new, and quite striking, Visitors Center.
Port Eden’s Visitor’s Center sits at the far end of an elevated walkway that runs from a boat landing point (where locals sell beautiful homemade baskets and crafts), by homes and government buildings. Meeting people who are not on the ship is a nice change of pace after six full days of glacier viewing.
Tortel, Chile
Known as the “Footbridge City,” Tortel, in Southern Patagonia is made up of numerous islands and channels.
Isla de Los Muertos
One such island is Isla de los Muertos – the Island of the Dead – now a Historic Monument with an incredibly tragic story, dating to 1905. Hired by Baker Forestry Co., 200 Chilean workers were dropped off here to cut timber, and had gone through initial supplies and food. They were promised a future shipment which never materialized, due to either neglect or bad weather.
As they died off from sickness and starvation, the survivors buried them – so you can see 33 crosses that mark the graves in the forest still there today.
Central Tortel
The “commune” of Tortel itself, like Puerto Eden, has no roads or cars, just cypress-wood walkways, bridges, and stairs that run 4 1/2 miles around the cove. At the town center, you’ll find a couple of shops and restaurants. In 2001, Tortel was designated a Picturesque Zone of National Heritage by the Chilean Government.
Getting to the Chilean Fjords and Glaciers and Patagonian Icefields
There are no airplane landing strips on glaciers. No cars or roads either, for that matter. So, if you want to explore the Chilean Fjords and the Southern Chilean coast, you’ll have to go by boat. And which one you choose makes a difference.
Several Expedition Ships can take you to some of the places above, including Viking, Swoop, and local companies with short itineraries.
But I chose a 12 day excursion on the luxury cruise line, Silversea, because their intimate expedition ships can get into the tight spaces that larger boats capable of accommodating over 200 guests just can’t. (Ergo, there were never any other vessels in some of the fjords and glaciers that I wrote about above). And, well, snowy and the occasional not-so-optimal sailing conditions go down so much better with a selection of fine wines and a gourmet meal at the end of the day.
Yes, this high-end cruise line is expensive. But you get so much for the money: expert local-knowledge pilots (ultimate in safety); gourmet meals; cocktails, wine, beer, AND and mixed drinks; knowledgeable naturalists; zodiac, kayaking, and land excursions; balcony rooms cleaned 2x per day – and the friendliest, fun, and most efficient staff I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.
And, no I was not paid by Silversea, nor was I compensated to say this or write about them at all.
