Bertha's Beach is a white-sand beach on Fitzroy Farm, near Mount Pleasant Airport, where gentoo penguins come ashore to a colony. It is private land with a landowner's charge, and every tour you can book to it pays that for you. You get one to two hours on the sand, and you are back at the jetty in four to six hours.
Your party alone on the sand for two hours, the longest stay at Bertha's Beach you can book. Tea, coffee and snacks come with you, and there is half an hour in Stanley before you head back to the jetty.
From $410 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The shared way onto Bertha's Beach: eight travellers at most, an hour with the gentoos, then half an hour each at Yorke Bay and Gypsy Cove. Snacks are on board, and you are back at the jetty in four to five hours.
From $379 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Bertha's Beach and Yorke Bay for an hour each, then Gypsy Cove, in a private 4x4 for up to six. Lunch, snacks and drinks are packed for you, and the children get an activity book with pencils.
From $565 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Christ Church Cathedral and the Lady Elizabeth first, then forty-five minutes at Gypsy Cove and an hour at Bertha's Beach. Private for up to four, with lunch, and a booster seat if you travel with a small child.
From $333 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Every Bertha's Beach tour includes the landowner's charge, a vehicle from the jetty and one to two hours with the colony. Pick private or small group.
Check availabilityIt is a drive out of Stanley to a white-sand beach on Fitzroy Farm, where gentoo penguins walk up from the sea to their colony. Your guide collects you at the Jetty Visitor Centre, drives you out past Mount Pleasant Airport, and gives you one to two hours on the sand before bringing you back. The whole day runs four to six hours.
The beach takes its name from the Bertha, a barque wrecked on this coast. It is an Important Bird Area and a Ramsar site, and it is private land: you need the landowner's permission to be there, and charges apply. Every tour you can book to it arranges both for you. Bertha's Beach is a gentoo beach, so if the kings are your reason for coming, the king penguin tours in the Falklands go to Volunteer Point instead.
The Falklands hold the largest gentoo population on the planet, and this is where you see them on a wide, pale beach rather than a busy cove near town. Keep your 6 metres and you can watch them come out of the surf and walk their highways up the sand.
Fitzroy Farm charges for access, and no figure is published. You do not need one: every tour here carries the charge in its fare, so there is nothing extra for you to pay on the day.
The tourist board's list for the beach runs to gentoo and Magellanic penguins, South American terns, the flightless steamer duck that lives nowhere else, sea lions, and Commerson's and Peale's dolphins offshore. More than 80 plant species grow there, five of them endemic. Bring binoculars if you have them.
At four to six hours, a Bertha's Beach day is shorter than the Volunteer Point run and longer than the loops near Stanley. You get real time with a colony and you are still back with hours to spare on most calls.
Your other choice for gentoos is the reserve on the Cape Pembroke peninsula, 6.5 km from town. Here is how the two compare.
| Bertha's Beach | Gypsy Cove and Yorke Bay | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Fitzroy Farm, near the airport, about 52 km from Stanley | Cape Pembroke peninsula, 6.5 km from Stanley |
| Land | Private farm; landowner's charge in every fare | National Nature Reserve, free, open at all times |
| Penguins | Gentoo and Magellanic | Gentoos at Yorke Bay, Magellanic burrows at Gypsy Cove |
| Time on the beach | 1 to 2 hours | 30 to 60 minutes on the shared tours |
| Day length | 4 to 6 hours | 1 hour to 2 h 40 on the shared tours |
| Price per person | $333 to $565 | $40 to $137 on the shared tours |
| Without a tour | Needs the landowner's permission and a vehicle | A walk, or a small bus on busy cruise days |
| Best for | Anyone with four hours who wants time with a colony | Short calls and walkers on a budget |
Check availability — From $379
If you have under four hours ashore, Gypsy Cove and Yorke Bay are the better fit, and you can even walk there. If you have a longer call and want your hour or two with a colony on a quiet beach, Bertha's Beach is the day that gives you that. The comparison of the two beaches goes into more detail.
You get a vehicle from the jetty and back, the landowner's charge, and one to two hours at Bertha's Beach. Some days add Yorke Bay and Gypsy Cove, and one begins at Christ Church Cathedral and the Lady Elizabeth wreck. Snacks or lunch come with every one, and most of them are private to your party.
You don’t get king penguins as part of the promise: the tourist board lists gentoo and Magellanic penguins for the beach, and you will find the king colony at Volunteer Point. Tips are extra on the small-group day and on Penguin Paradise, and none of these days states wheelchair access.
You plan this day around the drive. Allow about an hour each way, add your time on the sand, and check the total against your all-aboard time.
Choose private or small group, send your ship's times, and your charge and your transport are taken care of. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Check availabilityYou can see where the beach sits on the map of the visitor sites, read about its birds on birdwatching in the Falklands, and find every tour from the jetty on Falkland Islands Tours.