Falkland Islands Tours: Frequently Asked Questions

A gentoo colony visit near Stanley starts at about $40 per person, and shared tours to Yorke Bay and Gypsy Cove run about $133 to $137. Private days to Bertha's Beach, Kelp Point or Cape Pembroke run from about $333 to $565 per person, and Volunteer Point is about $398. The 1982 memorials day is priced for a group of up to four.

Not for Gypsy Cove: it is 6.5 km from Stanley, part of a public nature reserve, and small buses run there on busy cruise days. You do need one for the farm beaches and Volunteer Point, which are private land with a landowner's charge, and Volunteer Point needs a 4x4 for its off-road final stretch. A tour also keeps an eye on your tender time for you.

At Volunteer Point, the largest king penguin colony in the islands, on Johnson's Harbour Farm in the northeast of East Falkland. Kings live there all year, and around 500 to 700 chicks are raised each season. The Volunteer Point day is the tour we list that goes there.

If king penguins are why you came, yes: it is the islands' largest king colony, and the tours near Stanley are gentoo and Magellanic trips. It is a day of about six hours twenty with an off-road final leg, at about $398 per person. On a short port call, a Yorke Bay and Gypsy Cove tour of under three hours is the safer fit.

Yes. Gypsy Cove, 6.5 km from Stanley, has Magellanic penguins nesting in burrows, and Yorke Bay next to it has gentoos. The short shared tours visit both in under three hours.

Gypsy Cove is closer and free: a public reserve 6.5 km from town, with Magellanic penguins in burrows and gentoos next door at Yorke Bay. Bertha's Beach is a gentoo colony on a white-sand Ramsar beach on Fitzroy Farm, about an hour's drive out, with a landowner's charge. Pick Bertha's Beach if you have four hours or more.

From one hour for the gentoo colony near Stanley to about six hours twenty for Volunteer Point. Shared tours to Yorke Bay and Gypsy Cove take two and a half to two hours forty, and the private farm-beach days four to six and a half hours. Check your all-aboard time before you pick.

Ships bring passengers ashore by tender, and when the wind stops the tenders there is no landing and no tour. Book one with free cancellation and read its terms, because several operators also reserve the right to cancel for weather. Give the operator your ship's details, since a late tender can make a fixed start time impossible.

Almost every tour we list refunds in full up to 24 hours ahead. Volunteer Point needs more notice: its listing gives four days in one place and three in another, so cancel at least four days before. Each card states its own terms.

Windproof and waterproof layers, a warm hat and shoes you can walk in over sand. Stanley's summer highs are about 12 to 13°C, and the wind makes an open beach feel far colder. Bring a cover for your camera and binoculars if you have them.

The southern summer, when all five penguin species are ashore to breed. Kings and gentoos stay all year, but Magellanic, rockhopper and macaroni penguins are summer breeders only. The museum keeps its summer hours for cruise days from October to March.

Gypsy Cove and Yorke Bay, in the Cape Pembroke nature reserve, are free and open at all times. Bertha's Beach, Kelp Point and Volunteer Point are on private farms that charge for access, and the landowners publish no figure. Every tour we list that visits them includes the charge in its fare.

Shared tours are the cheaper way to see Yorke Bay and Gypsy Cove, from about $133 per person in groups of up to fifteen or sixteen. Private tours cost about $333 to $565 per person but run to your ship's hours and your pace, and they reach Bertha's Beach and Kelp Point. Volunteer Point has one option, with four seats to a vehicle.

Yes, if you match the tour to their stamina: the one-hour gentoo colony visit suits small children, and one private day packs an activity book and pencils. Several listings mention sand dunes or off-road driving, and the longer days run five to six hours or more.

As soon as you know your ship and your date. The tourist board says some destinations are only available by pre-booked tour and advance booking is essential on a busy day. A Falkland Islands reservation made before you sail also lets you give the operator your tender details.

The Falkland Islands pound, and sterling is legal tender too. Tour fares are paid when you book, so you only need money for Stanley's shops and cafés.

Visitors who fly in get a visitor permit on arrival, valid for up to a month. The Falkland Islands Government asks for an onward ticket or the funds to buy one, pre-booked accommodation, enough money for the stay, and medical insurance covering evacuation to at least USD 2,000,000.

By air, LATAM flies every Saturday from Santiago via Punta Arenas, and the UK Ministry of Defence Airbridge flies twice a week from RAF Brize Norton. Both land at Mount Pleasant Airport. Cruise passengers come ashore at Stanley by tender, landing in front of the Jetty Visitor Centre.

About 52 km, or 33 miles, to the southwest, roughly an hour by road. Bus transfers run from the airport to Stanley. Bertha's Beach and Kelp Point are on Fitzroy Farm near the airport, which is why the farm-beach days take four hours or more from the jetty.

UTC−3 all year. The islands stopped changing their clocks in September 2010. Check whether your ship keeps island time or its own before you set a meeting time.

At the Jetty Visitor Centre in Stanley, where the cruise tenders land in front of the building. Operators wait there with signs carrying your name. Two listings name Mount Pleasant Airport as their start, so confirm your pickup on those.

Keep 6 metres, or 20 feet, from any wildlife. At Volunteer Point a ring of white stones marks the viewing distance around the king colony. At Gypsy Cove, keep to the paths, because Magellanic burrows collapse if you step on them.

For 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2027, the landowner lists visiting hours of 10:00 to 15:00 on Mondays and Thursday to Sunday, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays closed. The same page also says open at all times, so check your call day with the operator before you book.

The last part of the journey is off-road across farmland, in a 4x4 built for it. The tour takes about six hours twenty in all, and its listing advises against it in pregnancy. If a bumpy ride worries you, the beaches near Stanley are the gentler choice.

Not on any tour we list. Rockhoppers breed in summer on the outer coasts, with the largest colonies on the Jason Islands, well beyond a day from Stanley. The port tours reach king, gentoo and Magellanic penguins.

At Kelp Point on Fitzroy Farm, which the tourist board says is also called Whale Point for the whale bones on its beach. The elephant seal tours we list all go there by 4x4, with lunch included.

The Falklands hold over 70% of the world's population of the black-browed albatross, most of it on the Jason Islands. Those colonies are expedition-ship stops rather than day tours from Stanley, though you may see albatrosses at sea from the ship.

From October to March the Historic Dockyard Museum opens Tuesday to Friday 10:00 to 16:00, with shorter weekend hours, and longer hours on cruise-ship days, Mondays included. From April to September it is closed on Mondays. It stands on Ross Road, a short walk from the jetty.

The Whalebone Arch is made from the jawbones of two blue whales, raised beside Christ Church Cathedral in 1933 for the centenary of British rule. The cathedral, consecrated in 1892, is the southernmost Anglican cathedral in the world. Both are a few minutes' walk from the jetty.

The Lady Elizabeth, an iron barque built in Sunderland in 1879. She was damaged in 1913, condemned and used as a warehouse, and drifted into Whalebone Cove in 1936, where the hulk still stands. Most Stanley tours stop to see her.

No. The islands were declared free of landmines on 14 November 2020, after more than 38 years. Gypsy Cove and Yorke Bay were the last two beaches to be cleared.

Yes. The landings at San Carlos were on 21 May 1982, Goose Green on 28 and 29 May, and the battles for the heights around Stanley on the night of 13 and 14 June. The 1982 memorials day visits Goose Green, Blue Beach and the Argentine cemetery near Darwin; the Liberation Memorial is on Ross Road in Stanley.

None of the tours we list states wheelchair access. Several describe sand dunes, rough tracks or off-road driving. Stanley's waterfront, the cathedral and the museum are the easier places to see from a wheelchair.