Australis
Expedition Cruising
Australis is one of the most focused cruise operations I know — they do exactly one thing, and they do it brilliantly. Four or five nights through the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel, past glaciers and penguin colonies, with a landing at Cape Horn if the weather cooperates. The ships are nimble enough to navigate fjords that larger expedition vessels cannot reach, and the all-inclusive pricing covers an open bar for the entire voyage. I always recommend combining the two routes into an eight-night roundtrip for the full experience.
Australis has been navigating the southernmost fjords of Patagonia since 1990, and in that time has established itself as the definitive way to experience Tierra del Fuego by water. Owned by the Menendez family — a Patagonian dynasty with deep roots in the region — the company operates two expedition vessels, Stella Australis and Ventus Australis, each carrying a maximum of 210 passengers through some of the most dramatic and inaccessible scenery on Earth.
The itineraries are elegantly simple. A four-night “Fjords of Tierra del Fuego” route sails from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia, while the “Patagonian Explorer” reverses the journey from Ushuaia back to Punta Arenas. Both routes navigate the Strait of Magellan and Beagle Channel, with Zodiac landings at glaciers, penguin colonies, and — weather permitting — Cape Horn itself, where Australis is among the very few operators with permission to land passengers at this UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve. The two routes can be combined into an eight-night roundtrip for those wanting the complete Patagonian experience.
Onboard, the experience is comfortable and inclusive. The fare covers all meals, an open bar for the duration of the voyage, welcome and farewell cocktails, and a programme of daily expedition landings led by bilingual naturalist guides. Cabins are modern and nautical in design, with picture windows in standard categories and near floor-to-ceiling glass in the premium Cabo de Hornos Deck staterooms. The ships are purpose-built for the extreme manoeuvrability required to navigate narrow fjords and channels where larger cruise ships simply cannot venture — this is not a scenic cruise past distant glaciers, but an intimate encounter with ice, rock, and wildlife at close quarters.
Australis is best understood not as a standalone cruise holiday but as a powerful component of a broader South American journey. Combined with Torres del Paine, Buenos Aires, or an Antarctic expedition, four or five nights aboard Australis unlocks a region of staggering natural beauty that is otherwise almost impossible to access. The season runs from September through April, and the family ownership ensures a personal, committed approach to both guest experience and environmental stewardship in one of the planet’s last great wildernesses.
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