Lapataia Bay: End of Route 3 in Tierra del Fuego National Park

In Argentina, Route 3 ends at Lapataia Bay inside Tierra del Fuego National Park, and a sign there marks the southern end of the Pan-American Highway. As the sign reads, it is 3,079 km to Buenos Aires and 17,848 km to Alaska. Some official tourism text gives 3,063 km to Buenos Aires, so you may hear either figure. The sign is the classic photo stop on every standard park tour.

Yes. You can drive, since there is a car park at Lapataia Bay and five more along the park road, or take one of the park minibuses that leave Ushuaia from the corner of Av. Maipú and Juana Fadul. Either way you need the park ticket, ARS 40,000 per foreign visitor, bought online or at the gate. Inside the park the speed limit is 40 km/h, and in winter snow tyres or chains are required. See how to get there.

You can visit on your own. A tour adds hotel pickup, a guide and a fixed route that usually covers Ensenada Zaratiegui, Lake Acigami and Lapataia in about five hours, with the train as an option on many listings. On your own you set the pace and can add short walks such as the Mirador Lapataia, but you arrange the transport and buy the park ticket yourself. The best tours page compares the guided options.

The park minibuses leave from the corner of Av. Maipú and Juana Fadul in central Ushuaia, according to the national parks service. Check the timetable and fare locally the day before. Remember that the park entry fee is separate from the minibus fare: buying your ticket online at ventaweb.apn.gob.ar saves time at the gate, and a second day within 72 hours is half price on online tickets.

The park minibuses leave from Av. Maipú and Juana Fadul, but the parks service does not list their stops inside the park or say which languages drivers use. Ask when you buy your seat whether the bus runs as far as Lapataia and where to get off. If you want commentary in English, a guided tour is simpler: most of the tours we cover guide in English and Spanish and stop at the bay.

No. The train runs 7 km from its station outside the park to Estación Parque Nacional, and Lapataia is further along the park road. On a tour with the train option you usually ride one way into the park and the van meets you at the park station, then continues to the bay. If you ride on your own, you need a car or minibus to go on to Lapataia. See train or no train.

Tours spend about 30 minutes at the bay, which covers the sign, the boardwalks and photos. With your own car, allow an hour or more to add the Mirador Lapataia walk (0.98 km, about 30 minutes) or the Paseo de la Isla (1.3 km, about 30 minutes). For a full visit that also takes in Lake Acigami, Ensenada Zaratiegui and the Alakush visitor centre, plan on half a day within the park's opening hours.

Yes. A standard park tour of about five hours stops at Ensenada Zaratiegui, where the post office stands, then Lake Acigami and Lapataia Bay at the end of Route 3. The post office itself is closed to visitors, so you can only see and photograph it from outside, and some tours skip Ensenada in winter. The featured tour on this page covers all three in about five hours. More on the Ensenada page.

Yes. The walking at Lapataia is short, on boardwalks and paths, and children aged 0 to 6 enter the park free. The nearby marked walks are all short: the Castorera to an old beaver dam is 0.2 km, the Laguna Negra boardwalk 0.5 km (currently under repair) and the Mirador Lapataia just under 1 km. Some tours set age limits, so check the listing. See the park with kids.

The canoe trips we cover are all guided. They supply inflatable canoes, rubber boots, overtrousers and life jackets, and paddle for about an hour down the Lapataia and Ovando rivers to finish in Lapataia Bay. The parks service does not describe canoe rental for independent paddlers, so a guided hike and canoe day is the practical way to get on the water here. See the hiking and canoeing tours.

The walk from Ensenada Zaratiegui is the Senda Costera, an 8 km coastal trail of medium difficulty taking about 4 hours, open from November to April only. It ends at the junction of Route 3 and Lake Roca, from where Lapataia is further along the road. For a trail of that length, sturdy shoes or boots with good grip make sense, and the weather changes fast in every month, so bring warm, waterproof layers.

No boat service from Lapataia Bay appears in the park's official information or in any of the tours we cover. The only time on the water at Lapataia among these tours is the guided canoe trip that finishes in the bay. Voyages to Antarctica are sold as expedition cruises from Ushuaia, which is outside the scope of this guide. For a boat day closer to home, see the park or Beagle Channel comparison.