Magdalena Island tour cost, from the shared boat to a private charter

The penguins of Magdalena Island live inside a protected area that you can only reach by boat, so the price of a visit is really the price of a seat on an authorised vessel. Chile Travel is clear that a visitor has to book a sea excursion run by a company registered with Sernatur, the national tourism service.² There is no public ferry to the island and no way to land on your own, which is why every option on this page is a guided boat trip.

Our penguin trip is priced from $160 for 5 hours on and around the islands, guided live in English and Spanish. It is the most reviewed Magdalena trip in our comparison, with 694 reviews averaging 4.6. Its listing names both islands: a walk among the penguins on Magdalena and a stop for wildlife watching off Marta Island.

Other Isla Magdalena tours sit close to it on price, so the real differences are the boat, the pier and how the hours are spent. The sections below compare the shared departures, explain what the fare buys and what it leaves out, and show what happens to your money when the wind in the Strait of Magellan keeps the boats in port.

Our listing breaks the fare down into labelled legs, each with its time: 30 minutes by coach, 50 minutes on the water, the hour ashore on Magdalena, half an hour of watching off Marta and the journey home. You pay for the guide, the boat and those transfers, and the coach brings you back to the main square of Punta Arenas.

On its own website the boat company behind this route lists what its fare covers: sailing time, a guide working in Spanish and English, hot drinks with biscuits from the onboard cafeteria, and the shuttle from its office to the pier.^3,4 It also says plainly that collection from your hotel and drop-off are not part of the service, so you walk or take a taxi to the office.^3,5

Nothing in the listing promises a meal, and the record gives no group size. Eat before you go if you sail early, and pack a snack for the ride back. The island itself sells nothing: CONAF, which runs the protected area, lists no lodging, food, electricity or phone service there.⁶ A bottle of water and something small to eat in a pocket cost little and make the cold walk back to the landing far more pleasant.

The strait is famous for its wind, and Chile Travel warns that it brings strong gusts and cold even in summer.⁹ No Magdalena listing promises calm water; ours makes the sailing conditional on the weather of the day. The Muelle Prat catamaran spells it out: a gale or a very low tide can move or call off its trip, and passengers then choose a fresh date or their money back at once.

Your own safety net is the booking terms. You can hold a seat on our trip without paying yet, and a cancellation made at least 24 hours ahead brings every cent back. That window is generous enough to hold a seat for the morning you want as the forecast develops. Put a note in your calendar for the eve of the sailing, so that a change of plan reaches the booking in time and the refund stays yours.

The cheapest insurance against wind is time. Book Magdalena for an early day of your stay in Punta Arenas rather than the last, so a cancelled sailing leaves you a spare morning to try again. If the boats stay in port, ask the operator whether a later departure that day or the next morning has room before you take the refund.

If the budget is tight, the lowest from-price for Magdalena in our table is the catamaran trip from Muelle Prat, from $145. You give up the Marta stop, but you still land on the island with a guide and walk the same trail. If the penguins are your reason to go, that trip delivers them, and it starts at the pier in the city, so you can walk there from most hotels in the centre.

Spending a little more on our trip adds Marta Island, where sea lions breed at the southwest end of the island and imperial cormorants nest.¹² Landing there is forbidden, so you watch from the boat, and for a wildlife lover that stop alone can justify the difference.¹³ Bring binoculars or a camera with a zoom, because the boat keeps its distance from the colony and the animals on the far rocks look small to the naked eye.

Whatever you book, the season sets a hard limit. This season the island takes visitors daily from the 15th of October 2026 until the last day of March 2027, and no landings happen outside that span.¹⁴ Prices are from-prices that move with the date and the party size, so check the live price for your morning before you decide.