Alberto de Agostini National Park

The park covers the western part of Tierra del Fuego and the islands around it - about fifteen thousand square kilometres of fjord, glacier and mountain with no roads, no towns and no land access of any kind. The Cordillera Darwin runs through it, carrying the southernmost substantial ice field in the world, and glaciers come off it directly into the sea in the fjords of the Beagle Channel's northern arm, the group known as Glacier Alley. It is named for Alberto Maria De Agostini, an Italian Salesian priest who explored, climbed, photographed and mapped this country from 1910 onwards, and whose photographs are the record of what the glaciers were.

What you actually see

• Fifteen thousand square kilometres of fjord - with no road access at all.
• The Cordillera Darwin ice field - the southernmost substantial one.
• Glaciers into the sea - the Beagle Channel's Glacier Alley.
• A priest's survey from 1910 - De Agostini's maps and photographs.

When to go

December to March. Several days on a vessel.

Honest expectations

There is no way in except by ship, and those voyages are expensive and often rough. Weather in this region is among the worst anywhere - rain, wind and cancelled landings are normal. There are no facilities of any kind ashore.

Nearby

Puerto Williams is east; the Beagle Channel runs through the park.