Places to Visit in Falkland Islands on Your Antarctica Cruise

Antarctica is a growing tourist destination.  If you want to explore more than just Antarctica, there are many longer cruises that also visit the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the Antarctic Peninsula.   If you can afford it, I highly recommend this longer option.  These cruises start with Falkland Islands, not as spectacular as South Georgia or Antarctic, but certainly a worthwhile stop.  Where your ship lands is based on several factors.  The ships have a tentative plan and reservations to visit each place, but actually getting there is dependent on wind, weather, and waves.  On occasion, they have to swap destinations.  For that reason, they don’t give you an exact itinerary before your trip.  I had done some research on the possible places to visit in Falkland Islands, and discovered several islands that looked interesting such as West Point, Sea Lion Island, and Saunders Island.  Here are the actual places I visited on my Quark Antarctica Cruise.

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All photos in this post were taken by me with a FZ80 Panasonic Lumix Superzoom Camera.  I recommend this camera if you want a good balance between quality, zoom, and a reasonably small camera size and weight.

Our cruise materials simply said we would visit Falkland Islands for two days.    The Quark Expeditions itinerary didn’t say much about it, but did say that there are two main islands, we would explore by zodiac boat, we would likely see wildlife, including penguins, and we’d probably stop in Stanley.

Places to Visit in Falkland Islands – West Point Island

Our first stop on our first day was West Point Island, off the northwest end of the western Falkland Island.  West Point is a working sheep farm and more recently a tourist destination.  West Point is home to a mixed colony of nesting Black-browed Albatross and cute little Rockhopper Penguins. 

This was our first ride in a Zodiac, and the blue sea was calm and sun shining.  The first thing I noticed on the island was the flowering yellow Ulex (Gorse) all around the farm.  We had a choice to take a bumpy jeep ride up over the hill to the bird colony or hike.  Hiking poles were provided by Quark for those who wanted them.  I opted to take the jeep and was so glad I did – I was amongst some of the first people out to the colony, so I had some quality time viewing the penguins and Albatrosses without too many people.  I heard that later, a group of inconsiderate photographers set up and prevented others from having time at the site, which isn’t too large.

After watching the adorable Rockhoppers, I hiked back to the farmhouse.  The woman who manages the farm had prepared an incredible spread of tea and yummy sweets.  We sat in the garden and chatted with the other passengers about our nice visit to West Point. 

As a bonus, there were a dozen Commerson’s Dolphins playing with the zodiac boats returning to the ship.  I was standing on the back deck, watching the dolphins swimming by the boats, most of the passengers oblivious to the playful dolphins.

Places to Visit in Falkland Islands – Saunders Island

Based on my research, I really, really wanted to visit Saunders Island.  The pictures look beautiful and there is a wide variety of birds and penguins nesting at this island, including the majestic King Penguins.  Sanders island is located to the north of West Falkland Islands, and is one of the largest islands in the archipelago.  Like West Point, it’s a working sheep farm.  Saunders has several guest accommodations (at one time I was looking at flying in and staying awhile), but they also accept the expedition cruise ships like Quark. 

I was excited when the guide told us our second stop for the day would be Saunders Island.  We landed our zodiacs on an area called “The Neck”, a narrow strip of perfect white sand beach that separates two sections of land.  We landed on a beach with Gentoos frolicking in the surf.  The Gentoos nest in multiple circular bunches, each comprised of around 200 birds, further up on the sand spit. 

Walking further down the beach is the home of a few dozen King Penguins, including a few chicks.  These guys pretty much stick to themselves and like to mosey on the beach.  An Oyster Catcher was sitting on an egg nearby. 

Further along, we had a choice to walk up a hill or walk along the beach – the destination was the same – a Rockhopper Penguin colony with about a thousand Rockhoppers.  From the cliff side, you could see the birds nesting and fighting off the Skuas and gulls who were trying to steal their eggs.  From the beach side, you could see the penguins jumping down the rocks into the Atlantic Ocean. 

On the walk back along the beach, I encountered a few Magellanic Penguins, bringing the Saunders Island penguin variety count to four. 

Places to Visit in Falkland Islands – Stanley Town

On our second day in the Falkland Islands, we only had one stop – the capital “city” of Stanley.

I wasn’t sure what to expect here.  Nine years early, I had visited Stanley on a larger Holland America cruise ship.  All shore excursions that day were at an extra cost.  I had travelled by Jeep with Patrick Watt’s to Volunteer Point, with 3 species of penguins.  During this stop, there wouldn’t nearly be enough time and as our guide explained our choices, I was happy to hear we had four choices – all included in the price of our Quark Cruise.  Our four choices where:

• Bus Tour to Gypsy Cove with the bird expert
• Bus Tour to a Falkland Islands battlefield with the historian
• Bus Tour to see the highlights in and around Stanley; or
• Self-Guided time in Stanley

Under all choices, if you had time, you had free admission into the town museum.

I chose to do the city highlights tour, we saw a shipwreck, airport, totem pole.  We stopped at a home with whale bones and stopped to see the governor’s house and Falkland War memorial.  Our tour ended at the excellent museum.  I hit the best attractions in town – the museum, two churches, post office (if you’re into stamps, they have some great collector’s stamps), and checked out the prices at the supermarket and did a little souvenir shopping.  There’s plenty to do and see around this little town, and your only choice to “eat out” or get a drink off the ship at the Globe Tavern or the new gin distillery. 

Unfortunately, a storm was bearing down on us, and our captain was hoping to outrun the storm on the way to South Georgia, so we only had a half day in Stanley.   It would have been nice to spend a couple hours more, to have extra time for those doing tours to get a little more time in town. 

Sailing out of Stanley is a great time to be up on deck as you won’t see the land of South Georgia for a couple days.  There are some beautiful beaches and a view of a lighthouse as you leave the bay.  After that, I recommend you go up to the bridge to watch birds, including lots of swimming Magellanic Penguins as you leave the Falklands. 

Next: See all the Penguins and Birds you might see in South Georgia

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