"Punta Arenas" a Punta Arenas Travel Page by vtveen

Punta Arenas (Sandy Point) is a city with more than 130.000 inhabitants. And we really wondered what of all these people are doing so far south almost at the end of the world. It is the capital of the Magallanes Region and was founded in 1848 and for a long time an important harbour to export wool. Two families - Menendez and Braun - were dominating the city and its surroundings for long time.

Although a rather large city its centre is not that big and has not much to offer to tourists, with just a couple of gift shops. Along Bories - the main road - and some side streets are shops, banks, restaurants, travel agencies, internet café’s and most of the lodgings in Punta Arenas.

The city itself has a couple of tourist sights: the main square Plaza Munoz Gamero, Mirador Cerro, Museo Regional Magallanes, the cemetery.
The Zona Franca is a duty free shopping centre, but has not too much to offer and was not as cheap as we expected.

Punta Arenas can be a good starting point for visiting Fuerte Bulnes or one of the penguin colonies (Seno Otway or Isla Magdalena). If you plan your visit smart, you can do this both sights on one day. In my opinion there is no need to stay much longer in Punta Arenas.

As wed did, most of the tourists will use Punta Arenas as a transport hub for Chilean Patagonia, because it has a modern airport with flights to Santiago and Ushuaia and frequent bus services to Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine.