In November 2025, I started thinking about a trip to see penguins. I started researching and discovered lots of options. Then RS Forum member Carla described an amazing day at Volunteer Point in the Falkland Islands, and a YouTuber posted an incredible video of her visit there, so the decision was made: we would go to the Falkland Islands for a week.
Falklands You Tube
We soon learned that the best King penguin viewing was from late January to early March – which is summer in the Falklands. By that point chicks have hatched and both parents are usually around. By April most of the adults have gone back to the sea for 6-8 months, returning occasionally to feed the chicks who stay on the island for a couple of years.
At our ages (79 and 82) we did not want to put this off until 2027, and February was coming up soon, so I contacted Falkland Islands Holidays ([email protected]). And started looking at flights.
There are two ways to get to the Falkland Islands: the RAF Airbridge from the UK – I think twice weekly – which is about an 18-hour flight, making one refueling stop on the way. Or a weekly (Saturday) flight on Latam Airlines from Santiago, Chile, which makes one stop on the way (in Punta Arenas, Chile).
My extremely helpful agent at FIH (Tonisha Courtney) asked what kind of a holiday we were looking for – there are lots of options, depending on your age and fitness level and interests. Falkland has 740 islands, but just 3000 residents and few roads. Transport between islands is mainly on tiny airplanes, which land in fields (not paved runways). The islands offer lots of hiking, some kayaking, many off-road tours in 4x4’s, which can be a full day. We asked for a less strenuous itinerary, with the emphasis on penguins. She gave us some options and came up with a plan, which included transfers to/from airports within the Falklands, all internal flights within the islands, all tours, all hotels, most meals. Cost was about $6000 for the two of us. I don’t think you could do this without a local agency coordinating everything. There is no public transportation, few taxis, and few roads outside of Stanley, the main town.
Tonisha sent useful information which indicated, among other things, that all visitors must have sufficient medical/travel insurance including medical evacuation by air ambulance, of at least US $2 million. Whoops! We have an annual travel policy with DAN for $1 million evacuation, which they could extend to $1.5 million for about $200. A quick email to the customs administrator verified that he’d be OK with $1.5 million. It was never checked upon arrival.
So by mid-December we felt comfortable making flight arrangements. We settled on Copa Airlines from Denver to Santiago (with a stop in Panama City), and then Latam Airways (the only choice) from Santiago to Falklands. Our flight left Denver around 9:30 pm on Thursday Feb. 19 and we walked into our Falkland hotel around 5:30 pm on Saturday Feb. 21.
About 9 am on Sunday, our driver collected us at our hotel (the very nice Malvina House Hotel) and we were off to Volunteer Point! His name was Nobby, and he was a gregarious character who set the tone for the whole week. We were on a paved road for maybe 45 minutes, then off-road for about 2 hours. His 4x4 was very comfortable – huge tires – we bumped across fields and through ditches, and he entertained us the whole time. He asked where we were going tomorrow, and we said Pebble Lodge guesthouse on Pebble Island. He told us he’d been imprisoned in that house for 32 days during the Falkland Islands War in 1982.