All tours include visits to the main Welsh towns. We always stay in Esquel and/or Trevelin (they are close neighbours), Gualjaina, Yr Allorau, Gaiman and, in most tours, Porth Madryn.  As well as these towns, we also visit Paso del Sapo, Cerro Condor, Tir Halen, Dolavon, Dôl y Plu, Trelew and Rawson.  

There is always plenty of interchange with the Welsh communities, plenty of wildlife and dramatic scenery as well as, during the season, whale and penguin watching near Peninsula Valdes. And lots and lots of fun and laughter!

 

There is a map of Welsh Patagonia, with a table of distances, among the photos in our library.

 

The standard elements for all our tours  are:

• Guided walking and orientation tours of all the towns in which we stay, as well as Trelew;

• A longer tour of Gaiman, with all the main attractions, including Tŷ Te Caerdydd (a tea house which is now a shrine to Lady Di), the Gorsedd Stone Circle, the Welsh Middle School and much more;

• Plenty of chances to walk quietly in the dramatic Patagonian countryside;

• Dinner at Jeremy’s home in Esquel and meals at two working Welsh farms (one near Trevelin and one near Gaiman), the famous Country Restaurant in Gualjaina, the Comedor in Yr Allorau, the Welsh restaurant in Gaiman and the Mill in Dolavon, as well as picnic lunches on all our day excursions and crossing the Paith;

• A private presentation of Patagonian gem stones collected by Ian Fraser, a famous Patagonian jewellery maker and silversmith in Trevelin;

• A visit to the Welsh schools, Ysgol y Cwm in Trevelin and Ysgol yr Hendre in Trelew (see below for more detail) and the Rifleros School in Cerro Condor;

• A tour of the world class Palaeontological Museum in Trelew (MEF) and the site on the Paith where many of the fossils were found, as well as a visit to the site where a life size model of the most recently discovered monster (42 metres long and 20 metres high) has been constructed;

• A spell of stargazing during our crossing of the Paith, with the dramatic Southern Hemisphere stars and no light pollution to spoil the view;

• A visit to a number of Welsh chapels, including Seion in Esquel, Glan Alaw in Dolavon, Bethel (Old and New) in Gaiman and Moriah in Trelew. Visits to other chapels can be easily arranged;

• A private audience (in Welsh and/or English) with one of the foremost members of the Welsh community;

• A visit to the main Welsh museums in Trevelin and Gaiman;

• A day trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Los Alerces National Park (see below for more detail);

• An excursion on the Road of the Rifleros, including a condor safari (see below for more detail);

• A three-day crossing of the Paith (see below for more detail);

• A trip from Porth Madryn to Rawson (65 km), following a dirt track, which the first settlers had to do in their first week in Patagonia in early August 1865;

• Whale watching (May to November) from Doradillo Beach near Porth Madryn;

• An all day trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Península Valdés, near Porth Madryn (June to December, see below for more detail);

• An excursion to the point where the Mimosa arrived on 26 July 1865 (Penrhyn yr Ogofâu) and a tour of the landing area;

• A long and slow trip along the length of the Valley (50 km) from Tir Halen to Gaiman (or vice versa) to see the irrigation system built by the Welsh and the farms that still use it;

• Lunch or morning coffee at the Touring Club Hotel in Trelew, one of Welsh Patagonia’s great institutions;

• A visit to the imposing Ameghino Dam, which was completed in 1963 and finally put an end to the floods which regularly devastated the Colony;

• A visit to Dyffryn y Merthyron, the place where three Welshmen were murdered by Indians in 1884;

• And lots of Argentinean wine!