Argentina · Chubut Province
Where to Stay in Puerto Madryn, Chubut Province
Puerto Madryn is a coastal city of Patagonia in southern Argentina, the whale-watching town beside the great wildlife reserve of Península Valdés.
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Where to stay in Puerto Madryn
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Puerto Madryn turns on the seafront or the town. The streets along the beach keep the shore, the seafront walk, and the diving within reach, and staying by the water suits anyone here for the sea. The gulf opens past the front.
Whales blow offshore in season. Back toward the town and the steppe, the beach gives way to the plaza, the markets, and the roads to the peninsula. A room in town trades the shore for the museums, the shops, and the trips out to Valdés.
The dry steppe runs inland. Stay by the sea for the whales, or in town for the peninsula trips. The shore lies a short way off.
About Puerto Madryn
Puerto Madryn is the whale town of Patagonia.
What is Puerto Madryn known for?
On the shore of a wide blue gulf on the coast of southern Argentina, it looks out on the wildlife of Península Valdés nearby, and it keeps the calm waters where southern right whales come to calve, the beaches and diving of the gulf, the memory of the Welsh who first landed here, and the road to the seals and penguins of the peninsula. The blue gulf opens wide. The dry steppe runs inland.
What are the main landmarks in Puerto Madryn?
The gulf of the whales is the great draw at Puerto Madryn. The calm blue waters of the Golfo Nuevo, where the southern right whales gather to calve each winter, wash the town's long beach, the emblem of the city, by the sea. A wildlife coast lies north.
The wild peninsula of Valdés holds seals, penguins, and whales on its shores, while the landing museum, the seafront, and the dry steppe mark the country around Puerto Madryn.
What is the history of Puerto Madryn?
Puerto Madryn began with a Welsh landing. In 1865 a shipload of Welsh settlers came ashore on this bare coast, seeking a new home far from Britain, and they sheltered in caves in the cliffs before moving inland to the Chubut valley. The Welsh made a colony.
They built farms and chapels along the river and named the port for a Welshman, and a small town grew by the gulf to serve the settlers and their trade. The wildlife made it famous. In the last century the world discovered the whales and seals of Península Valdés, and Puerto Madryn grew as the town from which to see them, its gulf a nursery for the southern right whale.
The sea filled with visitors. Whale-watchers, divers, and travellers came to the gulf, and the port grew into a lively city of the Patagonian coast, keeping its Welsh memory and its wild shore. The whales still come to calve.
Puerto Madryn keeps its beaches and its wildlife on the gulf.
Where is Puerto Madryn?
Puerto Madryn lies on the Atlantic coast of Patagonia in southern Argentina, on the shore of the Golfo Nuevo. The city sits on a sweep of shingle beach below low cliffs, where the dry Patagonian steppe runs down to the sea, with the peninsula of Valdés closing the gulf to the north. The steppe runs flat to the sky.
Blue water stretches east.
What is the climate of Puerto Madryn?
Puerto Madryn has a cool, dry Patagonian climate. Mild summers and cold winters cross the windy coast, swept by the strong winds of the steppe, with little rain and clear skies through much of the year. The wind blows hard off the land.
Sea winds keep winter mild.
How do you get to Puerto Madryn?
Puerto Madryn lies on the Patagonian coast, on the long road south from Buenos Aires. Buses and the coast road run to it down the Atlantic shore, and an airport at Trelew brings the whale-watchers. Roads run out to the peninsula.
Trelew lies south down the coast.
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Updated August 2026