The Peninsula Valdes region is a true marine wildlife lover’s paradise, where you can admire the largest continental colony of Magellanic penguins in the world and the largest territorial colony of elephant seals. It’s also one of the only places on Earth where you can discover one of the cutest and most acrobatic dolphin species, the Panda dolphin.

As one of the largest marine wildlife preserves in the world, Peninsula Valdes was declared “Mankind’s Natural Heritage Site” by the United Nations for its “very important and significant natural habitats, for the conservation of several threatened species of outstanding universal value.” Among those threatened species is one of the stars of this destination: the Southern Right whale. Once hunted to the brink of extinction, this rare mammal is one of the friendliest species of whale.

The area is also home to colonies of sea lions, killer whales (orcas), and many other marine and land species.