Northeast of here at MaipA? 175 is the small, recommended Museo del Fin del Mundo (April-Sept Mon-Sat 3-7pm; Oct-March daily 10am-1pm & 3-7.30pm; tel 02901/421863; $5), with exhibits on the region's history and wildlife. These include the serene polychrome figurehead of the Duchess of Albany , a ship wrecked on the eastern end of the island in 1893; a genuine one-gram gold coin minted by Julius Popper in 1889 at his mining base at El PA?ramo; and a rare example of the Selk'nam-Spanish dictionary written by the Salesian missionary, JosA© MarA­a Beauvoir. Free half-hour guided tours are given in Spanish (Sat & Sun 11am & 5pm), and you can take photos. Stamps are on sale, and letters posted here are franked with an "End of the World" stamp, as is your passport if you bring it along.

You can visit the former prison to see the Museo del Presidio , also called Museo MarA­timo (Nov to Easter daily 10am-1pm & 3-8pm; rest of year closed Mon; tel 02901/437481; $7), two blocks further along the front and two more inland, at Yaganes and Gobernador Paz. This houses a motley collection of exhibits, with the central draw being the sprawling prison building itself, whose wings radiate out like spokes from a half-wheel. The cells are complete with gory details of the serial killers and notorious criminals who occupied them, but the impact is diminished for those unable to read the detailed information boards, which are only in Spanish. The most celebrated prisoner was the early twentieth-century anarchist SimA?n Radowitzsky, whose miserable stay and subsequent brief escape in 1918, from this Argentinian Alcatraz, are recounted by Bruce Chatwin in In Patagonia . Those political prisoners who, unlike Radowitzsky, hadn't been incarcerated for violent crimes, lived with local families, and fought not the guards butboredom. A free guided tour of the museum's collections (Spanish only; daily 5pm) is the only time you're allowed to enter the otherwise locked scale-reconstruction of the former lighthouse on the Isla de los Estados, the inspiration for Jules Verne's Lighthouse at the End of the World . The best exhibits of all, however, are the painstakingly made scale models of famous ships from the island's history; and a much cruder, if equally painstaking, reconstruction of a YA?mana canoe, complete with video of the archeologists' attempts to make it according to authentic techniques. Outside the museum is La Coqueta , a locomotive once used to transport the prisoners to their daily toil, logging the forests. If you just want a look at the prison interior without having to pay the entrance, have a coffee in the public cafA©-restaurant in the main exercise hall (open till midnight).

A couple of other sites in town are worth visiting. These include the workshop of Renata Rafalak, in the centre of town at Piedrabuena 25. She makes some of the finest craft items in southern Patagonia, her specialities being reproductions of the bark masks worn by the Selk'nam and YA?mana in their Hain and Kina initiation ceremonies. Another is the Casa Beban , at the southwestern end of the town centre at MaipA? and PlA?schow, which is a lovely pavillion-style place with steep roof and ornamented gabling that was prefabricated in Sweden in 1913. The Ushuaia Jazz Festival takes place here in November, and otherwise it hosts exhibitions of photos and artwork, as well as showing occasional films. Finally, for first-rate views of the Beagle Channel and the islands of Chile, you can head to the hanging Glaciar Martial , 7km behind the town; to get there, walk or take the Pasarela bus ($2) from the Muelle TurA­stico up to the Hotel Del Glaciar , and then climb or take the chair lift ($5) from behind the hotel. Take sun protection: the ozone hole affects these latitudes and solar radiation can be fierce. During the winter, Glaciar Martial offers the closest decent skiing to Ushuaia ($15 a day ski rental and $20 a day ski pass from the Hotel Del Glaciar ).