Argentine Patagonia

The wilderness region at the southern tip of South America, made up of the Lake District and Bariloche, the Perito Moreno Glacier, Mount Fitz Roy, the Valdés Peninsula and Ushuaia.

Argentine Patagonia is based on the Patagonia tourism region of Argentina's Ministry of Tourism (La Pampa Province is assigned to the central region by travel convention). It includes the five provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, stretching from the Colorado River all the way to Tierra del Fuego. In the northern Lake District, centered on Bariloche, Nahuel Huapi Lake, the Road of the Seven Lakes and San Martín de los Andes make up a classic road-trip route, and you can ski in winter. On the Atlantic side, the Valdés Peninsula is a World Heritage Site; from Puerto Madryn you can see southern right whales (roughly Jun–Dec), sea lions, elephant seals and Magellanic penguins, and nearby are the Punta Tombo penguin reserve and Welsh immigrant towns. The Los Glaciares National Park in the south is also a World Heritage Site: El Calafate is the base for viewing the Perito Moreno Glacier, with options to walk the boardwalks, take a boat or trek on the ice, while El Chaltén is known as the "hiking capital", and the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre trails can be done as day trips. In northern Santa Cruz Province, the Cueva de las Manos preserves rock paintings more than ten thousand years old. Ushuaia, at the far south, bills itself as the "city at the end of the world"; you can visit Tierra del Fuego National Park and take a boat trip on the Beagle Channel, and it is also the main departure port for Antarctic cruises. A classic route is 3 days in Bariloche, 2 days in Puerto Madryn, 5 days in Calafate and Chaltén, and 3 days in Ushuaia, about two weeks. Distances in the region are great, so travel mainly by domestic flights combined with road trips or long-distance coaches, and it is often linked across the border with Torres del Paine in Chile. The weather is changeable and the winds are very strong, so prepare windproof, warm clothing and leave buffer time in your schedule.

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Itineraries