Things to do in  Patagonia

El Chaltan is a must for travelers to see the Patagonia region. The views of the spires and peaks of the Andes from El Chaltan are breathtaking. This is a rock climbers and nature lovers paradise.

That is a good oportunity to see the animals from Patagonia. The ship went very close to the animals. Even though, you will need some zoom on your camera tô take good pictures.

No tour in Patagonia falls short from being exciting and this one was not the exception either. Amazing tour, excellent guides, again, among the very best that I have ever seen. Very knowledgeable. The trekking although somewhat strenuous, is worth doing it!!!

Excellent experience. Patagonia is an amazingly beautiful place and this tour gave us a great mix of locations and activities. We choose the b and b level accommodation and were impressed with where we staying The self guided nature of the tour is refreshing as you are not tied to a tour group

This tour is of particular interest to visitors from Wales who understand the journey and settlement of Welsh speaking immigrants in 1865. The presence of Welsh speaking locals, Welsh names and Welsh tea rooms so far from Wales is fascinating. The guide we had was very pleasant and helpful and his knowledge of the situation was correct. The rating for this tour would have been greater if we had more time but this was not the fault of the tour. The situation was unavoidable since we arrived on a cruise ship early in the morning and left relatively early in the afternoon. One of the main attractions in Gaiman is to visit a Welsh tea room which, of course, tend to open in the afternoon. Fortunately, our guide did find one open for us at mid day so we had afternoon tea for lunch since we had to be back on board ship at 3pm. The guide took us to other places of interest such as a small art gallery, some Welsh chapels, the school for Welsh learners and finally, the caves in which the original settlers survived over winter in Puerto Madryn where they landed. If you do not have the constraints of time and are interested in the Welsh settlements of Patagonia then this is a good tour.

The Good: El Chalten is a must destination in Patagonia. Fritz Roy peak is a thousand times more impressive in person than any photograph can represent. Wonderful little town nestled between the mountains. Would recommend spending several days than just a single day. If one day is what you have then this tour is the answer. Pick up from your hotel and a comfortable maybe a little tight van made the 2 1/2 hour trip tolerable. The guide was fantastic with clear explanations of the region, it's history and stories of El Chalten. Spoke in Spanish and English so everyone could understand. Sandwich lunch provided and a drop off at the trail head to go trekking. I would recommend this tour, however read below. Suggest you verify the logistics prior to committing. The Bad: Logistics of the trip was not to what was advertised. Advertised was hotel pick-up at 7:30ish with 6 hours in El Chalten for trekking and sight seeing. Actual trip was 9:30ish pick-up at hotel with 4 hours of trekking. at the Lorena stop I spoke to the guide which called into the headquarters and was able to extend the trip by one hour 5 hours of trekking. This was a big disappointment since I had carefully selected the Laguna Torre trail since the time to hike this trail fits the advertised 6 hour trekking time. I did the Laguna Torre trek but only got to KM 7 before having to turn around to get back in the scheduled time. I feel as if I was cheated of my plans and what was advertised was not delivered. Aside from the logistic shortfall, everything else was fantastic. If you decide to sign up with this tour company, call/email to confirm the logistics of the trip. If it meets what you want, go with them, the guide, transportation and the destination were all fantastic.

Really enjoyed this tour! Unfortunately the whale watching trip was cancelled, as the weather was really bad so windy!, but the rest was great. Our guide was personable and knowledgeable and it was a huge help that he spoke such good english. It was nice to have such a small group, with myself and another couple and the guide in a car rather than a big bus load. We saw plenty of wild life - elephant seals, sea lions, patagonian hares, burrowing owls, birdlife, heaps of guanacos and some southern right whales in their breeding ground at sunrise which was amazing. The Peninsula Valdes is an incredible place. I did have to chase up a refund for the whale watching, but once I chased it back they have told me I will have it in 3 - 5 days which is pretty good. would have been nice not to need to chase it up but not a big deal. The only thing I would change would be maybe making it clearer on the initial email to bring lunch as I only brought snacks and we didn't stop until about 3 or 4 pm in the town in the Peninsula Valdes. not a huge deal but just the little organisational things can make all the difference.

This was a really interesting tour. It is a long drive out onto the peninsula but its the only way to go and an interesting experience of the scrub that is typical along the length of Patagonia. We were lucky to see pretty well all the animals on the national park leaflet. Of course we saw the penguin, sea lion and elephant seal colonies too. We appreciated the effort our driver guide made in getting us there and back and finding the local animals. P and N

Such a great day! Picked up from our hotel by a lovely guide who spoke to us on the way to Perito Moreno about Patagonia, its people, history and culture. So knowledageable! And our driver was amazing, he kept spotting animals (a skunk, an eagle, guanacos) and slowed down so we could see. The glacier itself is so impressive - a once in a lifetime experience to visit something like that. It was "active" on the day we were there, so loads of crashing ice. The great thing is that you get free time at the glacier to walk around by yourself and explore the various trails. You aren't ushered everywhere, which is great!

Dear Sir/Madam: Here is an overall review of our trip '13 day Patagonia. This is an insider review for you to know what actually happened on the road. Also to give you the analysis of agents to put this trip in place. If you have any specific question, we are more than happy to answer! El Carafate Picked up from the airport and explained everything, that was good Hotel, Las Dunas, was nice, good breakfast, very helpful staff, slight problem: being outside the city, taxis were not always reliable. Los Glaciers National Park: was very good, Daniella, the guide, was very passionate about Argentina and the park, explained everything well. Kayaking la Leona river: it was nice, we were a small group, had a lot of fun. It was great that all the equipment was provided. However, description of the trip needs to be updated, it did not give enough information about the hike/walk etc. Bus: Double decker bus was very comfortable and smooth we enjoyed stopping at la Leona ranch and reading the history. El Chalten Hotel Posada El Barranco: Small but ok, very helpful and friendly staff, their breakfast needs improvement, meat and cheese perhaps and some non-sweet cereal would be nice. Hikes: it was nice to decide and do the hikes on your own and discover the town as you wish. Puerto Natales Frances Drake Hostel: No one spoke English but one person and she was never there when we needed. Torres del Paine National Park: The driver who drove the van drove fast on an uneven road without considering the effect on passengers. Nadia, the guide, did not seem to share her knowledge with the whole group. She did not point out half the information listed on the sheet given to us by Planet Patagonia. She didn't give explanations about much of the park. Seemed as if they were rushed to complete the trip and go on their own business. Planet Patagonia was sloppy and unorganized the evaluation form they gave us to evaluate the day's activities was already used by someone else. When we pointed this to Nadia, she shrugged did not even tried to find a solution. When we were out of the hotel, Planet Patagonia left a bus voucher for the next day at the hotel for us with no explanation. Any question could not be answered because no one understood enough English to help. Hike in the park would have been nice rather than driving around in a van, which was very uncomfortable Puerto Natales was nice and easy to get around to. Punta Arenas Lacolet hotel was the nicest place we stayed except they gave us the matrimonial suite instead of two single beds. We had the best breakfast there and the staff tried everything to help us even though they didn't speak English. Planet Patagonia's ticket voucher given to us, which we realized later, was for a different bus company at a different time than what our schedule from Say Hueque said. Our schedule said 9:00am departure time, when we reach to the location at 8:35am 1/2 hour before bus leaves there was nobody. We thought we were at the wrong place so we tried the other bus company listed in our itinerary, there was a person there that helped us realize we had missed the bus. Ushuaia In Hotel 'Rosa de Los Vientos' room was not clean, shower was broken, adjusting heat was hard, the beds were very narrow, we slept with a fear of falling of the bed to the concrete floor . Trekking in Tierra del Fuega National Park and paddling in Lapataia river: it was a good hike, provided lunch was good, paddling in Lapataia river was fun. This was a very good excursion. Beagle Channel: it was good, Rodrigo, our guide, was very informative. Martillo Island: Fantastic! The guide Anita was very informative and pleasant. Say Hueque Augustina was very helpful throughout the booking process and the actual trip. She helped us the most when we missed our bus due to a time and company discrepancy on our itinerary. She even tried to set us an extra excursion while we spent an extra day hanging around in Punta Arenas which was not much fun, but it just happened to be too windy to go to. She has been prompt in responding to questions and has helped us even with situations that did not include excursions booked through Say Hueque. Overall Viator did very well, we enjoyed being met at the airport, and explained the details for El Calafate. The hotels being chosen and paid for so that we didn't have to deal with all the details but find out about the places we were interested in and do as we pleased was very helpful. One last thing, we were surprised to find out that two people from our group who paid to stay in the hostels, the lowest price, stayed half of the time at the same hotels we did. We are wondering why we had to pay more for the same services!!! Hope this will help you to figure out if any improvement is needed. Thanks for all

My wife and I purchased this 5-day trip in Ushuaia and El Calafate but worked with Viator and the local tour operator that Viator subcontracts Signature to increase it to 9 days. One nice thing about booking through Viator is that you can be assured that the local operator is reputable and, in this case, that was crucial to the success of our trip. Signature was able to help us with the additional hotel accommodations, box lunches, and transfers to make this an outstanding vacation. In addition, we had problems with our internal flights in Argentina and Signature was invaluable with regard to helping us adjust our itinerary. We did all the excursions included in the 5-day itinerary: Tierra del Fuego National Park, Austral Feuguino train, Beagle Channel boat ride, Pertio Moreno glacier, and the Punta Bandera boat trip to see Upsala glacier. While that would have been a fine itinerary I'm really glad we added the extra days since we traveled so far to experience Patagonia. In addition to the above we added Mini Trekking on the Perito Moreno glacier, a day trip to Torres del Paines National Park in Chile, and the Nativo Excursion near El Calafate which, all together, combined for the trip of a lifetime. I think we enjoyed the Mini-Trekking extra trip that we arranged the best followed by the Torres del Paines day trip also an extra add on. This 5-day itinerary is a great starting point for a longer adventure. It may be too short as a stand alone vacation, especially if you fly a long ways to get to Patagonia Chicago for us, but that's the nice thing about Viator they can adjust itineraries to meet your needs. Be aware that your air transportation between cities is not included and you have to book those things on your own. The hotels they booked us into were fine and we never had any issues with any of the arrangements. We were always picked up on time and everyone we worked with was friendly and helpful.

We were picked up and taken to the airport and hotel on time. The guide was friendly, extremely helpful, and informative. We have seen glaciers before but nothing like Perito Moreno, truly a wonder of nature. We choose to pack our lunch although there is a cafe at the Park because we wanted to spend more time seeing the glacier. There are walk ways that allow you to see different views of the glacier which are not strenuous and very doable. Although there are steep steps, there are alternative routes that can be taken. Because we had an extra day, we selected the Sailing Hiking and Off Road Patagonia Adventure to Estancia Cristina which was a nice complement to this tour.

My daughter and I took the 13-day best of Patagonia tour with additional activities like the kayak tour in La Leona River and Walking with the Penguins at Martillo Island. Patagonia is an amazing place and the way Viator set up the trip was excellent. On our arrival, representative from Huellas Del Sur, met us at the airport and oriented us to the town and explained what to expect. Having all the hotels and the major visiting sites arranged by Viator, gave us more time to discover the towns and hike the trails we wanted to and tried numerous good restaurants and excellent Malbec wine all along. Highly recommend to anybody who loves nature and wants to see some of the most beautiful landscape of the world!

I booked this trip for my wife and I, and chose the comfort accommodation. The tour is actually arranged by a local tour operator and Viator do little more than collect your money. Our tour arranger was Lucía Echenique and I had difficulty getting a response via phone and email initially on tour details. This made it difficult to make fine tuning on the arrangements. That being said we had the trip of a lifetime. The accommodation was adequate but the staff in every hotel were very helpful and welcoming. Calafate is a great town. Art Indio is a great place to change s and you will get your first opportunities to gorge on the excellent pastries that Patagonia seems to have in abundance. The Perito Merino glacier is spectacular and you will be astounded by the noise it makes round the clock. You are practically guaranteed to see a piece break off and fall into the lake. Danielle was our guide who provided an informative and entertaining commentary on the way there and back. In Chalten we stayed at the Senderos, you will see reviews that the rooms are too hot and we had a similar experience initially.The overheating is due to the effect of the sun, Sophia owner was very considerate and provided a fan that dealt with the problem by sleep time. The hiking here in Chalten is every bit as advertised, however, time and distance estimates can be a little wild. If taking Laguna de los tres trail make sure to leave early in the day to ensure you return before dark. Puerto Natales is where we discovered that Patagonians eat late and we could find nowhere open before 7pm. Navigating the border with Chile took a significant amount of the first day as we queued first to get out of Argentina and then to get into Chile. Dogs sniff all luggage looking for prohibited foodstuff. The Torres Del Paine Tour is excellent but be prepared for the wind that brings gusts strong enough to knock you off your feet. There is a also the cave of the Milodon.