Three nights is the length that lets El Calafate breathe: a full day at the Perito Moreno Glacier, another out on Lago Argentino among the icebergs, and an afternoon of your own. Flights, hotel and transfers included.
You will begin your tour to El Calafate taking off from Buenos Aires airport. Once you land in El Calafate airport a tourist guide from 01argentina will be waiting for you with a sign with your last name, to transfer you to your hotel in El Calafate, where you can check in and enjoy free time in the afternoon.
Breakfast at the hotel and departure for the full day tour. You will visit one of the greatest marvels of the world: the Perito Moreno Glacier, declared a World Heritage site.
You begin at the floating quay of the southern branch of Lago Argentino, riding across the Ice Floe's Canal up to the front of the glacier to see its typical ice slides. Then you come across the footbridges, which are very near to the ice wall. There will be enough time to enjoy the spectacle and to witness the famous ice detachment phenomena, hearing the hollow sounds of ice falling and becoming smaller floating glaciers. There are some experiences that leave marks in our lives, and watching the Perito Moreno is definitely one of them.
Day 3. Breakfast at the hotel, and then our guide picks you up for the second full day out. You head to Punta Bandera pier to board a catamaran on Lago Argentino. First the northern part of the lake, where you can observe the amazing icebergs floating adrift, and then the Upsala Glacier, with a spectacular ice barrier whose area of 800 square kilometres equals four times the city of Buenos Aires. After passing the front wall of this glacier the ride continues to the highest glacier in the national park, the Spegazzini, where you can also observe the Seco glacier, and finally you return through the Boca del Diablo, the narrowest part of the lake. Note: the tour can be modified depending on weather conditions and the decision of the captain of the vessel.
Day 4. Breakfast and, at the scheduled time, transfer from the hotel to the airport for your flight back to Buenos Aires. End of our services.
This trip can be tailor-made to suit your dates, your interests and your budget.
Tell us your travel dates and how many of you there are. We'll send a free, no-obligation quote within 24 hours — with hotel options from comfortable to lodges with a glacier view.
Calafate Classic keeps the flights, the hotel and the full day at the Perito Moreno, and drops the second navigation. It is the honest minimum — but the extra night here is the one that changes the trip.
These are not included, but they are the ones we recommend most — and the reason the fourth day is worth it. Tell us which one and we add it to the quote.
Ninety minutes in a double sea kayak among the icebergs, to about 600 m from the ice wall. Dry suit provided, no experience needed.
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The only working ranch inside the national park: sheep herding, hand shearing, gaucho horsemanship and lamb on the fire, on the shore of Lago Roca.
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East along the cliffs by 4x4 to a clifftop lookout and rock art on the shore — then dinner served inside a cave. The only real thing to do here after dark.
More information →Because the second full day is the one that stops the trip from being a hurried visit to a glacier. With three nights you get the Perito Moreno, the long navigation among the icebergs, and still an afternoon of your own for the estancia, the caves or simply the town. With two nights you get the glacier and a hotel breakfast. If your dates are tight we also sell the 3-day version, and we will say so honestly when we quote.
They are two different glaciers and two different boats. Day 2 is the Perito Moreno: a short navigation to its front wall and then the boardwalks, where you stand a few hundred metres from the ice. Day 3 is the long one, north across Lago Argentino to the Upsala and Spegazzini glaciers, which have no road and can only be reached by water. Most people expect the second day to feel repetitive and end up preferring it.
No. The Los Glaciares National Park fee is paid on site, as with every operator, and it changes. We tell you the current amount when we quote so you can budget for it rather than discover it at the gate.
As described it is a group service: you share the guide and the bus with other travellers, which is what keeps the price sensible. We can also quote it fully private, with your own guide and driver. Ask for both and compare.
October to April is the full season, with long days and every excursion running. December to February is the busiest and the one to book earliest. March and April are our own favourite: autumn colour, fewer people, everything still open. In winter the town is quiet and beautiful but several excursions close.
Patagonian weather changes by the hour and the wind is the constant, not the temperature. Layers, a genuinely windproof and waterproof outer, closed walking shoes, sunglasses and high-factor sunscreen — the glare off the ice burns even under cloud. Bring a warm layer in summer too.
Yes, but each needs its own day and El Chaltén really deserves a night. Torres del Paine, in Chile, is a very long day out and back with a border crossing each way, so bring your passport. Tell us if either is a priority and we will build the trip around it instead of squeezing it in.
For December to February, as far ahead as you can: the internal flights and the small-group activities close first. For the rest of the year a few weeks is usually enough. Send us your dates and we reply with a plan and a free quote within 24 hours.
El Calafate is a town of a few thousand people on the southern shore of Lago Argentino, in the province of Santa Cruz, about 315 km from Río Gallegos and 80 km from the entrance to Los Glaciares National Park. It sits on open steppe, and what surprises most visitors is the contrast: turquoise water, a desert-dry landscape and, an hour away, one of the largest accessible glaciers on earth.
The town exists for one reason. It began as a staging post on the wool routes, and when international wool prices collapsed it nearly lost its purpose — until the southern ice field was declared a national park in 1938 and travellers started arriving. Everything here is now built around them: hotels, transfers, excursions, and the calafate berry itself, which gives the town its name and, according to an old Tehuelche saying, brings back whoever tastes it.
What El Calafate is not is a place to rush. Two nights and you will see the glacier and a hotel breakfast. Three, as in this tour, and you come home with a week's worth of Patagonia. Tell us your dates and we will send a plan and a free quote within 24 hours — and an honest opinion about what will not fit. If you want to add something to the free afternoon — the minitrekking, an estancia day, El Chaltén — they are all listed on our optional excursions page.
