Wanderlines
Mount Fitz Roy rising above the Patagonian steppe
Argentina · Santa Cruz

El Calafate & El Chaltén

Two towns at either end of a national park the size of a small country: one for the glacier that calves into a lake in front of you, the other for the granite towers that climbers crossed the world for and walkers can reach by lunch.

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Overview

The ice and the towers

Los Glaciares National Park runs 200 kilometres along the Argentine side of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the largest sheet of ice outside the poles. At its southern end, El Calafate sits on the turquoise shore of Lago Argentino, a town of lamb restaurants, outfitters and the airport, 80 kilometres from the Perito Moreno glacier. At the northern end, three hours up Route 40, El Chaltén is a village of 2,000 people built in 1985 at the foot of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, where every trail starts at the end of a street and no permit or guide is needed for the day walks.

The wind is the weather. It comes off the ice field at 100 kilometres an hour some days and drops to nothing on others; summer days are 17 hours long and the mountains clear for an hour or a week. You plan around it and keep spare days.

Five days is the minimum: two in Calafate for the glacier and the lake, three in Chaltén for the big walks. A week lets you add the Huemul circuit or the boat to Upsala, and wait out a storm.

The ice wall of the Perito Moreno glacier
El CalafateThe glacier, the lake boats, Laguna Nimez, the Glaciarium and the asado. Flights land here.
El ChalténFitz Roy, Cerro Torre, the day trails from town and the Huemul circuit. Three hours north.
Lago ArgentinoUpsala and Spegazzini by boat, Estancia Cristina, the icebergs of the Canal de los Témpanos.
Route 40The steppe road between the two: guanacos, rheas, Lago Viedma and the Hotel La Leona stop.
Highlights

What to see first

Nine places across the two towns and the park between them.

A tour boat passing the face of the Perito Moreno glacier
The glacier

Perito Moreno

A wall of ice 70 metres high and five kilometres wide, one of the few glaciers on earth still advancing, pushing into Lago Argentino with a crack and a roar every few minutes as blocks the size of houses fall into the water. Five kilometres of walkways face it from the peninsula; the safari boat gets within 300 metres; the ice treks walk on it.

Perito Moreno in detail →
A hiker with arms spread at Laguna de los Tres below Fitz Roy
The walk

Laguna de los Tres & Fitz Roy

The 3,405-metre granite tooth that Patagonia puts on its flag, and the lake at its foot that you reach on a day walk from the village. Sunrise turns the face red for ten minutes. Details in the hikes section; it is the reason El Chaltén exists.

Laguna de los Tres in detail →
The peaks of Los Glaciares National Park under cloud
The other tower

Cerro Torre & Laguna Torre

A needle of granite capped with rime ice, 3,128 metres, the hardest-won summit in mountaineering history and the easier of the two day walks from town: a lake with icebergs from the Grande glacier, the tower at the end of the valley, and a moraine to climb for the Maestri viewpoint.

Laguna Torre in detail →
An iceberg floating on the water
By boat

Upsala, Spegazzini and Estancia Cristina

The full-day boats from Puerto Bandera cross Lago Argentino through fields of icebergs to the Spegazzini glacier's 130-metre face and the Upsala arm. The Estancia Cristina version lands at a 1914 sheep station in a hidden valley, with a 4x4 climb to a lookout over Upsala and the ice field. The most beautiful day in Calafate that is not the Moreno.

The lake by boat in detail →
Flamingos wading on a Patagonian lake
Birds · Town

Laguna Nimez

A reserve on the edge of El Calafate, 20 minutes' walk from the main street, with a loop trail round two lagoons: Chilean flamingos, black-necked swans, upland geese, ibis and a hundred other species against the turquoise lake and the mountains. Go when it opens, when the birds are closest.

Laguna Nimez in detail →
A glacier meeting a river in Argentina
North of Chaltén

Lago del Desierto & Chorrillo del Salto

The gravel road north of the village ends at a long lake under the Vespignani glacier, 37 kilometres on, with a short climb to the Huemul glacier lookout and boats that cross toward the Chilean border. On the way, the Chorrillo del Salto waterfall is a flat hour from town through lenga forest.

Lago del Desierto in detail →
A vehicle on a road between trees with mountains behind
The village

El Chaltén itself

Argentina's youngest town and its trekking capital, one main street of lodges, bakeries, gear shops and craft-beer bars under the towers, with the park boundary at the end of every lane. The ranger station at the entrance has the weather forecast and the trail conditions; read both every morning.

El Chaltén in detail →
A barren mountain under a wide Patagonian sky
Museum · Ice

Glaciarium and the Calafate steppe

Calafate's glacier museum, six kilometres out of town, explains the ice field with real science and has a bar made of ice in the basement. The hills behind town, the Cerro Calafate and the Cerro Huyliche, are a short drive for the panorama of the lake and the Andes.

Glaciarium in detail →
An empty road leading toward the horizon in Patagonia
The road

Route 40 and La Leona

Three hours of steppe between the towns, with guanacos on the fences, rheas in the grass and the turquoise of Lago Viedma on the left. The Hotel La Leona, a 1894 roadhouse halfway, is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stopped in 1905 and where every bus stops for a lemon pie.

Route 40 in detail →
Hikes & nature

The best day walks in South America

El Chaltén's trails are free, well marked and start in the village; the only permit is for the Huemul circuit. In Calafate the walking is on and beside the ice. Check the forecast at the ranger station each morning and turn back when the wind says so.

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Trekking season: teal = summer and the autumn colours, green = shoulder with snow possible, grey = winter (Chaltén half-closed, the glacier open).

A hiker at Laguna de los Tres with Fitz Roy behind
Demanding

Laguna de los Tres

From the north end of the village the trail climbs gently through lenga forest to the Capri lagoon and the Fitz Roy viewpoint, then levels across the Río Blanco valley to the Poincenot camp. The last kilometre is the hard one: 400 metres of steep, loose switchbacks to the moraine lip, where the lake appears below the full east face of Fitz Roy and its satellites, with the Laguna Sucia a short scramble to the left. Sunrise here is the trip's great hour.

Full route guide →
20–22 kmreturn
8–9 hwalking
800 mascent

Start early or camp at Poincenot for the dawn. The final climb is closed in high wind; the rangers post the decision at the trailhead.

Cloud around the granite towers of Los Glaciares
Moderate

Laguna Torre

The gentler classic. From the west side of the village the trail follows the Fitz Roy river up a broad valley with the Cerro Torre group growing ahead, through forest and across the Torre glacier's old moraines to a grey lake with icebergs in it. Climb the moraine ridge another 40 minutes to the Mirador Maestri for the full view of the tower, the ice mushroom on its summit and the Grande glacier feeding the lake.

18 kmreturn to Maestri
6–7 hwalking
500 mascent

Link it with Laguna de los Tres by the Madre e Hija lakes trail for a two-day loop with a night at Poincenot or De Agostini camp.

The view of Fitz Roy from the Loma del Pliegue Tumbado
Demanding

Loma del Pliegue Tumbado

The one with both towers in a single frame. From the ranger station a long, steady climb through forest and then open hillside reaches a bare ridge at 1,500 metres where Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre, the Torre valley, Lago Viedma and the steppe all sit in one view, with condors working the slope below. Fewer walkers than the lakes and, on a clear day, the better panorama.

Full route guide →
20 kmreturn
7–8 hwalking
1,100 mascent

Exposed to the wind all the way; the rangers advise against it on gusty days. Carry everything, there is no water on the upper half.

Two people walking on a rocky trail
Demanding

The Huemul circuit

Four days and 65 kilometres round the Huemul massif south of the village, with two river crossings by zip line in a climbing harness, a night by Laguna Toro, the Paso del Viento at 1,500 metres opening onto the entire Southern Ice Field, a camp above the Viedma glacier and a final pass down to Lago Viedma's shore. The hardest and finest trek in Argentine Patagonia, and self-supported.

Full route guide →
65 kmloop
4 dayscamping
Harness requiredzip lines

Register at the ranger station with your gear, which they check: harness, pulley, tent rated for wind, four days of food. Guided versions run from the village for anyone who wants the ropes handled.

The rough surface of a glacier in front of a mountain
Moderate

Perito Moreno: the walkways and the ice treks

The peninsula facing the glacier has five kilometres of boardwalk on six levels, from the top balconies to the water's edge, and two to four hours covers all of it with time to wait for a calving. The Minitrekking crosses the lake by boat and walks you across the ice in crampons for 90 minutes among blue crevasses and meltwater pools; Big Ice goes three and a half hours deep into the glacier for the fit. Whisky on ice chipped from the glacier at the end of both.

Full route guide →
5 kmwalkways
1.5–3.5 hon the ice
Ages 8–65 / 18–50mini / Big Ice

Park entry is paid at the gate and the ice treks need booking days ahead in summer. The afternoon light is better on the face than the morning's.

Easy · 2 h

Chorrillo del Salto

North of El Chaltén

A flat path along the road to a 20-metre waterfall in the forest. The rest-day walk, or the evening one.

Full route guide →
Easy · 2 h

Mirador de los Cóndores and Las Águilas

Behind the ranger station

Two short climbs above the village: condors over the Río de las Vueltas at the first, Lago Viedma and the steppe from the second. Do them the afternoon you arrive.

Full route guide →
Day · boat

Lago del Desierto and the Huemul glacier

37 km north by gravel road

A 40-minute climb through forest to a lookout over the hanging glacier and the lake, then the boat to the far end for the view back to Fitz Roy.

Wildlife

Condors over the passes, guanacos on the road

The steppe and the forest edge are full of animals that do not mind the wind. Most are seen from the road and the trails; the shy ones need patience and the first hour of light.

Andean condor

Mirador de los Cóndores, the Pliegue Tumbado, the Paso del Viento · all year

Three-metre wingspans riding the updrafts off the ridges above El Chaltén, often at eye level from the Mirador de los Cóndores ten minutes above the ranger station. They roost in the cliffs over the Río de las Vueltas and work the slopes of the Pliegue Tumbado in the afternoon wind.

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Guanacos, rheas and foxes

Route 40, the Calafate steppe, Estancia Cristina

Herds of guanaco stand along the fences of Route 40 and gallop beside the bus; Darwin's rheas, the Patagonian ostrich, run in the grass with their chicks in December; grey and red foxes trot the lake shores at dusk. Pumas hunt the guanaco here and are seen more often than they used to be, usually from a car at dawn.

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Huemul

Lago del Desierto, the Huemul circuit, Estancia Cristina · rare

The endangered Andean deer on Argentina's coat of arms, a thousand or so left in the whole of Patagonia. The forest edges north of El Chaltén and the valleys of the Huemul circuit are the places; a sighting is luck and a long lens, and worth the walk whether it comes or not.

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Waterbirds of Laguna Nimez and the lake

El Calafate · best September to April

Chilean flamingos, black-necked and coscoroba swans, upland geese, silver teal and the black-faced ibis on the lagoons at the edge of town; Magellanic woodpeckers hammering the lenga in the Chaltén forests, austral parakeets in the same trees, torrent ducks on the Río Fitz Roy.

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A condor flying against the sky
Chaltén

Condor

Look up from any ridge in the afternoon.

A guanaco in the Patagonian steppe
Route 40

Guanaco

Fence-jumpers of the steppe, in herds of twenty.

A guanaco standing in the Andes
Dawn

Watching for puma

Where the guanaco are nervous, something is nearby.

Good food

Lamb on the cross, trout from the lake

Patagonian cooking is the estancia kitchen: whole lamb splayed on an iron cross over a fire for five hours, trout and hake from the lakes, calafate berries in everything sweet, and the Welsh and Italian traces of the people who settled it. It is simple, generous and better than it needs to be.

Grilled meat on a traditional Argentine asado
Eat this

Cordero al asador

A whole lamb crucified on an iron cross and leaned over embers for most of an afternoon, basted with brine until the skin crackles. Every parrilla in both towns does it; the good ones start the fire at noon for dinner and carve at the table. Order it with a Malbec and nothing else.

A cooked dish on a plate
Eat this

Trout, guanaco and the disco

Lake trout grilled or in a cream of calafate; guanaco empanadas and stews where the estancias allow it; locro, the thick corn-and-meat stew of the Andes, on cold days. Cooking al disco, in a plough disc over a fire, is the Calafate speciality: lamb, vegetables and wine in one pan.

A glass of red wine in close-up
Eat this

Calafate berries, alfajores, dulce de leche

The calafate bush gives the town its name and a purple berry that goes into jam, ice cream, liqueur and sauce for the lamb; legend says whoever eats it returns. Alfajores filled with dulce de leche from the bakeries, and the Chaltén bakeries' bread for the trail.

Where to eat in El Calafate

The lamb

La Tablita

Coronel Rosales, by the bridge · dinner, book

The town's reference parrilla since the 1970s: lamb on the cross in the window, beef from the north, a deep Argentine wine list. Busy, old-school and the right first dinner.

AR$ 35,000–60,000 · $$$
Home cooking

Pura Vida

Avenida Libertador, west end · dinner

A low-lit room of sofas and lamps doing Argentine home food with care: lamb stew in a bread bowl, trout, vegetarian plates, a calafate cheesecake. Book; it is small and loved.

AR$ 25,000–45,000 · $$
Al disco

Isabel Cocina al Disco

Gobernador Moyano · dinner

Everything cooked in the plough disc over flame: lamb with vegetables, chicken with mushrooms, pasta. The Calafate dish done properly.

AR$ 25,000–40,000 · $$
Estancia

Mi Rancho

Gobernador Moyano · dinner

A 1930s pioneer house with a short menu of lamb ravioli, ossobuco, trout and good desserts. Quiet and careful.

AR$ 30,000–50,000 · $$$
Lunch at the glacier

Nativos de la Patagonia, Perito Moreno

Glacier visitor centre · lunch

The restaurant at the walkways, with the glacier in the window. A sandwich from town is cheaper; this is for the view.

AR$ 15,000–35,000 · $$
Day on the lake

Estancia Cristina lunch

By boat, with the Upsala excursion

Lamb and the estancia's own vegetables in the 1914 dining room after the lookout; included with the full-day boat.

Included · $$$

Where to eat in El Chaltén

Village favourite

Ahonikenk

Güemes 23 · lunch and dinner

The fonda patagónica: lamb, trout, locro, big plates of home cooking for people who walked 20 kilometres. The village's own table.

AR$ 20,000–40,000 · $$
Pasta

Maffía

San Martín 107 · dinner

Handmade pasta and pizza in a trattoria that seats the evening's bus-loads: sorrentinos, ravioli, lamb ragù. Carbohydrates after Fitz Roy.

AR$ 20,000–35,000 · $$
Grill

La Vinería Grill

Lago del Desierto 265 · dinner

The steakhouse and the wine bar in one: lamb on the cross, beef from the parrilla and the longest wine list in the village. See the wine section.

AR$ 30,000–55,000 · $$$
Brewpub

La Cervecería

San Martín 564 · lunch to late

The village's original brewery: pilsner and bock brewed out the back, locro, pizza and the best beef empanadas in town, in a log cabin full of walkers.

AR$ 15,000–30,000 · $$
Bakery

La Chocolatería and the panaderías

San Martín · mornings

Hot chocolate and cake after a cold day; bread, empanadas and alfajores before a long one. Buy the trail lunch the night before.

AR$ 5,000–15,000 · $
Hotel La Leona

La Leona lemon pie

Route 40, halfway between the towns

The roadhouse stop every bus makes, for coffee, the famous lemon pie and the Butch Cassidy story on the wall.

AR$ 5,000–12,000 · $
Wine

Malbec at the end of the world

Argentina's great reds come from Mendoza, 2,500 kilometres north, but every table here pours them, and Patagonia has its own cool-climate wines from the Río Negro and Neuquén valleys and, newest and southernmost, from Chubut.

A bottle of Malbec and a glass of red wine

What to drink with the lamb

Malbec is the obvious answer and the right one: Mendoza's Uco Valley wines, from Catena Zapata, Zuccardi, Achaval Ferrer and a hundred smaller names, have the fruit and the tannin for lamb off the fire. For the trout and the pasta, look for Patagonia's own: Pinot Noir and Merlot from Bodega del Fin del Mundo and Familia Schroeder in Neuquén, Humberto Canale's old vines in Río Negro, and the extreme-southern Chardonnay and Pinot of Otronia in Chubut, grown in wind not unlike Chaltén's.

Torrontés, the aromatic white from Salta, is the aperitif. Argentine sparkling from Mendoza is cheap and good. Prices in both towns run two to three times Buenos Aires retail, so the house Malbec at a parrilla is often the best value on the list.

The list

La Vinería

El Chaltén, Lago del Desierto 265 · evenings

A hundred-plus Argentine labels by the bottle and a changing dozen by the glass, with cheese and charcuterie boards, in the village's best bar. The place to taste Patagonian wine next to Mendoza's.

AR$ 8,000–20,000 a glass · $$
Calafate

La Tablita and Mi Rancho cellars

El Calafate · dinner

The two deepest lists in town, strong on Uco Valley Malbec and the big Mendoza names. Ask for the Patagonian page.

AR$ 20,000–80,000 a bottle · $$$
Vinotecas

The wine shops on Libertador

El Calafate main street

Two or three vinotecas sell Patagonian and Mendoza bottles at closer to fair prices for the lodge or the camp. Carry a corkscrew to Chaltén.

AR$ 10,000–40,000 a bottle · $$
Evenings

Craft beer, long twilight, early bed

Nobody comes here for the night, and the summer sun does not set until ten. The evening is a brewpub, a wine bar and the walk to the edge of the village to watch the towers go pink.

El Chaltén

La Cervecería, Fresco Bar & La Vinería

San Martín and around · until midnight or so

The brewery for its own beer and a crowded cabin; Fresco for craft taps, burgers and the late-ish crowd; La Vinería for wine and quiet. That is the village, and it is enough.

El Calafate

Borges y Álvarez, La Zorra and the Libertador bars

Avenida Libertador · evenings

Borges y Álvarez is a book bar on the main street with live music some nights; La Zorra Taproom pours Patagonian craft beer; the Libertador's other bars and the casino are for anyone still awake.

Ice

Glaciobar at the Glaciarium

6 km from Calafate · afternoons and evenings

A bar carved from glacier ice, drinks in ice glasses, 20 minutes in parkas and gloves they lend you. A gimmick that is also quite good.

The real show

Sunset on the towers

El Chaltén, any evening with a clear sky

Walk to the Río de las Vueltas bridge or the Mirador de los Cóndores at half past nine in January and watch Fitz Roy hold the last light for twenty minutes after the valley is dark.

Practical notes

Before you go

Getting there

El Calafate's airport has three-hour flights from Buenos Aires and connections from Ushuaia and Bariloche. Buses to El Chaltén take three hours, several a day in summer, from the terminal above town; the road is paved. Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine in Chile are five hours by bus.

Getting around

In Calafate, tour buses and shuttles to the glacier (80 km) and Puerto Bandera; hire cars give the freedom to be at the Moreno at opening. El Chaltén is walked; shuttles run to Lago del Desierto and the Hostería El Pilar trailhead. No car is needed for the Chaltén trails.

Seasons

  • Nov–Mar: summer, trails open, 17-hour days, the most wind and the most people; book months ahead for January.
  • Mar–Apr: autumn colours in the lenga, calmer air, cold nights; the best weeks.
  • May–Sep: winter; Chaltén largely closes, the glacier runs all year and is quiet and beautiful.
  • Oct: spring, snow on the trails, few people.

Weather and gear

Four seasons in a day, every day. Windproof shell, warm layer, hat and gloves even in January; sunscreen, as the ozone is thin; poles for the Fitz Roy climb. Water from the streams is drinkable in the park. Check the forecast and the trail board at the ranger station every morning.

Money

Pesos, with prices rising faster than any guide can track; carry cash, as El Chaltén's ATMs run dry and card machines fail when the connection does. Calafate has banks. Many lodges quote in dollars. Park entry is paid at the Moreno gate; Chaltén's trails are free.

Where to stay

Calafate for the glacier, the lake boats and comfort; Chaltén for the trails, in a lodge on the north side for the shortest walk to the Fitz Roy trailhead. Camp at Poincenot or De Agostini for the dawns. Two nights at Estancia Cristina or a Lago Roca estancia if the budget allows.

Photography

Photo credits

Photographs on this page are by independent photographers published on Pexels under the free Pexels licence. Click a title to open the original.

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