This post is long overdue, but I wanted to share the itinerary that my husband and I put together to explore Patagonia in March 2017. The flights were the most expensive (and time consuming) component, so we decided to commit to three weeks. It was absolutely worth the planning and accruing all those vacation days. We were inspired by some of the itineraries that are sometimes offered on the Clymb, but didn’t want to be on a guided trip and thought we could save some money by planning everything on our own. We also didn’t want to have to retrace our steps, so worked on making a loop. To inspire you, here are some awesome photos taken by my husband during our trip.
Itinerary
Day 1 (Friday): Catch an international (red-eye) flight to Santiago [SCL]. We flew on Avianca via Bogota for a total of about ~11 hours of flight time from the Washington D.C. area.
Day 2 : Arrive early in the morning to Santiago. Make your way to your accommodations in the city. Try to stay awake–this was a lounge by the pool day for us.
Day 3: Explore Santiago. We particularly enjoyed the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts and La Chascona (one of Pablo Neruda’s former homes).
Day 4: Explore Santiago some more, take a day trip, or take care of any last minutes errands/shopping as you gear up for Torres del Paine.
Day 5: Catch a direct flight from Santiago to Puerto Natales [PTN] or a flight to Punta Arenas and a bus to Puerto Natales. As of 2017, when we were planning this trip both LATAM and SkyAir were offering direct flights to Puerto Natales during high season. We felt it was worth our time to schedule our trip around this convenience because it saved us another 3+ hour bus ride. Another pro-tip is to book through the Spanish site for LATAM– flights were substantially cheaper this way (i.e., several hundreds of dollars less).
Day 6: Catch bus from Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine National Park (TdP). Be prepared to get off the bus at the entrance to the park to pay an entrance fee (bring cash) and watch a short video on park rules. Begin your Torres del Paine W-Trek. Take the Catamaran across Lake Pehoe to arrive at Refugio Paine Grande. Walk to Refugio Grey.
Day 7: Leave your daypack at the Refugio as you walk to the lookout of Glacier Grey (~15 min each way). Return by foot to overnight at Paine Grande.
Day 8: Walk towards Los Cuernos. You have the option to make the ascent up the French Valley. Depending on weather, the pass may be closed and/or visibility may be limited. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate for us on this day, so we had to skip French Valley. We learned from some of the guides who regularly hike the W-Trek that you get payoff for making it to the French Lookout, but then you have to commit to making it all the way to Británico to get the benefits of those views.
Day 9: Hike from Los Cuernos to El Chileno. This was a beautiful, but taxing day. (If you get to Chileno early enough, you could potentially hike to Mirador de las Torres in the afternoon to get another chance for a good view. This is a strenuous ascent, so pace yourself accordingly).
Day 10: Take your day pack as you hike to Mirador de las Torres. Pick up your regular pack when you return via Chileno and then hike all the way down to Hotel de Las Torres where you can catch a shuttle back to the Laguna Amarga park entrance. Take your return bus to Puerto Natales. Celebrate with some delicious food.
Day 11: Catch your early bus to El Calafate. Walk or catch a cab to your accommodations. Bask in the fact that you are no longer carrying your heavy backpack with you everywhere you go. Consider packing a lunch in preparation for your trip to Perito Moreno glacier tomorrow.
Day 12: Catch your bus to Perito Moreno. Enjoy the wandering on the walkways as you take in different views of the glacier. After the rigors of TdP, we were able to cover the entire walkway (including the “challenging” red loop) in a little under two hours, so take your time and take lots of pictures. If the weather is unaccommodating you can return to the Bar de Glaciar restaurant for a hot, overpriced beverage or a snack. Take the return bus back to El Calafate.
Day 13: Catch your bus to El Chaltén from the Calafate bus terminal. When you enter the park boundaries, you’ll get off the bus to receive a map and instructions about comportment inside the park (unlike TdP there is no fee to enter the park). Start looking at the weather forecast and planning your hikes accordingly. If the weather cooperates, take a short jaunt to Mirador de los Cóndores and Mirador de las Águilas (trail leaves from the visitor’s center). You’ll get some great preliminary views of Fitz Roy if the weather cooperates.
Day 14-16: Choose your hikes to fit the weather. The awesome thing about El Chaltén is that all of the hikes start in town, so you can just wander out from wherever your staying in town and hit the trail. Our favorite day was hiking from El Pilar to hike to Laguna de los Tres and back to El Chaltén. This was a long day, but well worth it. You can arrange cheap transport to El Pilar to make this a loop rather than an out and back from El Chaltén.
Day 17: Take your return bus to Calafate. Overnight in Calafate. We learned en route that Caltur buses make a pit stop at the Calafate airport, so if you could get the timing right on your outbound flight, you might not have to overnight in Calafate. ** I would verify with your bus company before making any reservations though. **
Day 18: Catch a cab to the Calafate airport. Fly from Calafate to Ushuaia. Settle into accommodations.
Day 19: Explore Ushuaia or take a day trip to Tierra del Fuego NP. We opted for a boat trip along the Beagle Channel where we got to see seals, sea lions, cormorants, humpback whales, Magellanic penguins and Gentoo penguins. I would only recommend this trip to those of stout stomach. Even with anti-motion sickness medication, I had to pay attention fixedly to the horizon line.
Day 20: Check into Australis cruise by late afternoon and board cruise by evening. Depart Ushuaia.
Days 21-23: Cruise through the waters of Tierra del Fuego. Highlights include Cape Horn and the Agostini Sound.
Day 24: Arrive In Punta Arenas. Disembark at dawn to Magdalena Island to see the penguin colony. Fly from Punta Arenas to Santiago (SCL) and home.
My personal highlights of the trip:
Hiking to Mirador de las Torres in Torres del Paine National Park, Hiking to Base of Fitz Roy in El Chaltén, and getting to walk within feet of Magellanic Penguins on Magdalena Island near Punta Arenas.
What I loved about this trip itinerary:
I was so glad that we scheduled some a few buffer days in Santiago. We both really had to push to wrap things up at work before a three-week trip, so it was nice to have a breather after the international travel. We also spoke to several people that had their itinerary totally wrecked because their international flights got messed up– causing a chain reaction in their bookings.
What I would have changed about this trip itinerary:
While I appreciated that the cruise meant that we didn’t have to back track on a bus, I tend to dislike guided tours in general and so didn’t appreciate the feeling of being herded about with other people. Disembarking from the boat (while done efficiently by the crew) still felt super involved. I will also say that comparatively I didn’t think the views on the cruise were as spectacular as what we had already seen in TdP and Chalten. Then again, maybe I was just suffering from glacier complacence by that point.
Possible variations/modifications:
It would be possible to extend your stay in Torres del Paine (the O-Circuit) or in El Chaltén and fly directly from Calafate to Buenos Aires for return flights to the U.S. It would also be possible to extend your stay in Ushuaia and get a direct flight back to Buenos Aires for international flights back to the U.S.