This remote region of Argentina and Chile is where South America ends—and great adventures begin. From the crystalline waters of the Lake District to the blue ice of Los Glaciares National Park, from wind-battered steppes and snow-capped volcanoes to primeval forests, Patagonia is one of the world’s last remaining frontiers. Visitors come here to experience world-class skiing at Bariloche or to go trekking beneath the granite pillars of Torres del Paine. But the residents—elephant seals and Magellanic penguins no less than the hardy locals—know another Patagonia, largely unmarked by tourism, a place of austere beauty at the uttermost ends of the earth. Discover it for yourself with our Patagonia Tours & Cruises.
Featured Patagonia Tours
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Patagonia Cruise Punta Arenas to Ushuaia
5 Days/4 Nights from $1,990
This fascinating Patagonia cruise begins in Punta Arenas, Chile and continues via the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel to Ushuaia, Argentina. You will…
Patagonia Cruise Ushuaia to Punta Arenas
5 Days/4 Nights from $1,990
This Patagonia cruise begins in Ushuaia, Argentina and continues via the Beagle Channel and the Strait of Magellan to Punta Arenas, Chile. You will disembark…
Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, and Bariloche
10 Days/8 Nights from $2,029
Set on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi in Argentina’s Lake District, Bariloche offers breathtaking landscapes and a wide variety of year-round activities including hiking…
Buenos Aires, Mendoza, and Bariloche
11 Days/9 Nights from $2,089
Explore Mendoza in the Central Andes and Bariloche in the Lake District on this unforgettable Argentina tour. In Mendoza, the country’s main wine-producing region, you…
Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, and El Calafate
10 Days/8 Nights from $2,099
Enjoy Argentina’s capital city and awe-inspiring natural attractions on this wonderful tour. Starting in Buenos Aires, highlights include a Tango dinner show and city tour…
Buenos Aires, Mendoza, and El Calafate
11 Days/9 Nights from $2,159
Venture to the heart of Argentina’s wine region and Patagonia on this amazing tour. Starting in Buenos Aires, you will enjoy a panoramic city tour…
Buenos Aires, Bariloche, and El Calafate
11 Days/9 Nights from $2,299
Travel to Argentina to experience two of its most popular and scenic regions, the Lake District and Patagonia. Beginning in Buenos Aires, trace the city’s…
Santiago and Torres del Paine
7 Days/5 Nights from $3,149
Torres del Paine National Park is one of the best parks for outdoor enthusiasts in all of South America. Your tour begins in Santiago, with…
Darwin’s Route from Ushuaia
9 Days/8 Nights from $3,582
Cruise the waterways of southern Patagonia from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas and back on this nine-day adventure. You will visit penguin colonies on Magdalena Island…
5 Best Patagonia Tours for 2021-2022
| Tour Name | Price | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santiago and Torres del Paine | $3,149 | 7 Days | Torres del Paine National Park is one of the best parks for outdoor enthusiasts in all of South America. Your tour begins in Santiago, with… |
| Santiago and Torres del Paine W Trek in Comfort | $3,959 | 7 Days | Experience the raw beauty of Patagonia on this trek of the famed “W” circuit of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. You will hike… |
| Santiago, Atacama, and Torres del Paine | $4,439 | 11 Days | Visit Santiago and Chile’s north and south in this amazing itinerary. Beginning in Santiago, you will have a city tour and vineyard excursion, and then… |
| Buenos Aires, Bariloche, and El Calafate | $2,299 | 11 Days | Travel to Argentina to experience two of its most popular and scenic regions, the Lake District and Patagonia. Beginning in Buenos Aires, trace the city’s… |
| Buenos Aires, El Calafate, Torres del Paine, and Santiago | $4,409 | 12 Days | Discover the breathtaking natural attractions and wildlife of Patagonia on this fantastic journey. Beginning in Buenos Aires, experience the country’s culture and sample its tasty… |
Patagonia Tours Information
The Best Places to Visit in Patagonia
Wind, space, silence. In Patagonia, everything exists on a vaster scale. Sprawled out across the southern wilds of Chile and Argentina, this is where South America’s landmass peters out and then ends—having saved, magician-like, its most astonishing effects for last. Wandering its huge emptinesses, one comes face to face with nature at its most sublime: soaring crags, calving glaciers, icy lakes, thousand-year-old forests. No wonder pinpointing the best places to visit in Patagonia can be so difficult…
1. Torres del Paine National Park
In 2013, National Geographic put this jaw-dropping, 700-square-mile wilderness of jagged peaks on the cover of its World’s Most Beautiful Places issue. They knew what they were doing. A perennial contender for UNESCO’s World Heritage list, Torres del Paine is a place to experience calving glaciers and granite monoliths, shimmering lakes and grassy pampas. When you go, keep an eye out for the pumas: they’re notoriously elusive…
2. El Calafate & Los Glaciares National Park
Los Glaciares National Park is the largest national park in Argentina, and its global reputation among trekkers, wildlife enthusiasts and climbers is more than deserved. It’s a dazzling place of spectacular natural beauty, with shimmering lakes, pristine forests, snowcapped mountains and huge glaciers like the famous Perito Moreno. One of the two main bases for exploring the park, along with the smaller El Chaltén, is the town of El Calafate. This touristy but picturesque settlement…
3. Bariloche & the Lake District
Argentina’s Lake District is a scenic region of glacial lakes, dense forests, mountain peaks and extinct volcanoes. People come here year-round to trek, climb and fish, and in winter the place fills up with eager skiers. The most popular base for exploring the area and Nahuel Huapi National Park is the Swiss-style…
4. Puerto Natales
Puerto Natales is the gateway to Torres del Paine. But it’s also a lot more. A colorful fishing port, the region is home to luminous fjords, blue glaciers, and abundant fly-fishing. This is Chile’s answer to the quaint villages of New England or Nova Scotia—postcard-perfect landscapes…
5. Ushuaia & Tierra del Fuego
Commonly considered the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia offers adventurous travelers a base for exploring Tierra del Fuego. The city is surrounded by craggy mountains, massive glaciers, enchanting forests, tumbling rivers and icy waterfalls, all within a relatively short…
6. Puerto Madryn
Founded by Welsh settlers more than 150 years ago, Puerto Madryn now provides a base for visitors who come to this windswept but beautiful part of Argentine Patagonia. One of the main attractions is Valdes Peninsula, which is home to an array of marine wildlife including sea lions…
7. Punta Arenas
If Puerto Natales is the entryway to Torres del Paine, Punta Arenas, some 150 miles further south, opens the door to even more extreme territory: Chilean Patagonia. Windswept and hauntingly beautiful, this is the jumping-off point for cruises of Tierra del Fuego and the South Pole…
5 Best Patagonia Cruises for 2021-2022
| Tour Name | Price | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patagonia Cruise Punta Arenas to Ushuaia | $1,990 | 5 Days | This fascinating Patagonia cruise begins in Punta Arenas, Chile and continues via the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel to Ushuaia, Argentina. You will… |
| Patagonia Cruise Ushuaia to Punta Arenas | $1,990 | 5 Days | This Patagonia cruise begins in Ushuaia, Argentina and continues via the Beagle Channel and the Strait of Magellan to Punta Arenas, Chile. You will disembark… |
| Darwin’s Route from Punta Arenas | $3,582 | 9 Days | Cruise the waterways of southern Patagonia from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia and back on this nine-day adventure. You will visit penguin colonies on Tuckers… |
| Santiago, Atacama, and Patagonia Cruise | $5,169 | 12 Days | Atacama is the driest desert in the world. It offers an excellent base to discover Chile’s archaeological sites and explore the natural wonders of the… |
| Santiago, Torres del Paine, and Patagonia Cruise | $6,339 | 11 Days | Enjoy some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world on this tour of Southern Patagonia. Begin in Santiago and continue on to Torres del… |
Patagonia Travel Articles
A Brief History of Patagonia Exploration
Tucked down in the far south of South America, Patagonia is today shared by Argentina and Chile. It remains a sparsely populated region of tough but frequently stunning terrain, with deserts, pampas and grasslands to the east and the Andes further to the west. For thousands of years, humans have been roaming…
Six Things To Do In Bariloche, Argentina
Sapphire lakes that are absolutely still, mirroring the silent peaks around them. Cascades, like liquid smoke, plunging into icy rivers. A branching network of sandy trails, leading ever deeper into towering forests of thousand-year-old alerce trees…This is Argentina’s Lake District, a vast, primeval wilderness huddled…
At Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, Watching Nature’s Drama Unfold
The guide in the ski cap stands stock-still, squinting through the binoculars at the blue ice. From off the lake, high winds stir his big-grizzly beard. He looks over. “Looks kinda like space aliens, don’t it?” He offers you the glasses. You tug your parka’s sleeves down over your knuckles, taking careful hold with your…
Five Things To Do In El Calafate, Argentina
The town of El Calafate (pop. 20,000) is the tourist hub for exploring Los Glaciares National Park, the largest national park in Argentina. The park is named after the numerous glaciers that exist in the region, and which have helped carve out the stunning lakes and landscapes around El Calafate. So if calving glaciers…
El Chaltén, The Trekking Capital Of Argentina
The small Patagonian village of El Chaltén could well have been a forgotten frontier settlement were it not for the thousands of tourists who come here each year. Surrounded by stunning scenery and world-class trails, it’s a paradise for climbers and trekkers. And in 2015, the government officially recognized El Chaltén…
The Wildlife Of Patagonia: 8 Iconic Land And Marine Mammals
Patagonia is a vast and rugged region in the far south of South America. Shared between Argentina and Chile, this sparsely populated territory may — at first glance — seem barren and bleak. But wildlife spotters flock to Patagonia in the hopes of seeing some of its most iconic and intriguing animals, including both…
The Wildlife Of Patagonia: 7 Iconic Birds
Patagonia is home to more than 460 species of birds, from flightless rheas to tiny owls to massive Andean condors. Understandably, therefore, both Argentine and Chilean Patagonia attract birdwatchers from across the globe. Of the hundreds of bird species that live in the region, a handful can be considered…
In Ushuaia, Argentina, Discovering A Land Of Extreme Beauty
Polar winds whip snow against me as I stand beneath the looming mountain. Gray afternoon half-light. It’s the end of the line. Granted, “end” in Ushuaia, Argentina, is a word that long ago passed beyond cliché, considering every empanadería, Claro cell-phone kiosk, and leather-goods outlet in town…
