Planning to spend two weeks in Patagonia? Read on.
Although Patagonia is known as being at the southern tip of South America, it is in fact an enormous area. Spanning from Tierra del Fuego in the far south all the way up to Bariloche (Argentina) and Puerto Montt (Chile) in northern Patagonia, it’s thousands of miles in size and you could spend years exploring the region’s natural features.
Should you start in Argentina or Chile?
I’ve set out two alternative itineraries below covering the southernmost part of Patagonia. One starts and finishes in Argentina and the other in Chile. They are flexible itineraries so you can decide to a large extent how long you spend in each place.
The reason I’ve constructed alternative itineraries for two weeks in Patagonia is because domestic flights are cheaper than international flights so it’s most cost-effective to start and finish in the same country.
What to consider when planning a trip to Patagonia
This itinerary hits five different places in Patagonia over two weeks and assumes you are not planning to do any multi-day treks like the O Trek or W Trek in Chile. However, the way you adapt it will probably depend what activities you want to focus on. Broadly:
- El Chaltén and Puerto Natales/Torres del Paine are hotspots for hiking
- El Calafate has one of Argentinian Patagonia’s main airports and also an amazing glacier
- Punta Arenas and Ushuaia focus on wildlife and boat trips
It’s also worth remembering that you can’t rely on the weather in Patagonia. Patagonians often say that you can experience four seasons in one day there. The more days you spend somewhere, the higher the chance you have of good weather for your chosen hike or excursion.
Here’s a more general list of things I wish I had known before travelling to Patagonia. And read on for details of how to structure your two weeks in Patagonia.
Itinerary 1: two weeks in Patagonia, starting and finishing in Argentina
This itinerary is the minimum number of days you would want to spend in each place. As I’ve said above, it’s flexible for you to adapt as you wish. You could also do it backwards if you wanted to start at the bottom and make your way north.
- Day 1 – travel to El Chaltén
Fly to El Calafate and hop straight on a bus to El Chaltén. You can book buses in advance either directly with the bus company or using Busbud.
- Days 2-4 – El Chaltén
El Chaltén is the gateway for hikes in Los Glaciares National Park. The big hikes here are Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torre, each 20+ kilometres. There are also many shorter hikes, including Los Condores and Salto de Chorillo. I use AllTrails to explore what hikes are available.
The more days you spend in El Chaltén, the more likely you are to have a day of good weather and the more time you have to recover from the longer hikes. On the flipside, non-Argentinians now have to pay a parks fee of 45,000 pesos per day (USD45) as of November 2024, so you may want to be selective about which hikes you do so that you can get the most out of your money.
El Chaltén has a lot of good quality restaurants so, although expensive, you won’t be short of nice places to eat.
- Day 5 – travel from El Chaltén to El Calafate by bus
The bus from El Chaltén to El Calafate is about two and a half hours, so you can choose to spend the morning having a nice breakfast in El Chaltén before you depart, or exploring El Calafate’s restaurants and the town museum after you arrive.
- Day 6 – Perito Moreno glacier
The Perito Moreno glacier is El Calafate’s jewel. Situated 80km west of the town, it is one of those rare sights that it’s difficult to get your head around. It’s unfathomably huge – even from a distance it looks quite large, and my mind struggled to comprehend the fact that it got far larger as we got closer. It’s an absurd amount of ice, formed into towering peaks, the highest of which are an astonishing 70m tall.
It is possible to travel to Perito Moreno glacier by bus. Alternatively, if you can gather a group then it’s cost-effective to share a taxi there and back. An easier option is to join a tour, which takes you to the visitor centre to walk around the boardwalk surrounding the glacier. Some tours offer boat trips out to the glacier, and I highly recommend this as it’s pretty special seeing such a significant glacier up close. You can also do mini-trekking on the glacier – this is a pricey way to see it but I am reliably informed by people who have done it that it’s an incredible experience.
You’ll also need to have bought your parks pass in order to visit the glacier as it forms part of Los Glaciares National Park.
I advise setting aside a whole day to visit Perito Moreno glacier. It’s about an hour and a half each way from El Calafate and you’ll want to spend at least a few hours there.
- Day 7 – travel from El Calafate to Puerto Natales by bus
The bus journey from El Calafate to Puerto Natales is timetabled for 5-6 hours but you can assume it will take longer than that as the Argentina/Chile border crossing always takes longer than scheduled.
Make sure you keep the PDI receipt the border police give you when they stamp your passport. You’ll have to present it when you depart Chile.
- Day 8-9 – Puerto Natales/Torres del Paine
Puerto Natales is the nearest city to Torres del Paine National Park, albeit it is two hours away. Because of that journey back and forth, I recommend spending two intense but efficient days here. The downside to this efficiency is the unpredictability of the weather – you can’t guarantee that either day will be a good day for hiking, but you never know!
If you are staying in Torres del Paine then consider spending longer here to make the most of the hikes and scenery in the park.
The big hike here is the Base of the Towers, a 22km out-and-back ascent to a turquoise lake at the base of three columns of rock. It’s a tough hike but absolutely worth it for the stunning scenery throughout. In order to access Torres del Paine, you must buy a parks pass. You have the option to purchase a pass for up to three days (32.400 pesos/USD32 for non-Chileans as of January 2025) or for more than three days. These options might inform the amount of time you decide to spend in Puerto Natales/Torres del Paine.
- Day 10 – travel from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas by bus
The bus from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas takes a little over three hours so, if you are staying in Torres del Paine, this gives you time to get back to Puerto Natales that morning.
- Day 11 – Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas’ main claims to fame are its navigation/exploratory history and its penguin colonies. It’s also the world’s southernmost continental city.
If you are a penguin enthusiast like me, you could consider spending more than one day here so that you can do tours to both the king penguins on Tierra del Fuego and the Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena.
- Day 12 – travel to Ushuaia by bus
Ushuaia is the world’s southernmost city, technically being on the island of Tierra del Fuego. Believe it or not, Ushuaia is a further 600km from Punta Arenas, or 11 hours by bus, including a border crossing back into Argentina.
- Day 13-14 – Ushuaia
Disclaimer: I didn’t actually go to Ushuaia. But it has lots of outdoor activities, wildlife and boat tours, and two days is enough to give you a flavour of this southernly city.
- Day 15 – depart from Ushuaia
Say goodbye to Patagonia and fly back to the warmer world of Buenos Aires or wherever your onward route goes.
Itinerary 2: two weeks in Patagonia, starting and finishing in Chile
If you are starting and finishing your trip in Chile, it is more difficult to travel all the way to Ushuaia – you have to go via Punta Arenas so you would need to double back on yourself on your return journey to fly back to (presumably) Santiago. But if you have longer than two weeks in Patagonia then go for it!
I would suggest the following route:
- Start in Punta Arenas.
Travel to and from Ushuaia if you have time.
- Travel from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales/Torres del Paine.
Spend a few days exploring Torres del Paine National Park. Alternatively, you can skip Punta Arenas and start in Puerto Natales.
- Travel from Puerto Natales to El Chaltén via El Calafate.
This will be a fairly long travel day involving a border crossing and two buses. I recommend setting aside a whole day for this journey, leaving contingency time at El Calafate as the Chile/Argentina border crossing will always take longer than scheduled. Then spend a few days in El Chaltén, hiking in Los Glaciares National Park.
- Travel from to El Chaltén back to El Calafate.
Ensure you visit the Perito Moreno glacier.
- Travel from El Calafate back to Puerto Natales.
This is so that you can catch an internal flight.
- Depart from Puerto Natales.
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