Patagonia Travel Guide 2023-2024

By Gerardo Bartolome and Paula Ford

An updated travel guide, written by locals, thought out to be an important tool to plan a trip to Patagonia. Includes different ideas, combinations and itineraries according to the traveler's available time and budget as well as thorough useful information in addition to more than 90 inspiring photos and more than 40 incredible 360 pictures that take you to each place before actually going there. 
A "must" to start an unforgettable trip with an unforgettable planning experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ediciones Históricas
• Release date: Jun 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9789878294230

Book preview

Introduction. Planning a trip to Patagonia?

Welcome to our Patagonia Travel Guide. This book will be very helpful for you to understand what is there to see and do and specifically how to plan your trip so that Patagonia fulfills everything that you expect from your holidays and more.

Paula and I live in Argentina and have travelled through this fascinating region for more than thirty years, writing books and photographing amazing places. We now want to share all our local knowledge to help you improve the holidays that you want to spend here. Our goal is that your amazing trip to Patagonia starts with a great planning experience.

This guide does not describe in depth all of Patagonia for we have focused on the places that can make a most powerful impact on travellers coming from overseas. There is so much to see! But time is not infinite… so we have focused on chosen places and activities rather than making a long list with which you would feel lost. According to this strategy we offer you selected places in Patagonia, which, depending on how much time you have, can be visited in the same trip. We will suggest different alternatives for shorter or longer visits.

As you read you will find links (or QRs to scan) that will take you to immersive 360º photos where you will be able to explore and understand many places. Some of these 360º photos have icons which you can click to go from place to place or to see more information. We think that this 360º-technology can be very helpful and gives you an extra value.

Feel free to write to us asking for more information, suggestions, or doubts. Our email is [e-mail]

Once again: Welcome to our Patagonia Travel Guide.

Paula & Gerardo

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Chapter 1. What you need to know to plan your trip, and some helpful tips

1.1 Getting started

Patagonia is so big and there’s so many different things to see that probably you don’t know how to start planning your trip. Don’t worry! We’ll help you and you’ll start enjoying Patagonia right from the planning experience.

Since distances are great you won’t be able to have a good taste of this region if your visit is short. In fact, a short visit can be a frustrating experience. We say that you should come no less than two weeks, much better if it is three weeks. Remember that Buenos Aires or Santiago de Chile are, necessarily, part of the trip, so you should spend two or three days there too.

Since Patagonia is a region shared by two countries, Argentina and Chile, it is important that you find out if they demand you a visa or charge you with some entry fee (depending on your nationality). Once you find that out, and the costs involved, you’ll be able to decide whether to cross the border between both countries or stick to only one.

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1.2 How to visit Patagonia?

You can join a tour, you can travel on your own in a fully self-planned trip, you can combine both or you can seek guidance and pre-booking from Travel Agencies dedicated to incoming tourism.

English is spoken in touristic destinations but hardly when you leave the main towns. This means that moving with a rented car, or with public transportation, might be a bit challenging for those who don’t speak or understand a word of Spanish. Don’t take this as a final objection but consider it when you plan your trip (or parts of your trip). Other languages than English or Portuguese are not spoken at all, even in important cities, except in hotels or cruise ships.

If you decide to rent a car keep in mind that you should always try to have your gasoline tank full because distances are long and sometimes gas stations are closed. Try to avoid driving at night, guanacos cross the roads unexpectedly causing accidents.

Use weather apps or websites (Windguru or Meteored) to check the ever-changing Patagonian weather.

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1.3 Getting to Patagonia

If you are coming from overseas, you’ll have to take a flight to Buenos Aires or Santiago de Chile. From there to southern Patagonia you will have to take another flight to one of these towns: Calafate, Ushuaia, Río Gallegos or Punta Arenas. If you want to visit the coast or the mountains of central and northern Patagonia your flight can be from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, San Martin de los Andes, Trelew or Comodoro Rivadavia. If coming through Santiago the Chile then you’ll fly to Puerto Montt or Pucon (check the previous map).

Round trips by airplane starting in Chile and ending in Argentina or vice versa are complicated and expensive. Check flights and their prices before advancing in your planning. In Chapter 7: Ideas and combinations we give you some alternatives that already take this in consideration. Most probably you’ll base your trip on Argentina and visit some Chilean places from nearby Argentinean cities by land.

1.4 When

We recommend southern hemisphere’s summer (winter in northern hemisphere) not only because Patagonia is a cold region but also because days are very long in summer. November through April would be good and better if you avoid the high season of January and February. Exceptions to the rule are if you want to ski or enjoy whale watching.

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1.5 What to do

Patagonia is a fantastic place for enjoying incredible views and landscapes as well as for performing outdoor activities. Local food and drinks are also interesting; don’t expect fancy restaurants but rather old fashioned bodegones (half way between an English pub and an Italian cantina). Don’t expect either to do a lot of shopping in Patagonia except for some souvenir-buying. Leave shopping for Buenos Aires or Santiago de