2 Week Patagonia Itinerary
We spent 2 weeks in Patagonia travelling by car and it was the perfect trip! If you did not know, Patagonia is a mountain region and it lies in both Chile and Argentina. We went to both sides of Patagonia, so road tripped through 2 countries!
When to go:
December to March for the best weather. Their summer is opposite North America
Our 10 Day Itinerary at a Glance
1 Day Puerto Natales
We flew into Punta Arenas and spent the night in Puerto Natales (which is right near Torres Del Paine)
4 days in Torres Del Paine
boardwalk hike, Salto Chorillo waterfall
Mirador condor hike
Base towers hike
French Valley hike
Glacier Grey
2 days in El Calafete
Periton Moreneo glacier
Calafate town has breweries, good restaurants
2 days in El Chalten
Mirador do Los Tres hike
Cerro Torre hike
Hidden Waterfall hike
1 Day Punta Arenas
CAR RENTAL
Fly into Punta Arenas and rent a car. We had to add a permit to go into Argentina and we looped back to do the same drop off. If you did a one way drop off it was much more expensive
Crossing the border from Chile to Argentina
We crossed the border in the morning around 8:30 coming from Torres del Paine and got to the border at 8:30 and it was very quick. The border opening is:
Cerro Castillo border hours 08:00-22:00
Full Detailed Itinerary
Day 1
Fly into Punta Arenas pick up your rental car and drive to the town of Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales is the biggest town close to Torres Del Paine national park and a great place to base yourself. If you don’t drive or are not going to rent a car you can easily bus here from Punta Arenas. Most of the day trip tours to the park and the shuttle all leave from here.
If You Don’t Rent A Car – The Bus Sur booking website here gives you a list of the daily departures. You can use this bus schedule for daily tours to the park, as well as getting between all the towns. You can easily bus between Puerto Natales – EL Calafate – and El Chalten. There are also some great full day tours from Puerto Natales like this one.
Your average park road conditions and Gunacos off the side of the road
Whichever you choose spend the night in town go out for dinner and stock up on snacks and groceries for your hiking days.
Day 2 – 4
Hiking Torres Del Paine Park
We recommend staying closer to the park to minimize your drive time. We stayed at the Rio Serrano hotel in the area of the same name. This is one of the closest places you can stay by the south gate to the park, meaning you can get in and out for sunrise and sunset. This allows you to miss the crowds and see as much as possible. Full disclosure Rio Serrano was pretty swanky and definitely on the pricey side we liked it so much we wrote a whole blog about it. If that’s not your style there are plenty of other places to stay that are far more affordable. Surprisingly if you are not doing the W trek and electing for day hikes like us the costs can be less but your hotels are faaaaaar nicer in the Serrano area. I think the park eco fees are quite exspensive for the resorts within the park.
This is a good budget option in the Serrano area. There is also a glamping stay if you are looking to stretch those dollars.
We are going to list the highlight hikes for us to fill your days and we suggest picking your favorites and prioritizing them for the good weather days. Patagonia is wild by nature and when you get a good weather window make sure you take advantage of it!
Favourite Hikes (more detail in guide)
Laguna Toro
Mirador Cuernos
Mirador Condor
Base Towers
Mirador Lago Grey
Day 4-5
Staying in Torres Del Paine Park + Base Towers Hike
Today you are going to change accommodation and stay in the park for a night. We found the Eco Camp to be a great location for hiking and your best value for a stay. They include all meals wine and trekking snacks. This makes it a perfect spot to get up early and do your sunrise hike. We ended up having to change our itinerary and did this in the middle of Rio Serrano days solely for a weather window. So be prepared to change your itinerary around.
The Eco Camp was pretty swanky for a backpacking stopover
There is another way you can do this that works quite well also. You can pack the car leave Rio Serrano super early do the hike and then check into the Eco Camp after your done and just relax all day. We we left for our hike at 7 am and were back around 1 leaving plenty of time to enjoy the Eco Camp.
Wake up early and do the Base Towers hike. The base towers are the hike everyone thinks of when they book a trip to Patagonia. This is not overhyped, it is 100% as beautiful as it looks, do not skip. We met many people who did this hike 2+ times to get a view because it was so important to them and they were glad they re did it. Do not let any people you meet try and talk you out of it.
Day 5-7
Drive to El Calafate to see the most impressive glacier in the world.
After your big drive day we elected to stay somewhere simple and found the América del Sur Hostel Calafate to be more than adequate. I have linked several options for all budgets in the guide.
Wake up early the next day and drive the hour to Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park. There is a ticket booth to enter the park that was charging $29USD pp. At the time they accepted debit but as a rule for the majority of Patagonia always have cash just in case. This park is incredible and the included walking trails around the glacier are amazing you can not go wrong here. There is also a phenomenal boat ride here that is totally worth the $40 it was at the time.
If you have some extra cash these people kayaking looked like they were having the time of their lives. There are also some incredibly cool glacier trekking tours .There are not many spots on the planet where you can glacier trek and this would be AMAZING.
If you don’t have a rental car and would like to day trip from El Calafate there are a ton of options. Here are some of the highest rated tours. As you can see the boat trip was worth evvvery penny. We just did the short government run one but there was an option for a full on cruise with lunch and many hours on the water.
We found that you only really needed one full day in El Calafate.
Day 7-9
El Chalten + Los Glaciares National Park
El Chalten is the undisputed hiking capital of Argentinean Patagonia. I think this may have been my favourite place on the whole trip. It doesn’t matter so much where you stay here as the town is small and most everything is walking distance. This is the only spot on our itinerary where a car doesn’t help at all. We stayed at the El Chalten Suites as it was in a great location and good value. There are tons of place to stay so feel free to shop around here and I have included some unique and highly rates ones in the guide.
Hikes in El Chalten (full tips on this in the travel tips section)
There are several can’t miss hikes in the El Chalten area, once again for weather I will list them and you can prioritize based on weather.
Laguna De Los Tres
This is the equivalent of the Base Towers in Torres Del Paine but possibly more impressive. This hike was absolutely incredible and should not be skipped for any reason. It is worth the 20+km grind!
This is legitimately one of the best views I have ever seen. Absolutely mind blowing in person!
Torres Lagoon
This lake is famous for Icebergs but unfortunately we arrived after a hot spell. The warm weather caused a lot of run off and the brownie blue water. This lake is sometimes spectacularly blue with lots of icebergs.
Fitzroy Viewpoint Patagonia Logo viewpoint
This is the famous Patagonia logo viewpoint!
The Secret Waterfall
The secret waterfall and the trail views heading up to the Laguna de los Tres hike
Mirador De Los Piedras Blancas Glacier
A stunning glacier lookout and a pretty easy hike up.
Day 9-10 Punta Arenas + Fly out
Today you are going to start the long drive back to Punta Arenas. We stayed in the Central Hostal Boutique Puerta Roja. Nothing to fancy but a comfortable stay in town good walking distance from everything. Book the flight for the next day after the long drive.
