Patagonia itinerary-can you please comment?
 

Hello, we are planning a trip to Patagonia and this is the rough itinerary:
spend 7-10 days in the area of Torres, hiking W and some side trips

a day at Perito Moreno (some people suggest to take a boat to Glaciers:
Uppsala,Onelli and Spegazinni, which sounds great but our guidebook mentioned
that it is overcrowded catamaran, do you have any suggestion/experience with
it?)

a week at Fitz Roy/El Chalten - do you have any suggestions as what not to
miss?

And the remaining time is opened.
I was thinking of Bariloche area. Where we
could hire a car, rent a room with a kitchen somewhere in the quiet area and
explore/hike on our own./ do not know much about the area yet/

I was also thinking about Pumalin but that seems to be a bit too difficult to.

Thank you!

bump

When are you going, Boleslav?

Boleslav,

Did you get my e-mail on this?

Going his March.
Lifelist, I must have emailed you and post it at the same time. Thank you for all your great responses!

So what is the actual reply about Patagonia? Are you only doing Patagonia for 7-10 days? We have 8 and would like to do BA as well. Any comments on Bariloche vs. calafate?

EPC - We are going for 4 weeks, will spend 5 in Fitz Roy, then visit Perito Moreno, then go to Torres and hike for 6-7 days.

I just got back from 15 days in Patagonia + 2 in BA. Pasting in my itinerary below.

I think you are absolutely right to spend the 6-7 days in TDP. My 4 days was fine to do the W and to be able to see all the other things I did in Patagonia. But there are a lot of other things to see and do in TDP so it's great to have the extra time.

The one thing I did that I wasn't crazy about on my trip was the boat ride to the glaciers - overcrowded w/ generally inactive people, expensive, a bit boring. For glaciers, Perito Moreno in Calafate and Glacier Gray in TDP are much better.

12/31 BA for New Years Eve
1/1 Travel to El Chalten via plane and bus
1/2 El Chalten - 15 HOUR (!) hike w/ FitzRoy
1/3 El Chalten - MELLOWER hike on own; eve bus to Calafate
1/4 El Calafate - Perito Moreno; eve horseback riding
1/5 El Calafate - boat ride to glaciers
1/6 Morning bus to Peurto Natales, Chile. Afternoon planning Torres del Paine
1/7 - TDP
1/8 - TDP
1/9 - TDP
1/10 - TDP; bus back to PN
1/11 - Morning bus to Punta Arenas; Sena Otway Penguin colony
1/12 - Punta Arenas - museums, Isle Magdalena Penguin Colony
1/13 - 13 hour bus to Ushuaia
1/14 - Ushuaia - hike to glacier, boat ride, museums
1/15 - Ushuaia - Terra del Fuego Nat'l Park; plane to BA
1/16 - BA - sightseeing, flight to US

Hi Susan, I was hoping you will post your itinerary, Thank you.
I assume you are refering to the boat to Upsalla, Oneli Spegazinni glaciers.

Did you prefer the Seno otway or Isla Magdalena for the pengion viewing?
cheers.

Yes, that is the boat to the glaciers I went on - it wasn't bad but only OK. It was cool to see the glaciers but my itinerary involved seeing a number of other glaciers already. These are bigger but frankly, you can't really appreciate the difference - they are all big! The boat ride is long (about 12 hrs RT) so most people slept for part of it. Boat is pretty comfortable. Unfortunately we were in probably the worst seats on the boat - def sit by the water. Maybe I might have appreciated it more if I had a better view from my seat. When you go to Perito, you have an optional 1 hr boat ride up close to glacier which I strongly recommend.

Re penguins, it's a toss up although I think most people would prefer Magdalena. Being on a tiny island surrounded by 150,000 penguins is amazing. However, Sena is actually a more pleasant excursion. Here are some more details:

Sena Otway:
-closer to Punta Arenas so shorter trip
-Accessible by your own transport if you have a car
-We saw wildlife on the way - rheas and foxes
-More intimate for 2 reasons: 1) you go in a small group in a van and we all introduced ourselves and 2) there are only other small groups and independent travelers there.
-I learned more about the penguins. In addition to having a guide, there is an exhibit which provides a lot of info.

Isla Magdalena
-2 hr boat ride each way with a few hundred passengers - boat much less comfortable than the one to the glaciers
-Saw some dolphins on the way; otherwise boring trip
-There is a guide who talks into the public address system for about 15 minutes although I thought it was hard to understand.

While doing both might be overkill, I'm glad I had the time to do so. FYI Sena Otway trips go daily; Isla Magdalena goes every other day (I think Tues-Thurs-Sat).

Susan - you did the 13 hour bus ride to Ushuaia? Wow. I thought about doing that, but ended up flying instead.

I preferred Isla Magdalena myself. There are many more penguins and the light is better for photography. I did feel a bit rushed on Isla Magdalena because our time on the island is limited. Agree that the boat ride is long. Seno Otway was cheap and it's not far, so there's no reason not to do it if you have the time.

Susan- how much time should we allocate for the visit to Seno otway. DO you need to book ahead of time or can you have your accommodation just book it in the evening for the morning tour.
thank you.

Sorry for delay - I was traveling again(Brussels)!

I agree w/ lifelist re the penguin colonies. For Seno, I went to tourist office when I got to PA and they pointed me to an agency a block away who would take me that afternoon. I just went to agency at 4 b/c is in middle of town but they also picked up from hotel. Guide was fluent in English. I think we left at 4 and got back around 7 or so. We spent a little over an hour there. With Isle you also get an hour.

I would definitely fly instead of the 13 hour bus ride from PA to Ushuaia! There wasn't a flight the day I wanted to go though.
Susan

Hi Susan,
Your itinerary looks great...I am planning a 3 or 4 week trip to Argentina and Chile and also was thinking of spending New Year's Eve in BA.

Did you have a difficult time finding hotels for that date? How far in advance did you have to book? Any other suggestions/tips on NYE in BA?

Thanks,


Thanks,
Terri

I'm laughing b/c I guess you mean NYE 10 months from now?? I made my hotel reservation for 12/31 on 12/29 so you don't have to worry! I contacted 4 hotels and 3 had availablity that night so you shouldn't have any problem. I arrived on 12/31 and made my New Year's plan that night.

Yes, Susan I am talking about 10 months from now.

Crazy, I know....but I used to work in a travel firm for a very popular Central American country and that experience has maybe given me a skewed view of what it's like to travel in the Dec 20 - Jan. 3 time range.

My fear has been that it's going to be crazy crowded everywhere we go and we'd have to book months in advance (even though we prefer playing it by ear for the most part -- usually booking the first 3 or 4 nights and then meandering.)

I'm guessing from your response that I don't need to worry about this for Chile and Argentina??

Terri

Re planning ahead....some would have been helpful but it all turned out fine.

For New Years Eve in BA I really don't think you have to plan ahead at all as you can tell from my last post.

Re traveling in Patagonia, other than my 2 internal flights, I did not really book anything until I showed up! I had thought this might be a problem but it generally wasn't. For hotels, although I didn't have much of a choice, I always got something that I liked. Excursions can be booked the night before and I didn't have any problem. All of my travel (buses) were available. In fact, I had hoped to fly from Punta Arenas to Puerto Williams but the flight was full everytime I checked. When I go to PA, a space had opened up! However then I decided I didn't want to go to PW so had to do the 13 hr bus to Ushuaia.

I even was lucky w/ TDP which I had heard would be horribly booked. In Puerto Natales I went into Pathagone and said "I want to go TOMORROW what can you do for me? I realize I may have to camp all nights or spend a lot of $$ every night but I am flexible." While there was not much availability they managed to offer me 2 choices. I chose the one where the accommodations improved each night (camping, lodge, hosteria) and apparently stayed in the best of each! However I do think I was lucky so you might want to plan that a bit more in advance than 12 hours!

The one thing that was a bit of an issue was my internal flights. I had wanted to start my trip in Ushuaia. However the only availability on New Years Day was at 5:30 am - NO WAY. So I flipped the direction and bought a ticket TO Calafate and FROM Ushuaia. Even then I did not have a lot of flexibility and had to fly 1st class to Calafate (and think I got the last seat). I bought the tix in mid Dec so you should definitely work on this a bit earlier.

Essentially I left the US with the following planned:
1st day hotel
2nd day flight to Calafate
16th day flight from Ushuaia
A request to Fitzroy Expediciones to join their trek and could they make bus and hotel arrangements for me but hadn't heard back when I left.

And it all worked out......

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