A backpacker’s guide to Patagonia

In December 2024, I spent a week exploring the Argentinian region of Patagonia. It is an absolutely massive region, and covers about 50% of Argentina. I split my time between the towns of El Calafate and El Chalten. Below, I will detail how I spent my time there, the places I stayed at, and some general recommendations for getting around.

El Calafate

I flew into El Calafate from Buenos Aires. There is an airport 11km from the town of El Calafate that is well connected to the rest of Argentina. Uber is pretty unreliable here, but there is a regular bus from the airport to the town of El Calafate. The place I stayed at was a hostel called 64 Bigua. It is a cozy little hostel, and is a really good budget friendly option.

I spent my first day exploring the town of El Calafate. There are a lot of cute bars and cafes. I really liked the hot chocolate at Chocolates Patagonia, and Patagonia Cerveza is a great place to hang out and grab a beer.

I usually love spending my first day in a city walking around, and that’s exactly what I did in El Calafate. I was told by my hostel owner Andy to walk up to Punto Panoramico to see some views of Lago Argentino and also the town of El Calafate. This was also a great starting point in Patagonia, because the views and sights only got better from here

Perito Moreno glacier

The second day in El Calafate was dedicated to visiting the Perito Moreno glacier in Los Glacieres national park. The Perito Moreno glacier is part of the Southern Patagonia ice field, which is the largest ice mass in the Southern Hemisphere excluding Antarctica. It is about a 1.5 hour journey from the El Calafate. There are many tour buses that go there, but we decided to rent a car from Nunatak and drive there. Between the 3 of us, it ended up being cheaper than a bus ticket, and allowed us the flexibility of visiting the park when it was not crowded. We arrived at around 4pm, when all the tour buses were either leaving or had already left. However, if you intend to do a mini trek on the glacier or take a boat to get closer to the glacier, it is recommended you get the earlier in the day.

Once at the park, there are well designed walkways that offer views of the glacier from different angles. They are very well maintained and easy to navigate. If you’re lucky, you can see the glacier calving, which is when chunks of ice break off from the sides of the glacier.

On the drive back to El Calafate, we noticed a restaurant called Shackleton Solo which looked interesting. We decided to have dinner there. It is an absolute gem of a place with great views, and has a lovely ambience. The owner has a vast record collection, and lets you pick the music. The food and service were on point too. All in all, a great way to spend my last night in El Calafate.

El Chalten

El Chalten is a very tiny village around 200km from El Calafate. It is considered the hiking capital of Argentina, and with good reason. If you don’t like hiking, there isn’t much to do here. But if you do, you can easily spend over 10 days here and not get bored. El Chalten in general is slightly more expensive than El Calafate. If you are on a budget, I would recommend buying things you need before arriving here. A couple of budget friendly options for accommodation are Rancho Aparte and Rancho Grande. Both these hostels have the same owners. Rancho Grande also has a restaurant that is open 24 hours. The food is really good, and the portion sizes are big. I was here every day, and had pretty much all my meals at this restaurant.

Now, when it comes to hiking, a lot of the trailheads are very easily accessible, and are walking distance from the town. There are endless options of hikes to choose from. I am going to list the ones I did below.

Mirador de los condores

This is a very easy and short hike, and is ideal to do on the day you arrive in El Chalten. From the mirador, you get great views of the town of El Chalten, which is neatly nestled between the mountains and the river. If you are in the mood, you can take a detour from this trail to check out Mirador de los aguilas. The trail is fairly flat, and easy, and you get views of Lago Viedna.

Loma del pliegue tombado

This is one of the more challenging hikes in this region. It is a 22km roundtrip with an elevation gain of about 1150m. It is a gradual ascent until you reach a steep section for the last kilometer. You get an incredible 360 degree view from the summit, and can see most of the mountais of El Chalten as well as Lago Viedna.

Make sure to check the conditions before hiking because the last section is fully exposed and could be dangerous if it is too windy. However, the rest of the hike is still worth doing. It is a very underrated hike, so you can expect it to be a lot less crowded compared to some of the other trails.

Glacier Huemul

If you’re looking for a short and easy hike that leads to spectacular views, Glacier Huemul is the hike for you. The one drawback of this is that it is a 1.5 hour bus ride away, but the turquoise blue water you see at the top make it absolutely worth it. I was lucky that it wasn’t too windy on the day that I was there, and ended up spending over an hour by lagoon. Once you find a comfortable enough rock, it is the perfect place to sit and read a book. There is also stuff to do near the trailhead. You can explore lago del desierto, or even enjoy a little picnic.

Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torre

Saving the best for last, Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torre - the two most popular hikes in El Chalten, and they lived up to the hype. Generally, people do them on separate days. But we were very excited, and ended up combining the two for one LONG day of hiking (35km in total!!). To make things even more crazy, we decided to start our hike at 1am. The goal was to be there at Laguna de los tres for sunrise, and see the first rays of the morning sun cast an orange-ish hue onto Mt Fitz Roy. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy during sunrise, and we didn’t see exactly what we wanted to. But regardless, seeing Mt Fitz Roy at any time of day, in all its glory, is a sight to behold.

Buyoyed by what we saw at Laguna de los Tres, we set out on our way to Laguna Torre. It was also nice to be hiking in daylight again, and seeing what we missed earlier in the day. The path connecting the trails for Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torre is a beautiful, uncrowded section. You will come across a couple of lakes called Laguna Madre and Laguna Hija, which offer some great spots to take photographs.

You will eventually reach the trail for Laguna Torre, and will notice a sudden increase in the number of hikers. The trail to Laguna Torre from here is pretty flat, with a short uphill section at the end. In Laguna Torre, you will see a few little icebergs, and you can get some great shots with Cerro Torre in the background.

After Laguna Torre, it is a 10km hike back to town. This was technically supposed to be the easiest section, but given the day we had, it was never ending. We eventually reached the town at 5pm, and it was time for food, beer, and some well deserved rest.