Patagonia Family Extension

Fly to El Calafate in southern Argentina, where you are met and transferred to the Kau Yatún Hotel, about a 15-minute walk outside El Calafate's bustling town center. The hotel is a former ranch house located on the Estancia 25 de Mayo ranch and has a peaceful setting with sheep grazing on the grounds. Enjoy a buffet dinner at the excellent in-house restaurant. Overnight at the Kau Yatún Hotel...D
Alternative hotel choice: Estancia Nibepo Aike

Your program today includes your choice of one of the following options. The minimum participation in any option is two persons. Before your Perito Moreno excursion, stop in at the Glaciarium Museum to learn about glaciers and their first explorers, with the natural sound of the ice caves playing through the museum's halls. You can visit the museum's Ice Bar and take a sip of a drink in a glass made of ice! Dinner is on your own in El Calafate. Overnight at the Kau Yatún Hotel...BL

Full-Day Perito Moreno Glacier Excursion (private) plus Mini-Hike on the Glacier (shared)
Head out for a private tour of the famous Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park. This awe-inspiring sight is a 20-story-high wall of blue ice that is still in equilibrium. The creaking sounds of the glacier are as amazing as the sight of the three-mile-wide ice wall dropping huge chunks of ice into the Canal de los Témpanos (Iceberg Channel) below. You'll walk along a network of boardwalks for phenomenal views of the electric-blue ice wall, its deep crevasses, and the immense Southern Patagonian Icecap stretching into the distance. You will have a box lunch en route.
Driving Time: 3 hours to/from glacier
Walking Time: 3 hours

Mini-Hike on the Glacier (for ages 8 to 65)

After the private Perito Moreno Glacier excursion, join a guided group to experience this iconic glacier up-close and walk on the ice itself. The route will bring you along the lateral side of the glacier, moving upward onto the ice on a moderate circuit that introduces you to the fascinating glacial landscape with its bubbling streams, icy lagoons, crevasses, and sculptured ice formations in incredible shades of blue. Truly a once in a lifetime experience! You will be given crampons to put on your hiking boots when you are on the actual glacier. You will have a box lunch en route. (Note: the age limit of 65 on this excursion is dictated by the operator's insurance company, and while this is not a hard hike, they unfortunately will not allow people over age 65 to participate.) Duration: About 4 hours, including the 20-minute boat ride over to the glacier and back.

Full-Day Perito Moreno Glacier Excursion (private) plus Glacier Boat Ride (shared)
After the private Perito Moreno Glacier excursion (described above in Option #1), take a spectacular boat ride that will let you fully appreciate the massive size of the ice walls of the Perito Moreno as you cruise the blue waters below—you'll never feel closer to this gigantic and impressive natural masterpiece than viewing it from the water.
Duration: 1 hour

A morning drive brings you to Los Glaciares National Park, a realm of rock and ice that is home to the great Southern Patagonian Ice Cap and 47 major glaciers—including some of the most accessible ones in the world. Along the drive, you'll stop in at the historic La Leona Roadhouse, where the outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid in 1905 after robbing a bank.

Around noon, arrive at the charming village of El Chaltén, the Argentine hiking and climbing capital, set at the foot of Fitz Roy and surrounded by glaciers, lakes, and forests. It is a paradise for walkers and climbers alike. Stretch your legs on a hike up Los Cóndores (The Condors), a vista point with spectacular panoramas over the town and the mountains, and perhaps spot some soaring condors along the way. It's a great introductory afternoon hike for understanding the geography of the area, for drinking a cup of mate, or just sitting and contemplating the beauty of Patagonian nature. Another viewpoint, Las Águilas (The Eagles), is not far away and a great place to admire the vast space of the Patagonian steppe and immensity of Lake Viedma. This hike concludes with a quick stop at the national park visitors' center and maybe a chat with a park ranger who will surely have an interesting tale to tell. Lunch is on your own in El Chaltén, a very walkable town, and part of the fun of it is enjoying one of the locally owned restaurants. Overnight at Hosteria Senderos in El Chaltén...B
Driving Time: 3 hours
Hiking Details: 1.5 hours, 1.7 miles

Your program today includes your choice of one of the following private guided options. The minimum participation in any option is two persons. Overnight at Hosteria Senderos. Full Day Hike to Laguna De Los Tres at the base of Mt. FitzRoy (challenging) This is the most emblematic and unforgettable hike in Los Glaciares National Park, bringing you to the blue lagoon below the towering spires of the majestic Fitz Roy massif—it's a long, full-day hike but a classic one for fit hikers. The trail leads through a truly enchanted forest of gnarled, wind-sculpted southern beech trees festooned with delicate moss and colorful lichens. In March (autumn in these parts), these forests are often aglow in gold and red tones in the soft southern light. You'll see the jumbled ice blocks of the immense Piedras Blancas and Marconi glaciers spilling down from the mountains as you hike higher, passing Campamento Poincenot, a base for international hikers and climbers. The last stretch climbs up a large terminal moraine to powder-blue Laguna de Los Tres, a small glacial lake right beneath Fitz Roy's near-vertical east face. Fitz Roy was first climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone and remains among the most challenging mountains on the planet. After a packed lunch and time to take in the grandeur all around, including Fitz Roy's massive hanging glaciers, return by the same path.
Hiking Details: 8-9 hours, 12.6 miles

The Laguna Torre Trail (moderate)
Another renowned hike in Los Glaciares National Park is the Laguna Torre trail, a long but not steep hike to a glacial lake below the incredible trio of granite spikes: Cerro Torre (10,280'), which soars over a vertical mile out of an ice sheet, stunning Torre Egger (9,350'), and Cerro Standhardt (8,956'), all capped by infamous “ice mushrooms” that make reaching the summit treacherous for climbers. Torre Egger is considered by some mountaineers to be the most difficult climb in the Western Hemisphere. Together the three peaks form one iconic mountain. Start your hike in El Chaltén, with a gradual ascent into a fairytale woodland of southern beech trees, where you'll keep an eye out for noisy red-crested Magellanic woodpeckers. The tumbling Río Fitz Roy parallels your path in a canyon below as you reach the viewpoint of Mirador Laguna Torre, a vista point with distant but spectacular views of Cerro Torre. Enjoy a packed lunch before descending via the same route...BL
Hiking Details: 4-5 hours, 3.6 miles

Transfer back to the El Calafate airport, arriving about noon, and fly to Buenos Aires. Many travelers prefer to overnight in Buenos Aires before taking the international flight the next day...B
Driving Time: 3 hours