Patagonia walking guide
Our Patagonia walking holidays guide introduces you to what is perhaps the most romantic stretch of Latin America, one that has drawn adventurous souls for centuries with its untamed and rugged beauty.
Responsible tourism in Patagonia
From ecoshabby to ecochic, millionaire land owners to farmers of smallholdings, Chile to Argentina, Patagonia’s extremes merge together to create a fusion of what is, for so many, fantasy tourism at the end of the world. However, these awesome extremes come at a cost – literally. Patagonia’s remoteness has pushed up prices to the disgust of tourists, and phenomenally rich entrepreneurs buying up vast tracts of land – to the horror of its displaced native peoples.
Patagonia isn’t just the end of the world; it is many worlds. Our job is just to keep its shining status of being totally out of this world.
Patagonia isn’t just the end of the world; it is many worlds. Our job is just to keep its shining status of being totally out of this world.
Our Patagonia Holidays
Chile and Argentina tour
Santiago, Lake District, Patagonia, Glaciers & Buenos Aires
From
£2395
14 days
ex flights
Small group adventure holiday to Patagonia
Explore the spectacular wilderness and mountains of Patagonia
From
£3659
20 days
ex flights
Patagonia tailor made tour, self guided
Self-guided holiday in stunning Patagonian mountains.
From
£2581
13 days
ex flights
Highlights of Patagonia holiday
10 day adventure through the Highlights of Patagonia.
From
£1275 to £1599
10 days
ex flights
Patagonia tailor made holiday, 14 days
Be awed by beautiful Patagonian wilderness on this trip
From
£3039
14 days
ex flights
Chile highlights tour, 10 days
10-days: Santiago, Atacama, Patagonia & Torres del Paine
From
£2550
10 days
ex flights
Tour of Patagonia, El Calafate & Torres del Paine
Patagonia's best - Torres del Paine and Perito Moreno Glacier.
From
US $560 to US $1133
5 days
ex flights
Patagonian adventure holiday
Explore the highlights of Argentine and Chilean Patagonia
From
£2559 to £2701
15 days
ex flights
Patagonia luxury adventure holiday
Luxury hotels and adventure in Patagonia
From
£3757 to £3987
11 days
ex flights
Patagonia trekking tour
Natural beauty, dramatic vistas and cosmopolitan cities.
From
£2770 to £3095
10 days
ex flights
Patagonian holiday
Explore the mountain scenery of Chilean & Argentine Patagonia
From
£3465 to £4080
15 days
ex flights
Patagonia 12 day tour, Torres to Buenos Aires
Stunning journey to the end of the world
From
£2015 to £2559
12 days
ex flights
Rio Futaleufu rafting holiday in Chile
Raft deep canyons and pristine wilderness of Patagonia
From
£3800
9 days
ex flights
Chile tailor made holiday, north to south
Highlights of Chile in wine country, Atacama, and Patagonia
From
US $3445 to US $3775
13 days
ex flights
Patagonia trekking holiday, Patagonia Eco-camp
Camp & trek Los Glaciares & T. del Paine Parks, Patagonia
From
£3724 to £4600
17 days
ex flights
Paine and Fitz Roy trek, trekking holiday
Spectacular Andes scenery from glacial lakes to towering granite peaks
From
£4150 to £4270
15 days
ex flights
Chile adventure holiday
Chile's best: the Atacama Desert, Lake District and Patagonia
From
£4399 to £4839
15 days
inc UK flights
Patagonian adventure holiday in Chile and Argentina
Discover stunning Patagonia
From
£2580
12 days
ex flights
Chile tailor made tours, volcanos & National Parks
Explore vineyards, spot penguins & journey through volcanoes
From
£2235
16 days
ex flights
Patagonia trekking holiday, Fitzroy and Paine
Dramatic scenery and the trekking world-renowned
From
£5069 to £5369
15 days
inc UK flights
Patagonia trekking holiday
Trek on the Patagonia Ice Cap, a stunning expedition.
From
£1754
9 days
ex flights
Patagonia highlights holiday
Explore the wild, mountainous south of Argentina and Chile
From
£4349 to £4599
15 days
inc UK flights
Argentina tailor made holiday, Buenos Aires to Patagonia
10-days: Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, El Calafate & Glaciers
From
£2150
10 days
ex flights
Chilean Patagonia holiday, north and south
Northern & Southern Patagonia - the best of both worlds
From
US $3115
9 days
ex flights
Argentina tailor made holiday, 13 days
Experience Buenos Aires' culture and Patagonia's landscape
From
£1995
13 days
ex flights
Patagonia trekking holiday, Patagonia Panorama
Patagonia trekking in the Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine!
From
US $6181 to US $6518
14 days
ex flights
Patagonia self drive holiday
Showcases three contrasting regions of Patagonia in Argentina and Chile
From
£5172
20 days
ex flights
Puma tracking in Patagonia holiday
Track pumas in the valley of Torres del Paine National Park
From
£4495
10 days
ex flights
Adventure holiday in Patagonia
Enjoy spectacular walks through Argentina and Chile
From
£3475 to £4360
16 days
inc UK flights
People & culture
Patagonia for sale
The Spanish conquistadores never penetrated the wild reaches of Patagonia. Pushed back by the ‘Indian problem’, this land remained uncolonised, a final stronghold for Chile and Argentina’s Mapuche people. But five centuries on from the ‘discovery’ of the Americas, Europeans – and North Americans – are once again discovering seemingly untouched wildernesses in the New World, and scrabbling to stake their claim to what they see as unclaimed land.
Patagonia has seen an influx of foreign investors, with the Benetton family turning a million hectares into cattle and sheep farms, and other impossibly wealthy speculators buying up forests, riverbanks and entire lakes, to turn into exclusive retreats, farms and golf courses. Argentina in particular has virtually no controls in place over the sale of land. In the late 1990s alone, over 8 million hectares were sold, and the economic crisis of 2001, which resulted in the devaluation of the Argentinean Peso, only worsened the problem. More recently – and more dangerously – Chinese agriculture companies have caught on to the availability of land, and with this comes the threat of dams, excessive water usage and heavy use of agrochemicals.
Not all landowners have used the land for their own gain, however. Most famously, the late Doug Tompkins, founder of The North Face, conserved over 2 million acres of land across Chile and Argentina through his organisation The Conservation Land Trust. Some of the land is now a private park with public access; while another tract was returned to the Chilean government on the condition that it would become a national park – it is now Corcovado National Park. CNN’s founder Ted Turner has also conserved vast swathes of land in Argentina. However, despite funding local community projects, the privatisation of these giant ranches and the resulting loss of public access to the land and fish-rich rivers has still caused its own controversy.
Because as well as the environmental damage caused by unscrupulous land use, the ‘Indian problem’ remains. Patagonia is the ancestral home of the indigenous Mapuche people, who have lived on this land for centuries, yet have no papers to demonstrate ownership. Land is sacred to these people, and moving them from one tract of land to another is not acceptable. They do not see land simply as a source of income, pasture or water – it is a part of their origins, and their spirituality.
What you can do
Quite simply, money is at the root of the issue here, and only by generating income from untouched land – including that within the national parks – will the unregulated sale of land appear less appealing to the government. Explore the parks. Pay your entrance fee. Visit local communities. Stay with gauchos on traditional ranches. Empowering local people to create livelihoods from the sustainable use of their lands will give them a bigger voice against the billionaire entrepreneurs and multinationals – and everyone who visits and speaks with them is able to go out and tell their stories, raising awareness of this modern tale of colonisation.
Read more in the Huffington Post and New Internationalist.
Quite simply, money is at the root of the issue here, and only by generating income from untouched land – including that within the national parks – will the unregulated sale of land appear less appealing to the government. Explore the parks. Pay your entrance fee. Visit local communities. Stay with gauchos on traditional ranches. Empowering local people to create livelihoods from the sustainable use of their lands will give them a bigger voice against the billionaire entrepreneurs and multinationals – and everyone who visits and speaks with them is able to go out and tell their stories, raising awareness of this modern tale of colonisation.
Read more in the Huffington Post and New Internationalist.
Support a Fair Price in Patagonia
Don’t complain too much about the high prices in Patagonia: it is very remote so supplies have to be shipped in. Many regions also have a short tourist season, meaning that people need to spread their profits, so tourists need to shift their mindset a little when travelling to the tip. Remote and rugged comes at a cost.The other issue regarding prices comes up in rural areas. There is still a big education divide in Patagonia, as Amory Uslar and Fernando Claude, from our supplier Chepu Adventures and Ecolodge, explain: “We support the concept of Fair Price. Groups often try to reduce the price of things because they are in a group, which is understandable. This is the sort of thing that happens in urban tourism. But in rural Patagonia, the situation is different. Although it is changing, there are many people here, young and old, who can’t read or write. They also struggle with numbers, and so it is very easy to confuse them. These are people who know how to live in a sustainable way naturally, and some do not know the real value of money. So we are trying to make visitors aware of this and ask them to just respect a Fair Price. We are also trying to show local people that they shouldn’t raise prices just for tourists either. Because ‘Fair Price’ must work both ways."
There are guides, and then there are good guides
Do try and hire a local guide. There are a lot on offer, but you want to ensure that they are well qualified if you are going on a demanding hike. UIAGM-IFMGA-IVBV Mountain Guides is the highest international recognition awarded to mountain guides all around the world – however, there aren’t many of them. In Argentina, the local guiding qualification is AAGM Mountain Guides (Argentine Association of Mountain Guides) and in Chile, check out AGAM (National Association of High Mountain Guides).If you can’t get hold of a guide’s qualifications, ask a lot of questions. What training do the guides have? Do they have records of any accidents? How long have they been guiding? What is their medical expertise? It is also worth asking for references and testimonials and following these up via social media if possible.
It is extraordinary to see that the majority of guides in Patagonia are not local but brought in from abroad especially for your trip. However, this may be due to a lack of qualified guides so, if this is the case, ask if they partner with local providers as co-guides.
Responsible tourism tips
Myer Henderson, Say Hueque, one of our suppliers: "There are amazing wildlife opportunities here which haven’t resonated yet with people outside South America. You have whale watching just off the Valdes Peninsula in the Golfo Nuevo, a protected body of water, while on the Atlantic side of the peninsula, you can see orcas coming up and grabbing a sea lion for lunch off the beach. The penguin colonies here are amazing and one of the coolest, newer activities is snorkeling with sea lions. There is so much more to Patagonia than hiking."
Fernando Claude, from our supplier Chepu Adventures Ecolodge: "In the far south you can still find those rare and pristine souls who are very very friendly, sharing their food and house, and sometimes they are extremely vulnerable. I have had the experience of seeing visitors laugh at locals as they were telling traditional stories about their beliefs and mythology. Sadly, as a result, many of these people have stopped that wonderful tradition of telling their stories to tourists."
More about Patagonia
Best time to visit Patagonia in Chile is the summer season from the end of the year through to March.
A triangle of land at the end of the world, with calving glaciers, shattered fjords and jagged mountains, Patagonia stirs the heart of red-blooded adventurers.
Patagonia is surprisingly vast, but our suggested itineraries help you explore the parts that interest you most - whether that's trekking, marine life, glaciers or local culture.
Torres del Paine National Park is one of the brightest jewels in Chilean Patagonia’s well-bedecked crown.
Home to some of the world’s only advancing glaciers and dramatic mountain scenery, Los Glaciares National Park in Argentine Patagonia is not to be missed.
While cars can cover the distance, slow down to a walking pace and you’ll experience what this region is really about.
Combine Buenos Aires and Patagonia for a holiday that takes you from chic city streets to wild mountain vistas.
From small group holidays led by expert local guides, to road trips behind the wheel of your own hire car, here’s how to travel in Patagonia to make the most of its world-class trekking, stupendous landscapes and glorious, glacier-filled national parks.
Travelling in Patagonia with kids is an offbeat suggestion for a holiday.
Our holiday companies have shared their most helpful Patagonia travel tips to help your holiday run more smoothly - from unusual places to hike to lesser known cruise routes.
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