9 - Tagestour durch Patagonien : El Calafate, El Chalten und Puerto Natales

We had a lovely trip. Everything was well-organized and the hotels we stayed at were all excellent (superior category). The breakfast was included every day and was very good. Our included day excursion to the Perito Moreno Glacier was spectacular and we felt we had sufficient time to really see it. Our full-day tour of Torres del Paine was also fantastic. This is mostly a van tour with stops. There's a little bit of walking, no hiking. Take note that there is a lot packed in this Patagonia tour, which meant for us that there was not as much time at each place as we would have liked. It's all detailed in the description, so we knew that before booking. But sometimes it's hard to really know until you're on the tour, which is why I'm sharing here. Another thing to take into account is that the travel between El Calafate and Puerto Natales is a very long bus ride, with two border controls which just add more time to the trip. It could be that it's the only way to travel between the two places, but be prepared for a lot of sitting.

This is the perfect option for people that just want to hit the highlights of Patagonia and don’t want to be involved in all the extra planning it takes. The hotels were good and the buffet had a lot of options but overall felt like some of the extra stuff we paid for was way too expensive. We paid for the most expensive option for the booking because we wanted to splurge but realistically that only got us a king bed at every hotel, nothing more. No bigger room etc. El Calafate was great and amazing - we ended up doing the mini trekking and definitely recommend it. One of those types of bucket list items you can’t find anywhere else and everything was professional, secure, beautiful and well organized. I know a few other websites had this tour cheaper FYI. Would also recommend taking a boat tour to see the other glaciers - very high quality and worth it especially if you have never seen glaciers. We wished we had a bit more time in El Chalten because there are so many hikes to do and don’t forget your trip is very dependent on the weather! We couldn’t do the Tres Laguna hike during our time because it was raining and completely cloudy. I would recommend you pick your trails ahead of time. Please note the pictures in this posting are not views you will see unless you do the hikes yourselves!! It is a bit misleading in my opinion. Puerto Natales was very different - it is a city and there are tons of places to eat, things to do etc. The tour you do here is great but you are in a car all day and they take you to different points (no real hiking involved). Tour guide was great and everyone was very friendly in Chile. Hotel comments: Hotel Alto Calafate - nice hotel, a little far from downtown but they (as well as many other hotels) have a free transfer service to downtown once an hour in the afternoon-nighttime. The staff is SUPER friendly but one thing I did notice was that the hotel felt humid throughout (from the pool on the ground floor) and a little bit run down in certain places. I did expect a little bit more from this place but it was good overall. The Chalten Suites was next and was very well located and is the biggest hotel in the town. They helped us plan some activities while we were there and had a better brunch than Alto Calafate. Hotel Costaustralis was last and was absolutely gorgeous and our favorite. Located near the water it was beautiful and the hotel was really nice. Best breakfast here and very friendly.

Just returned from this fantastic trip organised by Say Hueque. Patagonia is a spectacular region with fantastic national parks and wildlife. The guides we had for the day trips in Perito Moreno and Torres del Paine were excellent. Great knowledge, very interesting & spoke perfect English. Accommodation in El Chalten & El Calafate was superb although Puerto Natales was a bit below standard although we did book late and so missed out on our preferred choices. All three towns were really pleasant and very safe. Wrap up well though because the wind can be biting! From our initial contact and organising the tour right through to the end Say Hueque were very efficient and made this tour a highlight of our South American trip

Perito Moreno superb, El Chalten great. Hotels not the standard that Viator checked before we booked and promised us. Transfers and tour for the Glaciar v good. Public bus to Chile took over 7 hours with only a 30 min delay at the border. Before you book with Say Heuque- check every component is what you want or expect. Our complaint on day 1 met with the response ‘we pick our hotels for service rather than stars’. That is commendable unless you are missing a swimming pool, decent sized hotel room, king sized bed.

Great arrangement and prompt reply from customer service. There is breakfast for every hostel we stayed. Sufficient enough time to visit around el calafate, el chalten and puerto natales. I chose the medium price accommodation and stayed in Koi Aiken (el calafate), pudu lodge (el chalten) and Darwin hotel (purrto natales).

I’m glad we used Viator to plan our trip to Patagonia. It was nice to let someone else make all the hotel and transportation reservations as the thought of doing that ourselves was a bit overwhelming. We chose the superior option for hotels, and the ones that Viator booked were all good. However, I recommend they select a different hotel for El Calafate going forward because we weren’t very impressed with Design Suites. It was too far outside the city (40 min walk into El Calafate) and the complimentary shuttle the hotel provided did not run at convenient times, so we had to take a taxi every time we wanted to go into El Calafate. I also think there were nicer hotels in the center of El Calafate. The tour company provided a helpful agenda outlining our whole trip including pick up and drop off times for activities and transport. We chose to upgrade to the mini trekking activity on the Perito Moreno glacier and the full day hike in Torres del Paine. We were glad we upgraded those activities because it was well worth it. However, I recommend going forward they provide more info on what is included with the full day hike in Torres del Paine. We had no idea it was going to be a very strenuous 14 mile hike up and down a mountain. Fortunately, we were up for the challenge, but we would have appreciated knowing more ahead of time. We had to call the emergency phone number one time when we thought we were going to miss our bus transfer. Nobody answered and there was a message in Spanish so we didn’t know what it said. Fortunately, right after I called, someone from the agency texted me so they must have seen that I called the emergency number. They responded quickly via text. Overall, I would recommend this tour.

This trip was awesome. What you're getting is someone to book everything for you - no need to find bus schedules, research hotels, book tours. I usually love doing these things, but I've not had a lot of free time and was getting frustrated with researching these things on my own. Having this group take care of it all for me was a HUGE relief and they did an AWESOME job. I wanted an epic trip for a milestone birthday, and this delivered! I initially wanted to do as much hiking as possible, but I'm glad we had the pace that we did. For our open day in El Calafate, we independently took a bus out to Lago Roca for the day to do some hiking, which gives you a view of the Perito Moreno Glacier. There is opportunity for a lot of hiking in El Chalten (I recommend buying trekking poles in town for hikes). I hoped for more hiking in Torres del Paine, but honestly there is so much to see there, given the time that I had for my overall vacation, I was grateful to get to see so much of the park by taking the bus tour. Overall, we were the right amount of busy to maintain an active yet relaxing vacation. I felt like I got to see a little bit of everything and can't wait to go back when I have more time to spend in the area!

Brenda helped organize the trip for us. She was very helpful, responsive and easy to touch base with. Overall, this was a good tour. We really liked our time in El Calafate and El Chalten and wish we had more time in El Chalten to hike. Favorite parts of this tour: Trek on Perito Moreno Glacier, horse back tour through Estancia Nibepo Aike and horse back in El Chalten, Laguna de lose tres trail. I'd say, we felt time was wasted traveling back and forth from Puerto Natales-where we only had 1 full day and did a bus tour through Torres del Paine. I would have done Puerto Natales on a separate trip because seeing from a bus didn't do it justice. Also, it would have been nice to know that the bus tour was "family friendly". We had a family of 4 with children as young as 2 and 3 and it was hard to enjoy the tour listening to crying, screaming, etc. I would like to recognize Gabriela (tour guide for Torres del Paine). She was wonderful, extremely knowledgeable and very patient with the tour group. She's really good a her job! Thank you Gabriela.

Great tour. Able to travel independent of a tour group. Comfortable tours buses for longer transports. Nice hotels with the upgrade. Helpful guides available for day trips. Many hikes you can plan on your own without a guide or even take a one way taxi. Guided trips made it possible to go to more exclusive, less crowded areas. Tour company did an overall great job of coordinating itinerary.

Wordless how breathtakingly beautiful this Glacier is... The immensity of nature in Glacier version.