Around El Calafate
El Calafate and beyond: building the rest of your Patagonia days
The cruise takes a full day on its own. Here is how it fits alongside Perito Moreno, the town itself, and the rest of a Patagonia trip based in El Calafate.
See Glaciers Gourmet cruise tickets on GetYourGuide ↗Fitting it into a trip
| Time needed | Why it works alongside this cruise | |
|---|---|---|
| This cruise | A full day, About 8 hours sailing, 10–12 door to door | Best given its own date, not stacked |
| Perito Moreno day trip | Half to full day | Different glacier, different port |
| Perito Moreno Mini-Trekking | Around 10 hours | See our direct comparison guide |
| El Calafate town | An evening | Restaurants and the lakefront, low-key after a long day |
| El Chaltén (day trip or overnight) | A full day minimum | Trekking base, a different Patagonian landscape entirely |
Give this cruise its own day
With an early pickup and a return that can run into the evening, this is not a half-day activity to combine with something else on the same date. Travellers who try to stack it with another full-day excursion tend to arrive back exhausted, or miss part of one trip waiting on the other. Give it a date of its own.
Perito Moreno is a separate trip
Perito Moreno Glacier, reachable by road rather than boat, is where most Los Glaciares visitors spend their time, and it is a genuinely different day — walkways rather than a catamaran, and the option of Mini-Trekking if you want time actually on the ice. It departs from a different area of the park to this cruise's Punta Bandera port, so treat the two as separate outings rather than something to combine on one date.
El Calafate itself
The town sits on Lago Argentino's southern shore and exists almost entirely to serve visitors to the park — restaurants, gear shops and a lakefront walk make for an easy, low-key evening after a long day on the water. It is not a destination in its own right so much as the base you return to between excursions.
El Chaltén, if you have the days
For travellers with more time, El Chaltén — Argentina's trekking capital, a few hours north of El Calafate — offers a completely different kind of Patagonian day: mountain trails rather than boats and ice fronts, with views toward Cerro Fitz Roy. It needs at least a full day, more if you want to actually hike rather than just look.
Building the itinerary
A workable shape for a Los Glaciares-focused trip: one day for this cruise, one day for Perito Moreno (with or without Mini-Trekking), and — time permitting — a day or two further north around El Chaltén. Book the fixed-schedule items, this cruise included, as early as you can once your dates are set, since availability on any given day is not guaranteed close to departure.
Getting to El Calafate
Most visitors fly into El Calafate's own airport (FTE), which has direct connections to Buenos Aires and, seasonally, other Argentine and regional hubs — there is no practical overland route from most of Argentina given the distances involved in Patagonia. Once in town, El Calafate itself is small and walkable, with most hotels able to arrange the pickup this cruise and other excursions require.
When to go
El Calafate's high season runs through the southern-hemisphere summer, roughly November to March, when days are long and most excursions run their fullest schedules; shoulder months on either side bring smaller crowds and lower prices at the cost of shorter days and a higher chance of weather disruption. Whatever the season, this cruise and Perito Moreno both operate on their own fixed calendars — check current availability for your actual travel dates rather than assuming any given month guarantees a sailing.
El Chaltén logistics
El Chaltén sits a few hours' drive north of El Calafate along Argentina's Route 40, reachable by shared bus or private transfer; it is a realistic day trip for a very early start and late return, though an overnight stay suits it better if you actually want to hike rather than just look at the mountains from the road. It is a genuinely different Patagonian landscape from the glacier-and-lake country around El Calafate — worth the detour if your schedule allows it.
A simple three-day shape
If you have three full days around El Calafate: one for this cruise into the northern arm, one for Perito Moreno (with Mini-Trekking if the ice-walking appeals), and one kept free as a buffer for weather, travel fatigue, or simply a slow morning in town before an evening flight. Patagonia's distances and its weather both reward a little slack in the plan rather than a schedule booked back-to-back with no room to shift a date.