A first-timer's guide
The Glaciers Gourmet cruise, hour by hour
Pickup at first light, La Soledad Port, five anchorages up the northern arm, lunch over Upsala's bergs, and the run home from the tallest ice front in the park — the day in order.
See Glaciers Gourmet cruise tickets on GetYourGuide ↗The day in order
| Time | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| ~7:15am | Your hotel | Pickup, drive to Punta Bandera |
| ~8:30am | La Soledad Port | Boarding the catamaran |
| ~9:45am–10:30am | Escuadra Bay, the Condor Nesting Wall | Open water, condors on the cliffs |
| ~12:00pm | Upsala's bergs | Gourmet lunch served on board |
| ~2:30pm | The Spegazzini front | The tallest ice front in the park |
| Late afternoon–evening | Return to Punta Bandera | Coach back to your hotel |
An early start, on purpose
Most bookings include hotel pickup from El Calafate around 7:15am, ahead of a roughly half-hour drive out to Punta Bandera. It is an early morning by holiday standards, but the northern arm is a full day's sailing and the boats keep a fixed schedule rather than departing on demand — arriving late at La Soledad Port is not something a driver can easily fix once the catamaran has cast off.
Boarding at La Soledad
The private port of La Soledad, at Punta Bandera, is where the northern-arm catamarans dock — a different port from the one used for the shorter Perito Moreno boat crossing further south on the lake. Boarding is generally around 8:30am, and this is also where the park entrance fee is paid, by card or in pesos, if it has not already been settled online.
Out onto Escuadra Bay
The first hour or so of sailing opens the boat out from the sheltered near-shore water into Escuadra Bay, the wider stretch where the northern arm properly begins. This is also where cliffs known for condor activity come into view — the birds use the thermals the ice and the mountainsides generate to glide for long stretches without a wingbeat.
Upsala's bergs, and lunch
By late morning the route reaches the channel off Upsala Glacier, the largest glacier in Los Glaciares National Park by surface area at around 765 square kilometres. The glacier itself sits back from the open channel, but the ice it has calved does not — the boat picks a path between bergs of every size, and the onboard gourmet lunch is generally served around this stretch, plates on the table while the ice drifts past the windows.
Spegazzini, and the run home
The day's final anchorage is Spegazzini, whose ice front rises to roughly 135 metres at its highest point — the tallest in the park, more than double Upsala's own ice front. From there it is the return leg: the same channels back to La Soledad Port, with the exact timing shifting by season, followed by the coach back to El Calafate. Total time door to door usually runs 10 to 12 hours depending on conditions and the specific departure.
The boat itself
Northern-arm cruises from Punta Bandera generally run on purpose-built catamarans in the 35–40 metre range, with an enclosed main cabin, a bar and restaurant area for the onboard lunch, and several open outer decks for viewing — plus, on some vessels, a small recreation area for children with illustrations of the park's native wildlife. Exactly which vessel and operator run your specific date is set by GetYourGuide and the local operator, not fixed in this listing, so treat the boat description here as the general shape of the day rather than a guarantee of a named ship.
Weather and ice can shift the plan
Wind, ice conditions in the channels, and occasional operational changes can alter the order of anchorages or how close the boat holds to a given ice front on any particular day — this is normal for a route that depends on open water and moving ice, not a sign anything has gone wrong. The five anchorages describe the shape of a typical day rather than a fixed, unchangeable itinerary.
Photography from the deck
The most dramatic shots come from the open outer decks rather than through cabin glass, so keep a camera or phone accessible rather than packed away for the crossing. Spray and wind are both real on the open water, so a lens cloth and some basic weather protection for electronics are worth having, particularly heading into the exposed stretch around Escuadra Bay.
What's different from a Perito Moreno day
A Perito Moreno day trip is built around one glacier reached by road, with fixed walkway viewpoints and a much shorter time commitment. This cruise trades that convenience for range — two ice fronts, a berg field, and a stretch of the park almost nobody sees without a boat — at the cost of a genuinely long day and an early alarm. Knowing that trade-off going in is most of what separates a traveller who loves this day from one who finds it too long.