Circuito Chico and Cerro Campanario Half-Day Tour Bariloche

Bustillo Avenue and Nahuel Huapi Lake

The tour leaves San Carlos de Bariloche along Bustillo Avenue, the lakeside road that runs west from the city centre for more than twenty kilometres. Nahuel Huapi Lake, the heart of Argentina's oldest national park, stays on your right almost the whole way: a glacial lake of deep blue water framed by forests of coihue and cypress and by the peaks of the Andes. Around kilometre 8 the guide points out Playa Bonita, a small pebble beach, and Huemul Island just offshore.

This stretch is the reason a Nahuel Huapi Lake tour appears on every list of things to do in Bariloche. The road passes wooden chalets, lakeside restaurants and the shores where locals swim in summer, and the guide explains how the lake was formed and how the city grew around it. Keep your camera ready, as the light on the water changes with every bend.

Cerro Campanario

At kilometre 17 the vehicle stops at the base of Cerro Campanario, a forested hill whose summit at 1,050 metres is widely considered the finest viewpoint in the region. A chairlift climbs through the trees in about seven minutes; the ticket is optional and paid on the spot, and a steep footpath is the free alternative for the energetic. On top, a wooden deck and a small café wrap around the summit.

From the Cerro Campanario viewpoint you see Nahuel Huapi and Moreno lakes, the Llao Llao peninsula, Victoria Island, Cerro López, Cerro Otto and Cerro Catedral in a single turn of the head. You have about 45 minutes here, enough to ride up, walk the full circle of the deck and take your photos. Many travellers rank this stop as the highlight of the Circuito Chico tour.

Llao Llao peninsula and San Eduardo Chapel

Continuing along Bustillo Avenue, the road reaches the Llao Llao peninsula at kilometre 25, where a famous historic hotel building stands on a green rise between Nahuel Huapi and Moreno lakes. Built in the late 1930s in the alpine style that defines Bariloche, with stone walls, timber beams and steep roofs, it is one of the architectural symbols of Patagonia. Next to it rises the San Eduardo Chapel, a small stone and wood church from the same period.

The stop here is a photo stop of about 15 minutes, so you admire the buildings and the view of Cerro López from the outside rather than going in. The chapel, the lawns and the lake behind them make one of the most photographed views in Bariloche, and the guide explains the history of the resort and the municipal park that surrounds it.

Punto Panorámico of the Circuito Chico

The Circuito Chico is a 60-kilometre loop that leaves Bustillo Avenue beyond Llao Llao and returns through forest and lakeside road. Its best-known stop is the Punto Panorámico, a railed viewpoint on a bluff above Moreno Lake. From here you look down on the bridge over the Angostura channel, the arms of Moreno Lake, the Llao Llao peninsula and, on the horizon, Cerro López and the mountains of the Chilean border.

You have about 20 minutes at the Punto Panorámico, enough for photos from the different angles of the platform and a look at the craft stalls that often set up beside the car park. Visitors asking whether the Circuito Chico is worth visiting usually get their answer here: on a clear day this is the picture postcard of Bariloche.

San Carlos de Bariloche

San Carlos de Bariloche sits on the southern shore of Nahuel Huapi Lake at about 770 metres above sea level, the main gateway to the Lake District of Argentine Patagonia. Its centre is built around the Civic Centre, a square of stone and timber buildings from 1940 that houses the town hall, the museum and the cathedral tower, with the lake and the mountains as a backdrop.

The tour begins and ends in the city, with pickup at centrally located hotels or at the tour office on Rolando street, a few blocks from the Civic Centre. Because the programme lasts four hours and runs in the morning or the afternoon, you keep the rest of the day free for the chocolate shops of Mitre street, a walk along the lakefront or the cable car up Cerro Otto.