Perito Moreno Glacier Tour with Optional Boat Cruise El Calafate

Perito Moreno Glacier

The Perito Moreno Glacier is a river of ice that flows down from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field into Lago Argentino, ending in a front about five kilometres wide and some seventy metres high above the water. Unlike most glaciers it is roughly in balance, and every few years it advances far enough to dam an arm of the lake until the ice bridge collapses in a spectacular rupture. On any day, though, you will see and hear calving: towers of ice crashing into the lake.

The glacier is about eighty kilometres from El Calafate, ninety minutes by road, and this tour gives you around three hours in front of it. Is Perito Moreno worth visiting? It is the reason most people come to El Calafate, and among the few great glaciers you can stand in front of without a hike. The best time to visit Perito Moreno is October to April, when the days are long and the roads clear, but it is open all year.

The boardwalks of Los Glaciares National Park

Facing the glacier on the Magellan Peninsula is a network of about four kilometres of elevated wooden boardwalks and stairs, laid out in circuits that take you from the upper balconies down to platforms almost at water level. Each level gives a different view: the full width of the front from above, the crevasses and blue ice up close from the lower walks, and the channel where the ice meets the forest. The guide suggests a route so you see the best of them in the time available.

Allow the full three hours; the longer you watch, the more calving you see. There is a restaurant and a snack kiosk near the entrance for lunch at your own expense, or bring a packed lunch and eat it on a bench with the ice in front of you. Comfortable closed shoes and warm, windproof clothing are essential even in summer. The Los Glaciares National Park entrance fee is not included and is bought in advance online.

The boat safari in front of the ice wall

The boat safari leaves from a small pier on the southern arm of the lake and sails for about an hour along the glacier front, keeping a safe distance but close enough that the wall of ice fills the view and the boat feels tiny beneath it. From the water you see the deep blue of compressed ice in the cracks and the scale of the seventy-metre front as the boardwalks cannot show it. Icebergs drift past and, if you are lucky, a calving sends a wave across the channel.

The boat is covered, with indoor seating and open decks for photos, and the ride is included in the default option of this tour. A Perito Moreno boat tour is the best addition for anyone who wants to feel the glacier rather than just look at it, and families with children usually rate it the highlight of the day. If you prefer more time on foot, the option without the boat gives you about four hours on the boardwalks instead.

The drive from El Calafate across the Patagonian steppe

The road from El Calafate to the glacier runs west along the southern shore of Lago Argentino, first across open Patagonian steppe where guanacos graze and condors circle, then into the lenga and ñire forest of the national park. The lake changes from milky turquoise to deep blue as the mountains close in, and the first glimpse of the glacier across the water, some minutes before you reach the boardwalks, is among the best moments of the day. The guide uses the ninety-minute drive to explain how the ice field, the lake and the peninsula were formed.

We travel in an air-conditioned vehicle with a bilingual guide, and the day runs about eight hours door to door. If you are planning a day trip to Perito Moreno from El Calafate on your own, note that the park is a long drive with no public transport at the end; a guided tour with hotel pickup takes all the planning away.

El Calafate

El Calafate is the small town on the southern shore of Lago Argentino that serves as the gateway to the glaciers, with an airport, a main street of restaurants and craft shops, and hotels spread along the lake. It is named after the calafate bush, whose dark berries ripen in summer; local tradition says that whoever eats them will return to Patagonia. The town is where every Perito Moreno Glacier tour begins and ends, and most visitors stay two or three nights to combine the glacier with the boat cruise to the Upsala and Spegazzini glaciers or a day in El Chaltén.

Pickup for this tour is from hotels with a reception in El Calafate, up to forty-five minutes before the start time, and guests staying in rented apartments are given a nearby meeting point. The morning tour returns in the late afternoon; the afternoon option leaves at noon and is back around eight in the evening, which in summer still leaves daylight for a walk along the lake.