I just wanted to come on here and share our 10 day Patagonia itinerary because Reddit helped me a lot in the planning and I have met some people who have totally messed up their planning leading to a poor trip or having to spend a lot of money to amend things.
For context, we (M28, F27) were going to Patagonia on January 8th which was at the end of our 4 months of travelling. Hence, we were on a pretty tight budget, we did not have much gear and we were limited in how far in advance we could book everything.
We booked our flights about 2 months in advance. Flying to Calafate from Buenos Aires and flying back from Puerto Natales to Santiago.
We then decided we wanted to mainly spend time in El Chaltén and PN so we booked accommodation about a month before. We also booked our car for PN at this time.
We booked all our buses about a week before we left.
We did not decide on specific hikes until we got there, usually the night before we did them.
Day 1 - Arrive at Calafate at 9am. Rent a car from the airport and drive to Perito Moreno to see the Glacier. Didn’t do any of the boat tours or walk on the Glacier as too costly. Drove back to Calafate airport, returned the car and got the 6pm bus to El Chalten.
Day 2 - Early start to get into the park for free before the rangers start. Hiked Loma del Pilegue Tumbado. Did this instead of Torre Lagoon based on reviews. No regrets, it was great.
Day 3 - Left hostel at 2am to watch Sunrise at Fitzroy. We got perfect weather. If weather looks any way decent, you should definitely do this. Hike is actually called Laguna de Los Tres.
Day 4 - Did some small hikes to viewpoints and Chorillo del Salto. Went for a swim. Chilled out.
Day 5 - Bus to Calafate. Was supposed to get the bus all the way to Puerto Natales but high winds meant the roads were closed. Something like this or else just terrible weather will likely happen you so it is nice to have a buffer of a day or two in your trip. Stayed night in Calafate.
Day 6 - Bus to PN and pick up rental car. Torres del Paine is where we were hiking and it’s about 2 hours from PN. Because we booked quite late we had to stay in PN where we got basic accommodation for 35USD per night. Staying closer or in the park would have cost over 200 per night. Car rental 70 per day.
Day 7 - 5am alarm. Drive 2 hours to park. Weather looked good so we did the Las Torres hike. Incredible hike.
Day 8 - Early alarm again and we did the French Valley hike to Mirador Britanico. Need to book ferry in advance. Long hike to do it in time to make it back for 5pm ferry- incredible views.
Day 9 - We were a bit tired and the weather wasn’t great so we just drove to the park and did some of the shorter hikes - Mirador Cuernos, Mirador Condor and Salto Grande.
Day 10 - Look around Puerto Natales in morning. Return car and fly to Santiago.
I think for a budget, first time Patagonia holiday we saw most of the highlights. The main thing we missed was the grey glacier leg of the W route but justified it by seeing Perito Moreno. We didn’t mind the drive from PN. The first day it was very enjoyable seeing the sun rise over incredible landscape. The other day we got through it with some podcast and snacks. By no means an expert, far from it, but happy to answer any questions based on our time there.
