Southern Reaches of the World Tour: Buenos Aires, Bariloche, El Calafate & Ushuaia

In the morning, the sweetness of freshly baked pastries once again drifts from the local cafes and bakeries. Locals sit under the shade of umbrellas cast over tables situated on the sidewalk. They take their time to enjoy the cool air and quiet of the city streets, sipping on freshly pressed coffee and zesty orange juice.

After breakfast, your guide meets you at the hotel. You set yourself up on a bicycle, the best way to view the city, and set out on a private guided tour of the opulent architecture, lively culture, and vast history of the city. Your guide takes you along the various bike paths that wind underneath refreshing shade. The breeze brushes against your cheeks from the cool trade winds for which the city is named.

When you reach the neighborhood of La Boca, you arrive in the city’s most colorful neighborhood. Bright paint, from red to blue and green, blanket the homes and complexes of the barrio. Artists, writers, and dancers take their creativity to the streets, decorating the patios and balconies overlooking the avenues. Tango dancers perform on the corners providing more than a show, but an experience. The Caminito Street Museum has acted as an open-air gallery since the late 1950s. Stalls line the avenue with locals offering quality handcrafted statues and cultural icons, bordered by photogenic buildings, and perforated with the clapping footsteps of tango dancers.

The city become lively again in the morning with people venturing out to work, strolling along the Avenida de Mayo, cycling underneath the shaded pathways, and driving along the wide lanes of the city center. Your private transfer meets you at your hotel after breakfast and escorts you to Ministro Pistarini International Airport for your flight to Bariloche. The town sits at the edge of Lake Nahuel Huapi in a picturesque setting of pristine waters and rolling mountain peaks. Each encircling mountaintop rises to well over 6,561 feet above sea level.

When you arrive, your private transfer leads you from the airport to the heart of the city where you can relax in the comforts of your chalet-style accommodation. The city dates back to the early 20th-century. The buildings have an alpine character, made from a combination of hardwood and stone, with the main street of Mitre opening to a sensational view of the lake’s subtle wake leading to the mountains in the distance. The scent of chocolate emanates from the numerous chocolatiers lining Mitre, making it a chocoholic’s dream. You can see the many variations of the confection displayed in the shop windows.

The morning sunlight spreads over the lushness of the landscape. You sip on your morning coffee, reveling in the coziness of your accommodations with a view of the enchanting alpine scenery from the window. After breakfast, your guide greets you at the hotel and finds you ready to travel the celebrated Circuit. Bariloche acts as a gateway to the Andes Mountains. Once on the National Route 237, you begin your exploration of the Lake District, home to seven lakes and a number of traditional alpine towns. You can see the rushing water of the Limay River.

The air around the mountainside is crisp and brushed with pine and evergreen trees. On Provincial Route 65, you have an unparalleled view of Traful Lake. The water reaches a depth of 984 feet and stands at an elevation of 3,198 feet. The transparent surface allows you to look deep into the lake to see an underwater forest thriving on the lake’s shores. The clarity of the lake gives it a gemlike quality, and it is set in the crowning majesty of the encompassing landscape.

Bariloche has a serenity to the morning. The sunlight bounces off of the lake and the snowcapped peaks of the mountains glint against the background of the sky. Your guide once again meets you at your hotel, and you set out on a private tour of the magnificent scenery of Nahuel Huapi National Park. In the distance, you can see the towering peak of Mount Tronador, standing at 11,411 feet above sea level, and forming a natural boundary between Argentina and its western neighbor of Chile.

When you reach the base of Ventisquero Negro, the Black Glacier, you can see the striking black color of the ice. A small river connects the Black Glacier to the white ice of the Rio Manos Glacier higher up the mountain. The black ice of the glacier stands out significantly in contrast to the pristine colors of the surrounding ice and snow. Your guide explains how the hue of the Black Glacier is due to thousands of years of formation from falling gravel, rock, and ice. Your guide also gives you a solid piece of advice for viewing the glacier, “if you hear ice breaking, it is already too late to see it fall.” The beauty around the national park is untouched, allowing you to revel in the cascading glacial waterfalls, staggering cliffs, and unforgettable splendor.

In the morning, the aroma of chocolate spills out of the chocolatiers and fills the main street of Mitre. The displays are as sumptuous as the aroma, and as decadent as the flavors of the chocolate. Your private transfer meets you at your hotel after breakfast and escorts you to the airport for your flight to the southern city of El Calafate. The alpine atmosphere of Patagonia continues, with buildings constructed from wood and stone, with humble wooden facades with European style, but Argentinian flair.

El Cafate stands on the southern shores of Lake Argentino with its main street, known as Libertador, dotted with chocolate shops, restaurants, and souvenir shops, all constructed from knotted-pine. Outside the city, pastures drape the landscape leading to the mountains. Horses graze on the grassland and the turquoise waters of the lakes sparkle in the sunlight. When you arrive at your hotel, you can settle into your hotel with property encompassing more than 7,400 acres, wrapped in authentic Patagonian spirit and filled with mountain charisma.

The sunlight rises over the mountains outside of El Calafate and shades the sky in layers of soft red, pink, and purple. A gentle breeze blows across the pastures and rustles the grass. Your guide meets you at your hotel and you are eager to make your way to the remarkable Perito Moreno Glacier. The glacier is 19 miles long and is one of 48 glaciers attached to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, and one of three glaciers in Patagonia that is not retreating. The entire experience is filled with visual and auditory gifts. Pine trees line the road into the park.

Mountains rise and fall to create a jagged-tooth skyline. A network of catwalks leads to panoramas of the glacier at varied points along the Peninsula de Magallanes. The rugged ice reaches to the horizon, flanked by mountains on either side. The ice at the water’s edge seems smooth. You turn and hear the crack of ice. A large mass of glacier breaks away from, and falls, into the peninsula with an outstanding crash. The beauty of the landscape and the uniqueness of the moment is enough to take your breath away.

The vastness of your accommodation’s property embraces the prairies and rolling hills of Patagonia. After breakfast, you set out on a mountain bike and travel the earthen paths traversing the ranch-style expanse. You pass horses running through the breeze. You ascend hills and descend in the Anita Valley to find a lagoon painted in pink.

Flamingos linger in the water enjoying the cool climate of Patagonia. Their feathers turn pink due to the carotenoid in the plankton the flamingos prefer to eat. They can grow to a height of nearly five feet. You can’t help but notice how many of the resting flamingos nuzzled their beaks into their feathers and stand on a single leg. The beauty of the avifauna, combined with the panorama of the Patagonian landscape, creates an unforgettable picture-perfect moment. The remainder of the day is yours to continue your exploration of the Anita Valley on a mountain bike or relax in the luxuries of your hotel.

The sunlight casts a golden sheen across the hills and plains in the morning. You have a tremendous view of the scenery at breakfast, accompanied by the rich taste of fresh coffee. Or, if you prefer the culture of the Argentine cowboys, enjoy the slightly bitter flavor of maté tea. Your private transfer meets you at your hotel after breakfast and escorts you to the airport at El Calafate for your flight to Ushuaia.

The town was born from a port past, intersected by steep streets, sporadic buildings, and bordered by the snow-capped Martial Range. This is where the Andes Mountains, the longest mountain range in the world, touches the southern ocean. The town maintains a small town character in the bustle of cruise ships making their way to Antarctica. Locals and visitors alike enjoy sipping on a pint from the world’s southernmost microbrew as they take in the thrilling vistas of the mountains and lapping currents of the sea. Your private transfer guides you to the comforts of your hotel where you can relax in the rustic architecture and impressive surroundings.

The tale of Tierra del Fuego stems from when Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the cape witnessing an array of fires set by the local Yaghan people. After breakfast, your guide meets you at the hotel and escorts you to the Fuegian Southern Railway Station, home of the celebrated, “End of the World Train.” The railway was built to transport timber in the early 1900s and today is a thrilling ride across the landscape of the mountainous forests. The train travels four miles towards the slopes of Mount Susana. The station is made of timber. When you board the train, you pass the meandering banks of the Pipo River.

In the distance, you can see the cascading mist of the Macarena Waterfall. The steam from the locomotive puffs above the train like clouds. At the end of the railway is a hiking path that your guide leads you through. He points out evidence of the original settlers, the Yamana people, dating back more than 6,500 years. You reach Lapatia Bay after venturing through beech and evergreen forest. The shoreline shows ripples of cold arctic waters. Mountain peaks trundle alongside the water’s edge. In the distance, the Chilean island of Navarino rests near the Beagle Channel. There is endless tranquility in the grandeur of the natural landscape.

Morning in Ushuaia is bright, with light reflecting off of the cold water from the southern sea. The snowcapped Andes have a gilded edge in the spreading sunlight. Your guide meets you after breakfast and leads you to the dock where you board the boat for your day trip along the Antarctic Ocean. The sea breeze is cool with the backdrop of open water in one direction and the towering mountains in the other. Black-footed albatrosses glide through the air, their wingspan reaching a length of more than seven-feet.

When you reach Martillo Island, you find a colony of Magellanic penguins waddling on the pebbled beach. The water has a crystal-blue hue. The penguins grow up to 30 inches tall with white abdomens and black backs. Two black bands stripe the penguins between the head and the torso. They squawk over the rush of the waves against the shore. Some dive into the water and look as though they fly in the gentle current beneath the surface. When they step out of the ocean, they shimmy the water off of their feathers and bask in the sun, eager for their body to dry.

The morning light casts colorful layers on the horizon reflecting off of the Antarctic Ocean. The unforgettable image of the Andes looming over the edges of Ushuaia returns with the sun. At breakfast, you relish the hot coffee and buttery aroma of fresh pastries. The view of the landscape brushing against the city has taken you to unforgettable heights, from glaciers to lakes, from penguin colonies to ancient forests.

After your meal, your guide meets you at the hotel and escorts you to Malvinas Argentinas International Airport where you board your flight to Buenos Aires to make your connecting flight home.