Arrive in Chile’s capital and, in the evening on day 1, meet your Tour Director and fellow travelers at the hotel for a relaxed welcome meal. Share first impressions of snow-capped Andes ringing the city as you enjoy a convivial dinner that sets the tone for your Patagonian journey ahead.

Expect flavors rooted in Chile’s seasonal produce and Pacific larder, with time to trade stories and plans for the days to come. This friendly gathering eases you into Santiago’s rhythm and offers space to enjoy a free evening afterward or rest up for tomorrow’s exploration.

On day 2, join a Local Expert for a city overview tracing Santiago’s civic and spiritual heart. Admire the 18th-century Metropolitan Cathedral, long a symbol of resilience after repeated earthquakes. Wander the wrought-iron aisles of the 1872 Central Market, where seafood stalls and lunch counters hum with daily life, then ascend San Cristóbal Hill for wide panoramas of the capital.

High above the barrios, learn how this hill was once sacred to the Mapuche and is now crowned by the statue of the Virgin Mary. Your guide connects eras as you take in the sweep of the metropolis, from colonial grids to modern glass towers—context that enriches your time in Chile and Argentina to come.

Also on day 2, step into a village of adobe workshops to meet the makers preserving a rare craft from southern Chile. Watch as delicate strands of horsehair are dyed, woven and knotted into intricate designs, each piece reflecting rural traditions carried across generations.

Guided by artisans, you may try your hand at this rare art form and hear how your visit supports cultural livelihoods and heritage. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER Experience advances United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 by sustaining craft knowledge and community economies within Santiago’s living cultural landscape.

On day 4, board a boat to cross the glacier-fed waters of Última Esperanza Fjord, scanning for cormorants and distant peaks before landing at Estancia La Península. You’re welcomed with warm sopaipillas and mate before choosing how to explore: ride horseback along gaucho trails across wind-brushed steppe or join a guided hike through wetlands and evergreen forest alive with native birdlife.

Back at the ranch, savor a slow-roasted lamb barbecue, then watch skilled sheepdogs and learn about traditional shearing techniques that have sustained Patagonian estancias for generations. The fjord, the smoke of the asado, and stories of frontier life combine into a vivid portrait of southern Chile.

On day 5, travel from Puerto Natales into Chile’s most storied wilderness, pausing at lookouts to pause for photos and reflection as the silhouettes of the granite towers of Torres del Paine emerge. Keep watch for guanacos and rheas on the steppe while your Travel Director shares how glaciers sculpted these valleys and lakes.

Entering a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the palette shifts to turquoise waters and slate spires. The approach to your lodge reveals vast skies and wind-rippled grasslands—an introduction to the park’s scale that sets up tomorrow’s deeper exploration.

As one of two included choices on day 5, meet the baqueanos—Patagonia’s seasoned horsemen and guardians of ranch tradition. In a hands-on session, learn to saddle a horse, see how to nail a horseshoe, and practice the basics of riding, guided by skills passed down through generations.

Afterward, join your hosts to share yerba mate and stories of life lived between mountains and wind. It’s a grounded look at culture shaped by distance, weather and livestock—an experience that brings the human history of the park into focus.

Alternatively on day 5, join an immersive tour of the region’s oldest organic kitchens and garden at Reserva Cerro Paine. Walk terraces where bio-intensive methods nurture heirloom vegetables and culinary and medicinal herbs, supporting lodge kitchens while reducing the footprint in this fragile ecosystem.

Hear how seed saving and composting safeguard biodiversity and taste the difference in produce grown at altitude and wind. This is Patagonia from the roots up—stewardship, flavor, and ingenuity woven into daily life at the gateway to the park.

On day 6, join a guided panoramic circuit to classic viewpoints—Puente Negro, Lake Nordenskjold, Sarmiento and Lake Pehoé—then feel the spray at Salto Grande, where wind and water carve through pumice-colored rock. A gourmet al fresco lunch unfolds amid towers, clouds and steppe.

Later, follow the trail along the southern shore of Lago Grey, where blue-white bergs drift from the glacier and the wind carries the scent of lenga. Guides trace the park’s geology and wildlife as misty mountain passes and rippling light shift by the hour—a study in Patagonia’s elemental power.

On day 8, board a vessel to cruise Argentino Lake past tabular icebergs, navigating toward the vast Upsala Glacier and towering Spegazzini Glacier. Hear how advancing and retreating ice sculpts fjords and moraines in this UNESCO World Heritage landscape.

Disembark at Puesto de las Vacas for a guided walk through lenga forest before returning to the boat for a scenic lunch. The finale brings you near the northern face of Perito Moreno, where crevassed walls glow cerulean and the lake booms with distant icefall—nature in motion.

On day 9, stroll a network of elevated paths to take in sweeping views of the 30-kilometer-long Perito Moreno Glacier as it tumbles into Lake Argentino. From multiple balconies, you can listen for thunderous cracks, watch icebergs calve, and pause for photos and reflection as wind stirs the lenga and ñire.

Guides explain why Perito Moreno remains one of the world’s few advancing glaciers and how its cycle occasionally dams the lake. The vantage points reveal striated ice, blue crevasses and the ceaseless churn of a living river of ice.

Continue on day 9 to step inside the Glaciarium, a contemporary interpretive center dedicated to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Through interactive exhibits, films and scale models, learn how glaciers form and move, and how winds, temperature and topography shape this frozen world.

During a session with a local specialist, meet a glacier expert who connects field research to visible change on the ice, offering clear insight into climate dynamics and what they mean for Patagonia’s future. It’s a compelling scientific lens to complement the drama you’ve witnessed outdoors.

On day 11, trace the capital’s history along Avenida 9 de Julio past the Teatro Colón, then step into Plaza de Mayo to view the pink-hued Casa Rosada and the Metropolitan Cathedral, once led by Pope Francis. Stories here span independence, protest and power.

Continue to the color-washed streets of La Boca, through leafy Palermo and into Recoleta Cemetery, where marble mausoleums shelter the city’s past, including Eva Perón. Guides tie together art, immigration and politics so the city’s grand boulevards and neighborhood rhythms come vividly to life.

Bring your journey to a close on the evening of day 11 with a farewell at El Viejo Almacén in San Telmo. Savor a traditional Argentine dinner before the lights dim and musicians lift the first notes of the bandoneón for an intimate tango performance.

In this storied corner venue, active since the 1960s, dancers’ close embrace and precise footwork evoke the city’s immigrant roots and bohemian nights. It’s a living tradition—elegant, melancholic, and proud—that sends you off with Buenos Aires’ pulse still in your ears.

• 11 Breakfast (B)
• 4 Dinner (D)
• 4 Lunch (L)

• Puerto Natales: Cruise across the fjords of Última Esperanza to a remote Patagonian ranch, where warm sopaipillas and mate await. Choose your activity, then witness sheepdogs in action and traditional shearing. Over a slow-roasted lamb barbecue, discover the enduring rhythms of ranch life and the deep-rooted traditions of Chile’s southern frontier.
• El Calafate: Gain a deeper understanding of Patagonia’s glaciers through a talk with a Local Expert. Discover how these vast ice fields have shaped the region’s geography over thousands of years, and learn about the scientific impact of climate change on their structure, movement and future within the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.