🇦🇷🇨🇱 Three towns, two countries

Patagonia, without camping

Six nights across El Calafate, El Chaltén and Puerto Natales with buses, a private driver and day hikes instead of a tent. Perito Moreno, the Fitz Roy sunrise and Torres del Paine, what it actually cost, and the route I would book now, on one map.

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Ellen and Daniel watching Fitz Roy turn orange at sunrise Ellen at Perito Moreno Glacier Laguna de los Tres below Fitz Roy
What you get

Four things, not a PDF

Almost every Patagonia itinerary that ranks is built around the W Trek or a campsite. We booked too late for either, so we did it from three towns with buses and day trips, and this is that trip, laid out so you can use it standing in a bus terminal.

the detail

The full guide

Town by town, where we slept and what it cost a night, the buses, the glacier day, the hike, and the full cost breakdown for six nights.

the fun one

Interactive map

35 spots pinned and colour coded, each with our notes and a photo. Filter to just the hikes, or just the food.

the clever bit

Magic itinerary

One tap and your days appear, town by town, with every bus and the border crossing placed where they actually fall.

then yours

Yours to change

Drag it about, cross things out, add whatever is nearby. Every travel time updates as you go.

The magic bit

It builds the whole route, not just the days

Patagonia is three towns, hundreds of kilometres apart, with a border in the middle. You do not just need to know what to do in El Chaltén, you need to know which night to be where, which bus that means, and that you need a night back in El Calafate before the bus into Chile. So it lays the whole trip out for you, buses included.

  • Two routes: the nine nights I would book now, or the six we actually did
  • The Fitz Roy sunrise hike laid out leg by leg, from the 1:45am start to the way down
  • Every bus is its own stop, with what we paid and the tax nobody mentions
  • A spare day for the weather in El Chaltén and Puerto Natales
El Calafate 2 nights El Chaltén 3 nights El Calafate 1 night Puerto Natales 3 nights
magic itinerary
First, the plan

Built for you in one tap

Tap it once and your days appear, town by town, in the order we would do them. Every leg tells you how far it is to the next place and whether that is a walk, a car or the bus, and the hike is the hike: the times we actually walked, not a guess from a map.

The days you change town say so in their own right, with the real price of the bus, the boarding tax you pay at box 9 and the hours we sat at the border. Where we never timed something ourselves, it tells you that instead of making a number up.

Magic itinerary
day 4 El Chaltén and Laguna de los Tres
Leave town at 1:45am
The Fitz Roy trailhead
Download Maps.me the night before, it is free offline. In peak season the rangers set up very early, from around 2am.
About 2 hr 30 min on the trail. The first 8 km are easy, and in the dark if you are going for sunrise
The last climb, in the dark
The 2 km sign and the last climb
It is 45 minutes out of the three and a half hours you have probably already spent walking, so you will be fine. I promise you can do it.
The rest of your nine nights is in the guide
Then, your version

Then make it yours

Nothing in there is fixed. Cross out the restaurant you do not fancy, drag a stop up or down by the little grip, or send it into a different day if the forecast changes, which in Patagonia it will. The dashed plus sits right on the gap between two stops, so if you want something in the middle of your afternoon you just tap the middle of your afternoon.

Every travel time recalculates the moment you change something, and so does the total for the day, which means the plan on your screen is always the plan you are actually doing.

No guessing

It knows what is near

Tap that plus and it only offers you things that are actually close to where you already are, closest first, with the real travel time from the stop above it. Filter it down to food, or drink, or somewhere for the evening, and every option is a place from our trip rather than whatever is paying to be top of a list.

Then send it

Straight into the group chat

One tap on share and the whole route lands in Messages, WhatsApp or your Notes, your edits and all, with a map link on every stop. No app to download, no account to make, nothing for your friends to sign up for.

  • Text it to whoever you are travelling with
  • Save it to your Notes for the bus
  • Every stop keeps its Google Maps link
The bit nobody publishes

A$1,255.50 each for six nights, flights not included

Patagonia is not cheap, but it is a lot more doable than the luxury camps make it look. This is my own breakdown, per person, checked against our spending records line by line. Flights are left out because everyone's are different. All prices are January 2026, and Argentine prices were moving fast, so treat every peso figure as a snapshot.

Have a look

Three towns and two countries, on one map

Here are a handful of the pins, a couple from each town. The grey dots are the rest. The full map has all 35, each with our notes, a photo and a link to book it.

29 more spotswith our notes and photos
Our photos, not stock

Six nights at the bottom of the world

Ellen and Daniel at Laguna de los Tres at sunrise The face of Perito Moreno Glacier Fitz Roy before sunrise on the Laguna de los Tres hike Looking out over Torres del Paine Ellen at the top of the Laguna de los Tres hike below Fitz Roy Ellen looking up at Fitz Roy Pointing out the icebergs at Perito Moreno Glacier Ellen by the lake on our Torres del Paine day
The detail

What is actually in it

Ellen at Laguna de los Tres as Fitz Roy turns orange at sunrise
From me to you

Hi, I'm Ellen

My partner Dan and I have been travelling together for over 10 years, the last 24 months full time, and every guide I make is a trip we actually took. We are not hikers, we booked Patagonia far too late, and we still got the best sunrise of our lives. That is the trip this guide is for.

And the flip side of that: we did not walk on the glacier, we did not take the boat, we did not hike in Torres del Paine and we did not do the W Trek, so none of it is written up as though we did. I am not going to write you a day I did not do.

54 countries and counting.

Ellen x
Before you ask

Questions

How do I get it after I pay?

Straight away. You land on your own page with the guide, the interactive map and the route builder, and the same link is emailed to you so you always have it.

Do I need to camp, or be a hiker?

No camping at all: we stayed in Airbnbs, a cabin and a hostel. The Fitz Roy sunrise hike is classified difficult and I will not pretend it is easy, but we do not hike often either. It is easy until the last 45 minutes to an hour, and that is 45 minutes out of the three and a half hours you have already walked.

Why nine nights?

Because we had six and I would honestly add three more. An extra day in El Calafate so the glacier is not squeezed in before a bus, and spare days in El Chaltén and Puerto Natales so the weather cannot take the hike or Torres del Paine away from you. The six we actually did is in there too, if that is the time you have.

How much does it cost?

Our six nights came to A$1,255.50 per person, not including flights or the El Chaltén park fee, which was about A$40 to A$50 per person in January 2026. The guide has every line of it.

Does it cover Torres del Paine and the W Trek?

Torres del Paine, honestly: we did a full day tour from Puerto Natales, the towers stayed in cloud, and the guide tells you exactly what the tour is like and how to plan a spare day. The W Trek, no. It was out of reach by the time we booked, so it is not written up.

When should I go?

We went in late January, the height of summer, so that is the month I can tell you about: long days, a cloudless glacier, a perfect sunrise at Fitz Roy, and three days later Torres del Paine buried in cloud. It is also the busiest time, so book early.

Can I use it offline?

Yes. There is a PDF of the whole guide to download, and a file with every pin to import into your own Google Maps. Worth doing, because there is no reception at the glacier.

What if it is not for me?

Email us within 30 days and we refund you, no questions asked, and you keep the guide. Full details on our refund page.

Does it go out of date?

We update it as things change and you get every update free, forever.

Skip the weeks of working it out

We already booked it too late, rode every bus and wrote down every number. Get the guide, the map and the route builder for less than one steak dinner in El Chaltén.

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Have the best trip, Ellen x
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