Perito Moreno from on top: Big Ice, the balconies, and a Calafate table
14 playbooks shared · added to 45 trips
- 6:45 am1Private transfer from Avenida LibertadorEl Calafate
Eighty kilometres of RP11. A private car for the day costs roughly four times the shuttle and buys the two things that matter: the Curva de los Suspiros stop where the glacier first appears, and not being on the group bus's clock at the balconies afterwards. Book a driver, not a tour — the Big Ice operator runs its own transfer for about $80 a head if you would rather not.
8 min by train or taxi · 1.9 km - 8:10 am2Portal Perito Moreno park entryEl Calafate
Pay online in advance on ventaweb.apn.gob.ar; the gate stopped taking cards reliably and the queue at 09:30 when four buses arrive together is twenty minutes. Foreign-resident rate, per person, valid for the day (a second consecutive day is half price if you register the first ticket at the gate). NOT included in the Big Ice price.
3 min walk · 0 m - 8:45 am3Bajo las Sombras: boat across and crampons onEl Calafate
The crossing to the south wall and the walk along the lateral moraine to the crampon point are inside the Big Ice price. They provide crampons and harness; you bring rigid boots (or rent them in town the night before), gloves, sunglasses and a hat — there is no shade on ice and no backpack over 10 kg is allowed onto it.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.2 km - 9:20 am4Big Ice with Hielo y AventuraEl Calafate
Hielo y Aventura is the only concessionaire permitted on the ice; there is no competitor and no bargaining. Around $590 without pickup, roughly 3.5 hours actually walking on the glacier, and it goes deep enough to reach the blue sinkholes and lagoons the Minitrekking never sees. Hard limits: 18 to 50 years old, reasonable fitness, and it sells out weeks ahead in January — book direct at their Libertador office or on their site rather than through an OTA and save the markup. Minitrekking (no age cap, 1.5 hours on ice, about half the price) is the alternative if the age rule or the price rules you out. Whisky on glacier ice at the end is the tradition.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.2 km - 3:45 pm5Safari Náutico along the north faceEl Calafate
An hour on the water a few hundred metres off a 70 m wall, which is the only way to understand the scale. Uncommitted because after six hours on ice some people are done — buy it at the pier on the day rather than in advance. Stand at the BOW on the left side going out.
3 min walk · 0 m - 4:50 pm6The pasarelas, north balconiesEl Calafate
Five kilometres of walkways on four levels. Go DOWN to the lowest circuit at the waterline and stay put — calving is announced by a crack like artillery a second before anything moves, and standing still for twenty minutes is how you actually see one. The buses leave at 16:00 and 17:00, so from five o'clock the balconies empty out; this is exactly what the private car bought you.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.5 km - 7:15 pm7Glaciarium and the ice barEl Calafate
Six kilometres out of town on the way back, a genuinely good museum of Patagonian ice and how the Campo de Hielo Sur works, with a bar built of glacier ice in the basement. Skip it if you are cold and tired — it will still be there tomorrow and it runs a free shuttle from Libertador.
9 min by train or taxi · 5.4 km - 9 pm8Dinner at La ZainaEl Calafate
Small, seasonal, Patagonian lamb done properly, and a short Patagonian wine list — reserve at least two days out, the room is about ten tables. Argentines eat at 22:00 and a 21:00 booking is the easy one to get. Mi Rancho and Casimiro Biguá on Libertador are the fallbacks; the parrilla-for-two at Don Pichón with the lake below it is the cheaper classic.