El Calafate

The overriding reason to visit EL CALAFATE is to make it your base for seeing Glaciar Perito Moreno and the other world-class attractions that occupy the southern sector of Parque National Los Glaciares – these make it one of Argentina’s most-visited tourist destinations and a world class attraction. The main sites cluster around Lago Argentino, the largest of all exclusively Argentine lakes, and the third biggest in all South America, with a surface area of 1600 square kilometres – it’s so deep that its temperature remains almost constant at 8°C year round (it’s fed by melting glaciers). Catch it on a cloudy day and you could be looking at a tarnished expanse of molten lead, while when the weather is brighter the lake soaks up the light of the Patagonian sky to reflect a glorious hue of polarized blue. Most of Lago Argentino is surrounded by harsh, rolling steppe, but the scenery becomes infinitely more interesting around its western tendrils: transitional scrub and southern beech woodland press up on its shores, and the impressive snowcapped mountains (many well over 2000m) that fringe the Hielo Continental Sur rear up behind.

Until the mid-1980s, El Calafate was little more than a single street with a handful of hostels and hotels, but now there are dozens of places to stay with more being built to accommodate tens of thousands of annual visitors. The resulting space and labour shortage has led to considerable inflation, which you will find reflected in accommodation and restaurant prices, while the town has a bloated feel, sprawled in the shadow of its eponymous mountain. Much money has been visibly invested in development, not least because this is the fiefdom of President Cristina Fernández and her ex-President husband, local lad Néstor Kirchner.

The best times to visit are spring and autumn (Nov to mid-Dec & Mar–Apr), when there’s a nice balance between having enough visitors to keep services running but not too many for the place to seem overcrowded. If you’re planning to arrive any time outside winter (when access can be hard and many places are closed any way), you’re advised to book accommodation, flights and car rental (especially if you want a 4WD) well in advance.