Gourmet Glaciers: best boat tour in Los Glaciares National Park

This post is also available in: Español

Hello! The other day I told you about my experience with the Big Ice in Perito Moreno, of which I have very good memories. This time I come to tell you about my experience sailing in the Los Glaciares National Park, specifically with the Glaciers Gourmet tour, another must-do in El Calafate. Here we go!

Why the Glaciers Gourmet tour?

We decided to take the Glaciares Gourmet tour for several reasons.

On the one hand, you can only see the big glaciers that surround Lago Argentino (Argentinian lake) by boat. By land you do not get a good view of the famous Upsala and Spegazzini. However, with this tour from the water you can. On the other hand, we also visit the Perito Moreno and other smaller glaciers.

With this tour, we were going to see 3 of the most impressive glaciers in Patagonia, and with good food aboard a very comfortable ship.

Start of the tour through Los Glaciares National Park

The day before we agreed with our driver that he would pick us up at 7:30 in the morning, and a few minutes before we could already see him from our window. We got into the car and in 2 minutes he had already noticed our lack of caffeine.

We made a stop and bought coffee to take away. Then we continued with the trip; we had 50 minutes left, which are the ones that separate El Calafate from Puerto de la Soledad, which is located inside the Los Glaciares National Park.

Just the journey seemed to be part of the experience. The views of Lake Argentino in the background while our driver Gonzalo acted as our guide made us realize that the experience was going to be worth it.

We bought the entrance ticket to the park next to the pier and boarded the ship by the walkway. The seat you choose on the boat is the one you will have during the whole navigation. In addition, the table is shared and the seats near the windows are the first to fill up.

Tip 💡: If you have a ticket from the previous day, you get a 50% discount.

Navigation through Los Glaciares National Park

Once we set sail, they explained us the itinerary and the explanations began. At the same time, the natural show began: we only had to lean out of the window, go out to the deck on the second floor or to the terrace on the third floor.

Obviously we took a walk around the ship to get to know it as well as the cafeteria. Then we went out on deck to start getting the feel of sailing and the cold on the face (and sometimes body).

💡 Remember to bring a good coat, windbreaker and if possible waterproof. It depends on your luck that day, but you are among glaciers and it’s cold. Also good footwear, because the deck floor is wet and can be slippery if you wear flat shoes.

For almost two hours we sailed the Lago Argentina seeing big, small, white, blue icebergs…Some of them were even “fished” by the crew so we could have a drink with glacier ice 😱.

Finally, we reached the wall of the first glacier: the Dry Glacier. At each stop, the captain would wait for a reasonable amount of time and make a full circle around the glacier so that everyone could enjoy it regardless of their seat or place on deck.

This was repeated several times with the different glaciers, each one better: Upsala, Heim, Spegazzini. In all of them the guide gave us explanations well in advance so that we knew what we were going to see before going out on deck to enjoy it.

Glaciares Gourmet Tour Itinerary

Here you can see a map of Los Glaciares National Park and the route of the boat 👇🏽.

I’m not going to explain the views, because it’s worth coming to discover them for yourself. If the photos are not able to capture the incredible of the place, much less the words. Anyway, I leave you here a picture so you can get an idea.

After 12 p.m. we disembarked at Puerto de las Vacas to walk along a beautiful trail. The guides explained curiosities of the park and we understood what life was like for the ancient (and not so ancient) inhabitants of the park.

After this walk, we returned to the ship and were served lunch with three options to choose from: chicken, lamb or vegeterian option. We opted for the glass of wine and dulce de leche dessert, as it could not be otherwise. Then we continued on to the last stop: the Perito Moreno.

Once here, we had two options. On the one hand, enjoy the glacier from the ship and continue the way back to the port. On the other hand, to disembark at Perito Moreno itself and see it from the walkways, and this is what we did. After an hour and a half, we returned to El Calafate in a van that took us to our lodging.

This was our experience navigating the Los Glaciares National Park. As you can see, it is a very comfortable tour to enjoy the best glaciers in Patagonia. It is not as adventurous as the minitrekking on the Perito Moreno, but it is worth it to enjoy a place as impressive as this. Come and experience it!