Patagonia Epic Adventure

Few cities can match the unbridled energy of Buenos Aires. Sun-bleached boulevards, cutting-edge restaurants and sultry dancehalls set the stage for a festive expression of Argentine identity. It is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own distinct charm. La Boca, bright with kaleidoscopic houses and football culture; elegant Recoleta and buzzy Palermo, both packed with independent stores and bars; while the historic streets of San Telmo house antiques shops, Parisian-style cafes and tango parlors.   

The world’s southernmost city is a true frontier. Beyond its neat streets and waterfront restaurants stretches the dramatic wilderness of Tierra del Fuego, at the very tip of the Americas, where serrated massifs tower above native forests and glaciers calve into fjords in a maze of islands, populated mainly by penguins and sea lions.   

Once a remote sheep ranch clinging to the edge of the vast Lake Argentino, the pretty town of El Calafate today throngs with adventurers looking to launch themselves into Los Glaciares National Park. This is a place for hearty outdoor adventures on an epic scale: horse-riding across wild landscapes, hiking across ice fields and awe-inspiring glaciers, sailing across glacial lakes.   

The Chileans have a word reserved to describe the country’s untamed south: indómita. Nobody can truly claim dominion over Patagonia, they claim – not the rugged gaucho cowboys found in and around the main adventure hub of Puerto Natales nor the hikers that flock to nearby Torres del Paine National Park. Sculpted by violent tectonic forces and the ravages of the last ice age, this is a land of soaring granite spires and fairy-tale forests of twisted, lichen-daubed trees. 

Encircled by snow-capped peaks, Santiago is known for its colonial charm and historic landmarks, but surprises with its fresh air of modernity, with vibrant neighborhoods buzzing with cutting-edge restaurants and bars. At the heart of the old town lies the grand Plaza de Armas and the presidential palace of La Moneda, both central to Santiago’s story of conquest, dictatorship and revolution.