El Calafate city located in Patagonia Argentina, belonging to the province of Santa Cruz. It has grown a lot in recent years in terms of service offerings.
Likewise, its main importance is due to the fact that it is the city where many travelers visit the Perito Moreno glacier and El Chalten, known as the national capital of trekking.
To visit this city, the ideal is to hire a complete travel package that already includes at least 2 or 3 nights to be able to visit Los Glaciares National Park in peace, where you can visit the famous Perito Moreno glacier. The packages depart from the city of Buenos Aires and already include domestic flights, accommodation, airport transfers and excursions so you don’t have to worry about a thing. Anyway, in this complete guide with updated information, we provide all possible data so that tourists are as up-to-date as possible when they arrive at the destination.
What to see and do in El Calafate
Intendancy of Los Glaciares National Park
A nice tour to learn about the history of this national park, therefore of the Perito Francisco Moreno and also of Darwin. It is located in the center of the city and is the ideal place to obtain all the information about Los Glaciares National Park, the protected air of the area, excursions within the Park, etc. In addition to functioning as an information center, it also has an interpretive trail that talks about the history of the Park with pieces and machines that allowed access to the glaciers.
open Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 16:00
Laguna Nimez Reserve
It is close to the city center and can be reached on foot. The reservation can be made on foot and it takes at least 1h30
to travel. You can see many birds and the views of the Laguna de Nimez next to Lake Argentino. Ideal for those who love bird photography.
Av Costanera Presidente Nestor C Kirschner 2075 (2,081.32 km)
9405 El Calafate
open from 09: 00–20: 00 hs
Toy Museum
Nice museum, quite complete. It is a good way to reconnect with toys that were part of childhood. The Toy Museum’s collection has more than 15,000 pieces on display and spans a hundred years of history, from 1870 to 1970.
Av. Del Libertador 975-998, El Calafate, Santa Cruz
open every day from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm
Historical Interpretation Center of Calafate
It is a permanent sample of natural and human history of the last 100 million years in Patagonia. Ideal for lovers of Paleontology. They also show who the original inhabitants were in the south of the republic. The sculptures are very well done. The history of the first townspeople is also very complete and informative. Very good periodization and chronology. In the end, the free mate is a great detail.
av. brown 1175, Z9405 El Calafate, Santa Cruz
open every day from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
Glaciarium Museum of Patagonian Ice
This bar / museum is 10 minutes from the center of Calafate. It has a beautiful view of the lake, the museum itself, it is
a 30-minute self-assisted tour, there are 3 or 4 audiovisual spaces, one 3D that is the most interesting. The rest are infographics, which can be seen on the internet.
RP11, Z9405 El Calafate, Santa Cruz
open from 11: 00–20: 00 hs
Trips from El Calafate
Perito Moreno Glacier
Standing in front of the Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the best experiences we have as travelers in Argentina. An immense beauty that cannot really be seen in photos.
It is part of Los Glaciares National Park, one of the most visited in Argentina and is located in the southwest of the province of Santa Cruz. This park has about 700 thousand hectares and is the largest in the National System of Argentine Protected Areas.
El Chalten
El Chalten is located 200km from Calafate and is one of the most common access roads, since it is possible to get to Calafate Airport and from there go directly to El Chalten.
Located in a privileged place on the edge of the northern part of Los Glaciares National Park. Over the years it became a mountain tourist town, with a large influx of visitors from different parts of the world interested in knowing the majestic Cerro Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre and the many granite spiers that surround both.
How to get to Calafate
Airplane
From Buenos Aires, Ushuaia and Bariloche, flights depart almost daily to El Calafate arriving at Comandante Armando Tola International Airport. The airline that goes to this destination is: Aerolineas Argentinas.
Local travel agency in El Calafate:
Since the beginning of 2001, the main agency that reserves complete packages to El Calafate is 01Argentina Travel Agency. Expert travel agents organize the complete tour including air, hotel, tours and transfers.
How to get from El Calafate airport to the city center
Taxi: As in almost any airport in the world at the exit of this there are taxis that will take you to the center of town
There is no public transport service to get from the airport to the city.
That is why it is highly recommended to hire a travel agency with the complete package that already includes transfers.