Patagonia

Patagonia is a season rather than a place you can visit whenever you like. The window runs November to March, when daylight stretches past sixteen hours and the passes are open. December and January are the busiest and the windiest. Late February and March bring softer weather, autumn colour in the lenga forest and the best of the trout fishing.

The region splits in two. On the Chilean side, Torres del Paine is the compact and dramatic option: granite towers, guanaco, and riding or walking straight from the lodge door. On the Argentine side, El Calafate and El Chalten give you the Perito Moreno glacier and Fitz Roy, with the estancia country of Santa Cruz behind them.

Access is by private or scheduled aircraft into Punta Arenas for Torres del Paine, or El Calafate for the Argentine side, in both cases after a night in the gateway city. Among our preferred hotel partners, Mandarin Oriental Santiago and Park Hyatt Buenos Aires cover those nights. In Patagonia itself the best properties are independent lodges rather than international brands. We say so rather than pretend otherwise, and we book them on their merits.

Patagonia is the February leg of the OUIJETS twelve-month calendar, taken at the height of the southern summer. Ask your advisor about pairing it with Antarctica in a single trip, which the shared season makes straightforward.