El Calafate: Perito Moreno Glacier Ice Hiking & Boat Tour

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/12

Duration5h–11h

GroupUp to 20

LanguagesEN · ES

PickupAt your hotel

Walking across blue ice while chunks of the glacier collapse into the lake below

You'll be picked up from your hotel (if selected), boat along the glacier wall, strap on crampons, and spend 90 minutes ice hiking across Perito Moreno with a bilingual guide. You'll see crevasses, blue lagoons, and watch ice calve into the lake, then finish with free time at the viewpoint footbridges before returning to town. The whole day is about five hours.

5h–11h

Step-by-step itinerary

Perito Moreno Glacier ice hiking tour

Receive pick-up time from guide
Travel to Bajo Las Sombras port
Boat sail along glacier south wall
Disembark and organize hiking groups
Put on crampons with guide's help
Ice hike on glacier trails
See crevices, moulins, and lagoons
Learn about glacier and wildlife
Return through Magellanic Forest
Free time at glacier footbridges
Return to El Calafate

The Experience

Someone straps metal spikes to your boots while you stand on the edge of a glacier, and then your guide points you toward a trail that only exists because it's frozen solid. That someone is your bilingual guide from Howlanders, and the glacier is Perito Moreno — one of the few on Earth you can actually walk on. The day starts with a boat ride along the glacier's south wall from Puerto Bajo Las Sombras, a port inside Los Glaciares National Park near El Calafate. You'll see the sheer height of it first, the ice wall rising up, and then you hear it — the sound of chunks breaking off and crashing into the water below. That's when it hits you that you're about to walk on something that's actively falling apart.

The ice hiking itself takes about an hour and a half, and your guide keeps the group moving on firm, safe trails across the glacier. You'll see crevasses up close, small blue lagoons trapped in the ice, and moulins — those sinkholes where meltwater disappears into the glacier. The guide talks about how the glacier moves, what the endemic plants and animals are doing up here, and points out where landslides happen. It's not a scramble or technical climbing; it's walking, but the ground beneath you is ancient ice, and that changes how you feel about each step. The crampons grip, the guide stays close, and you move through formations that look like they belong on another planet.

On the way back, you pass through the Magellanic Forest — the landscape shifts from ice to trees, and the views of Perito Moreno from the footbridges are the kind you'll look at in photos for years. If you book the package with transfers, the guide calls your hotel the day before to confirm pickup time, and you don't have to figure out how to get to Puerto Bajo Las Sombras yourself. If you skip the transfer, you meet the group directly at the port. Either way, you're back in El Calafate by afternoon.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup and drop-off (if you select that package option), a boat ride along the glacier wall, bilingual guide in Spanish and English, all ice hiking equipment including crampons, 90 minutes of guided hiking on the glacier, and free time at the Perito Moreno footbridges and viewpoints before returning to El Calafate.

Good to know

Easy physical levelNot for pregnant travelersNot for heart conditionsNot for back problems

Operated by Howlanders

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to walk on Perito Moreno Glacier itself rather than just view it from above — the ice hiking and boat combination show you the glacier three ways in one morning, and the fixed schedule with guide and equipment means you don't arrange anything separately.