At Swoop, we’re obsessed with Patagonia. In the 2025/26 travel season that’s just finished, we helped over 3,300 travellers experience Patagonia, from the Chilean and Argentinian Lake Districts in the north to Cape Horn off the final tip of South America, and all points in between.
We’ve got the expertise to do this because every year we crisscross the region on adventures of our own, keeping our destination knowledge the best in the business. This season, the Swoop team laced up their hiking boots, jumped into zodiac boats on adventure cruises, tracked wildlife and tested the pillows everywhere from the simplest refugios and the most luxurious lodges. We asked them to pick out their personal travel highlights from the last year in Patagonia, to help inspire an adventure story of your own.
World class hiking
I hiked the Huemul Circuit and my highlight came on the very last day. Sticking my head out of the tent just after dawn, there were icebergs that had calved from Viedman Glacier in the night, and drifted right to the edge of the lake, right in front of where we had camped. How about that for a wake up call?
– Imy hiked our Ultimate Chaltén Trek in Los Glaciares
Crossing the John Gardner Pass was the best day on my O Circuit trek. There was such a sense of achievement within our whole group of doing something phenomenal together. And then you look down and you’ve got the Grey Glacier in front of you! I’ve seen it from Lago Grey but never from above – it’s just so unreal and vast. We had snow and wind – it felt like we might have been summiting Everest at times – but it was so beautiful that I can hardly put it into words.
– Jo hiked the 9-Day Torres del Paine O Circuit
The stand out for me was the Laguna de Los Tres hike from El Chaltén to the base of Mount FitzRoy, and getting to do it when there was snow on the ground so we needed crampons for part of it. The last time I was there was working as a guide, so it was a really special experience to go back and see it from a guest’s point of view and have someone look after me instead of the other way around!
– Keira travelled on our Highlights of Los Glaciares trip
I tackled the wild Dientes de Navarino – the southernmost trek in the world. The weather and landscape changed every two hours and we had to offer ourselves up to whatever Mother Nature gave us. I’ve done physically harder treks, but this one required an extra level of mental toughness – we had to work as a team with our guide, all supporting each other. It’s not for everyone, but that team work was its own reward as much as the location.
– Tomas did the Dientes de Navarino Trek from Puerto Williams
I hiked out from Bariloche and really connected with the climbing culture among the granite peaks at Refugio Frey – an iconic place in Patagonian adventure sports history. You see climbers in action when you get there, and the next morning at breakfast they’re already getting their kits ready to go back to the wall. It made me remember what made Patagonia so famous in the first place, those brilliant peaks here, at FitzRoy and Las Torres – all feeding that impulse to get outside and explore.
– Nico did our Trek Hut to Hut in Bariloche trip in the Argentinian Lake District
Wildlife encounters and conservation projects
I knew Peninsula Valdés long before I knew its name, through David Attenborough’s wildlife programmes – and sequence of an enormous orca lunging out of the waves to beach itself on the shingle to grab a sea lion lunch. I saw every other species on my wish list, from Southern right whales and elephant seals to Magellanic penguins, but the moment I left my guide started WhatsApping me photos of orcas on the beach I’d barely left! Pure serendipity of course – and a reminder that when it comes to wildlife watching, the animals are always going to choose how you get to see them!
– Danny stayed at Estancia Rincon Chico on his wildlife watching trip to Peninsula Valdés
Spending time with the best puma hunter in Torres del Paine, who now works in puma conservation was my highlight. Other guides spoke of Mirko in awed tones, and it was easy to see why. His sense of the landscape was uncanny. He’d stop and look at the bushes then disappear to follow some imperceptible sign, before returning to show me the faintest scuff marks resolved themselves into pawprints, and a patch of slightly flattened leaves where a puma had passed just an hour before.
– Burnham stayed at Estancia Cerro Guido while shooting Swoop’s award-winning film The Puma Hunter.
The best view I had of Torres del Paine was the most unexpected – framed through the doors of a greenhouse. I spent a morning with the Torres del Paine Legacy Fund, learning about their habitat restoration work, and literally planting a seed for the future in their plant nursery. With some parts of the park still recovering from the wildfires of 2011, it was a hopeful reminder that we all have it our power to leave the wilderness in a little better state than how we found it.
– Paul stayed at Riverside Camp, visiting projects for the Swoop Conservation Fund
Amazing accommodation
As the Patagonia Product Manager, my trip was focused around checking in with the sheer variety and number of accommodations that we already sell – and those we’re about to start offering. I crisscrossed the region, but the place that left me most excited was the new Conservation Lodge from Explora in Torres del Paine, in the remote northeastern part of the park. It’s a complete contrast to the area around the Paine Massif. The lodge was still receiving its finishing touches when I visited, but with kilometres of hiking trails already complete — including one along a canyon ridge where I looked down on juvenile cond already complete, I can’t wait for our travellers to stay there.
– David visited Explora Torres del Paine’s Conservation Reserve to see their new lodge, opening in early 2027.
I finally got to stay at The Singular Patagonia, an iconic hotel in Puerto Natales that’s also a historic monument and heritage building. It was an almost perfect six-star hotel experience in the gateway to Torres del Paine, with some of the best high-end service I’ve ever experienced. And it even has its own museum, dedicated to the days a century ago when it was the final export destination for Patagonia’s endless sheep flocks. So much of the old machinery is still there,so you can take a little history tour, relax in the sauna and then plunge into the cold water of the fjord. What a combination!
– Iain stayed at The Singular Patagonia in Puerto Natales
Staying at Patagonia Camp, one of the most wonderful things was having access to a ton of private trails as well as Torres del Paine. For me, the hike to El Toro waterfall with absolutely nobody else around was a very peaceful highlight, connecting with nature at a personal and private level. I’d recommend it to anybody staying there.
– Scarlett explored Torres del Paine from Patagonia Camp
Impossible glaciers
I visited Perito Moreno ten years ago as a backpacker, and it was a treat to return and discover it was just as beautiful as in my memory. We were graced by an incredible autumn day of bright sun and blue skies which framed the vast block of ice perfectly. I took the boat trip across the lake to shoreline littered with football-sized ice fragments, where we could lay our hands on the glacier itself. On the way back, bobbing among the icebergs with a Calafate Sour in hand, I knew I promised not to leave it another decade to return.
– Jim saw Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares
I sailed the length of the Northern Chilean Fjord to see San Rafael Glacier. What a place! It’s a unique experience getting so close to its massive ice walls, and cruising among glassy icebergs big and small. At the end of the day, the glacier turned pink and purple in the sunset – an amazing sight from the water.
– Agustín sailed on Skorpios II for our Northern Patagonia Fjords Cruise
Cruising along Tierra del Fuego, we sailed through Glacier Alley, where all the different glaciers were named after different countries. At each one, we had music and food from that country – pizza and Italian folk music for the Italian Glacier, sausage and sauerkraut for the German Glacier. I’m half-Dutch, and when we got to the Dutch Glacier they served oliebollen, which is a pastry we serve only at midnight on New Year. The taste almost made me cry! It was a really fun time in a wild landscape – everybody loved it.
– Clo sailed on from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia on our Wildlife, Glaciers & Cape Horn Cruise
Incredible landscapes
One of my real highlights was hiking in Tepuhueico National Park, facing the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of Chiloé island. It doesn’t have the epic drama of southern Patagonia, but it’s such a softly beautiful place, and a great place for wildlife too – birdwatching in the forest and looking for the tiny pudu deer hiding among the giant rhubarb.
– Felipe stayed at Refugia Chiloé on Chiloé Island
My favorite moment was the Alto del Toro hike in Torres del Paine. We had the classic Patagonia weather experience with wind and rain, but the sky cleared at exactly the right moment when we reached the viewpoint over the Paine Massif and the lakes surrounding it. Some people think Torres de Paine is crowded, but we didn’t see anyone else on the whole circular trail – it was like having our own private national park.
– Chloe stayed at Explora in Torres del Paine
This season I headed north to the Atacama Desert – my first return here since my overlanding and backpacking days. The accommodation was a lot nicer this time around! But what really blew me away was the Taos Geyser – seeing that steam and air come out of the ground and being reminded that I’m just a mere mortal standing on the thin skin of the Earth, and there are much mightier forces rumbling away beneath us all. It was awesome in every way imaginable.
–Mel experienced luxury at Explora Atacama, Tierra Atacama and Awasi Atacama
I stayed at Coyhaique River Lodge, which sits in one of the best places in the world for fly fishing – there’s such an abundance of different fly waters there, you can fish in a different place and environment every single day. A real highlight for me was visiting in autumn and driving from the lodge along the Carretera Austral highway, seeing the snow on the mountains and the red Fall colours everywhere, then heading out in a boat to a private small lake where we were the only people fishing on it, just catching trout in abundance.
– Peter stayed at Coyhaique River Lodge in Aysen
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