Category: Epic Adventures

If you’re a red wine drinker, the chances are high that you’ve enjoyed at least one bottle of Argentina’s most celebrated export at some time: its world-beating malbec wine. You can find a bottle in just about any supermarket that sells wine, but until now I didn’t know much about its story, so I headed […]

Some destinations are places of the imagination as much as points on a map. The Pyramids, the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest – they’re the sort of places that inspire you to dream of travel, even before you really know exactly what you’re going to find there. Easter Island is definitely somewhere like that, an […]

Shut your eyes and imagine Patagonia for a moment. What do you see? If you’re like most people, you’ll probably have a picture of some wild mountains. And if you added some animals, there might be condors soaring high above, while a puma stalks guanacos on the slopes below.  If this sounds like a cliché, […]

It’s been 25 years since I first travelled to Patagonia and had my heart captured by its amazing wild landscapes. When I founded Swoop 10 years later, the region was on the cusp of change, with increasing tourist numbers and many of the challenges that can bring to both the environment and local communities.  I […]

‘Eat locally and eat seasonally’ is what people say when they’re recommending healthy meals that have a low impact on the planet. It’s a great aspiration, but one that’s not always simple to stick to with a busy lifestyle. When the convenience of a supermarket or home delivery is there, sometimes it’s easier to eat […]

Torres del Paine National Park is home to some of Chile’s most iconic sights. Any hiker or trekker will be instantly familiar with views of the immense granite Towers that give the park its name, and the wild crags of the Cuernos that sit on top of the Paine Massif. Put together and they’re a […]

At Swoop, we don’t just talk about Patagonia all day – we live and breathe it. Our team travels regularly throughout the region, plus we have many Swoopers who live in both Chile and Argentina, from the Lakes in northern Patagonia right down to Puerto Natales close to Torres del Paine.  In the 2024/25 travel […]

Patagonia is a place where everything seems to be produced on the most epic scale. It’s a place of huge landscapes, impossible mountain ranges and plains of pampas that seem to stretch out to the horizon forever. It can feel like small measures don’t exist here.  But maybe they should. On previous trips in Patagonia […]