Really, there were too many to be able to single out one. The particularly memorable moments included many of the wildlife encounters (including whale and orca watching, sitting close to elephant seals, and visiting penguin colonies), and the iconic views after the long hikes to the Base of The Towers, French Lookout, and Laguna de Los Tres.

Great holiday

Be aware that many ATMs in Argentina will not dispense pesos despite recognising and apparently accepting Mastercard debit or credit cards. Take sufficient cash as US$ to cover the needs of the whole trip (mainly for tippping) and pay by card whenever possible. In reality, local currency is rarely needed, although it is useful to get some pesos as change, for small tips or purchases. We got quite hung up about tipping before our trip, which based on Swoop’s guidance sounded like an expectation in most circumstances and hotels. We were then surprised that on group excursions, other nationalities did not tip guides / drivers. We therefore tipped only as we felt appropriate, based on the quality of the service provided by staff at hotels, individual guides and drivers.

In the future, we would certainly seek out small group excursions and treks wherever possible, as there were times when we found that we were amongst large groups from other nationalities who could be very loud and lacking in empathy regarding their impact on the enjoyment and experience of those outside their group.

When planning the trip last year, we found Danny’s knowledge and first hand experience invaluable. Subsequently, although Cecilia was helpful, we didn’t feel that she had the same level of knowledge and experience to be able to provide clear answers to some of the questions we asked. Also, on a number of occasions, she did not appear to have read our emails carefully and really understood the nature of our question, but perhaps this was a language issue? Our itinerary indicated that drinks at Rincón Chico were not included, whereas in the event, they were included. Similarly, it was not clear from the itinerary that Patagonia Camp was all inclusive. Obviously, these were both pleasant surprises to us but it would be useful to be clear on such details before travelling. As mentioned above, a fully integrated service which includes flight bookings would be preferable in our view. We chose to use DialAFlight in the UK because we felt that as a UK customer, using Swoop’s US partner / agent was adding unnecessary complexity.

We felt well prepared and largely this was owing to the excellent resources available on the Adventure Planner, although in the preceding months / weeks there were some late changes to excursions and also domestic flight schedules (outside of Swoop’s control), which caused a fair amount of stress and uncertainty. Consequently, whilst we were very excited, we were also a little anxious about whether everything would work smoothly and meet our original expectations. Fortunately, we needn’t have worried!

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Beyond 12 months