The Perito Moreno glacier tour. It's one of the most unique sites I've seen in my life. Also, while I was initially disappointed that I could not do the on-ice glacier walk, I realize now that is not really necessary to appreciate the site.

Great holiday

We modified our original itinerary once we were in El Chalten. We planned for 3 lengthy hikes (Los Tres, Torre and Pliegue) and one shorter trip (Huemul & Desierto). We did Los Tres on the first day and it was a long hike with a particularly uphill stretch to get up to the lake. This proved too much for my wife, but our guide was able to pass her off to another group just behind us that was skipping the uphill climb. The weather that first day was very cloudy and while the views were good we could not really see FItz Roy. The weather was excellent on our remaining days there and the weather has a huge impact on the experience (this is not surprising, of course). We replaced the Pliegue hike with a shorter hike to Mirador de los Condores and Mirador Aguilares. There is a certain amount of overlap in what you experience on our itinerary - the views, while spectacular, are relatively similar when it comes to the mountains (Fitz Roy, Poinsenot, Torre); I'd say there is overlap generally on the hiking too. The 2 days of shorter hikes were just as good with great views and interesting terrain as the 2 longer hikes we did. So I think a key point for someone planning a visit is what type of activity you really want to do - ie, do you really need to do a 12 mile hike when a 3 mile hike gives you similar views and experiences? As to meeting expectations, after the first day with limited views of the major mountains I will admit to be somewhat underwhelmed. But on the remaining 3 hikes in Chalten we had perfect weather and it made the scenery much more impactful. Perito Moreno is a true must if you come to this area - incredibly unique and awe inspiring.

We had 4 different guides in Chalten (Virginia, Pablo, Francisco, Julian) - all were truly excellent. They were interesting, informative about the geography, plant and animal life, very good at coaching on the more difficult terrain we were hiking, very engaged with the group. Walk Patagonia was great. We typically do not take guided trips when we vacation but in this instance I would highly recommend it. However, while we typically are happy to interact with others in our small group, the differences in aptitude, stamina, etc. between hikers in the group may have big bearing on the experience. On our Los Tres hike, had my wife attempted the steep climb and found she could not handle it, our guide said the entire group would have to turn back. We wouldn't want to impair anyone else's ability to enjoy what they planned. We found the 2 days where it was just us and a guide were more enjoyable because it afforded us a lot of flexibility on what we would do that day. We had a discussion with the Walk Patagonia office about this when we changed our 3rd planned hike.

Two comments: 1. If this is your first time in the area, it is very difficult to understand the level of effort and/or difficulty of the hikes in the "standard" Los Glaciares itinerary that Swoop offers. I had several conversations with Agustin about this when we were determining the itinerary. Obviously our Swoop contact has no direct knowledge about our capabilities to do a long and/or steep hike, but this is what we were trying to assess when we planned the itinerary. While I feel I was capable of doing the 3 long hikes (out of the 4 hikes planned), these were really a little too much for my wife. I don't know how we could have determined that in advance. Perhaps the Swoop contact could more explicitly talk about the effort required (I say that recognizing that the Swoop site shows lengths, times, elevation changes, and profiles of each hike). And I recognize that Swoop will not want to scare away potential clients because of the effort involved on some of the hikes. 2. If I were doing this type of trip again, I would try to leave it more open-ended. I would request a dedicated guide (can be different each day) rather than a guide shared among a small number of people. This allows the guide to really customize a given hike to the client's interests and capabilities. I would start with a shorter hike on the first day (either of the shorter hikes we did) and then determine at the end of the day (or the following day) in consultation with the guide what type of hike could be planned for the next day. All the guides clearly have this knowledge. I would probably also shorten the Chalten segment from 4 days to 3 days because 3 days gives enough variety.

See answer to previous question. I would book a dedicated guide rather than a shared guide and have the ability to modify the daily itinerary according to the client's physicaly abilities and interests.

The Perito Moreno tour was one of a kind and provides an incredible view into how nature works. But also, I think many of the landscapes we saw (other than Moreno) were similar to the types of terrain/topography/features that we can see in various parts of the United States (eg, California, Arizona, Colorado, etc.). The glacier-specific aspects are fairly unique to that part of Patagonia. All the people we met in Patagonia (and for that matter in the 4 days we spent in Buenos Aires prior to Patagonia) were incredibly friendly and enjoyable to be around. I don't think we had any expectations going into this trip (our first to South America). Having had a great experience, I think we are likely to return to South America for a future trip (likely to a different country).

Per comments above, if someone doesn't know much about Patagonia, they are depending on their Swoop contacts to help determine an itinerary that matches the client's abilities. I recognize this is a difficult thing to do. Had we been offered the option to have dedicated guides each day and flexibility to determine the daily itinerary a day in advance, that would have been ideal. Again, I realize this is perhaps a challenge. The general guidance about clothing, what to pack, travel, etc. was all excellent. As were the hotels we used.

We felt prepared going into the trip, but had no idea how much effort would be required on the longer days.

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Beyond 12 months