Argentina
Los Glaciares
Los Glaciares National Park covers a remote mountain landscape known for its ongoing glacial activity.
The park is situated on the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the largest ice cap in the world outside of Antarctica and Greenland. It holds 47 larger active glaciers, among them the Perito Moreno. They feed two large lakes: Lake Argentino and Lake Viedma. The area also is important for scientific research on climate change.
Community Perspective: El Chalten in the north is generally preferred as a base above southern Calafate – choose yourself by reading the respective reviews of Nan and Squiffy. Be aware that the weather here is highly changeable and you should give it a few days.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- Los Glaciares National Park (ID: 145)
- Country
- Argentina
- Status
-
Inscribed 1981
Site history
History of Los Glaciares
- 1981: Inscribed
- Inscribed
- 2012: Name change
- From "Los Glaciares" to "Los Glaciares National Park"
- WHS Type
- Natural
- Criteria
- vii
- viii
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Related Resources
- csmonitor.com — Perito Moreno is one of three glaciers in the world that is growing instead of shrinking
- pollackphoto.com — Landscape photography
- argentina.gob.ar — Los Glaciares National Park
News Article
- March 11, 2016 abc.net.au — Ice bridge collapses at Perito Moreno Glacier
- Aug. 12, 2015 lagranepoca.com — Hydroelectric dams in southern Argentina affect glaciers, say environmentalists
Community Information
- Community Category
- Natural landscape: Glaciation
- Human activity: Transport and Trade
Travel Information
Recent Connections
View all (26) .Connections of Los Glaciares
- Geography
- Damaged
- World Heritage Process
- Religion and Belief
- Human Activity
- WHS on Other Lists
- Timeline
- WHS Names
News
- abc.net.au 03/11/2016
- Ice bridge collapses at Perito Mor…
- lagranepoca.com 08/12/2015
- Hydroelectric dams in southern Arg…
Recent Visitors
Visitors of Los Glaciares
- Alberto Rodriguez Gutierrez
- Alejandro Lau
- Ammon Watkins
- Ana
- Andrew0181
- Ari Kailash
- Artur Anuszewski
- Aspasia
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- Els Slots
- Eric PK
- Erik G
- Erik Jelinek
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- Fan Yibo
- Feldhase
- Fernweh
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- Frédéric M
- Gabbro
- Gary Arndt
- George Evangelou
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Community Reviews
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With a guided tour me and my girlfriend went to the parque nacional los glaciares and more specifically one of its main attractions- Glaciar Perito Moreno. From the hotel it was a 80 km ride (around 1 hour) into the parque where the entrance of 5000 ARS (Currently around 15€ each as of blue dollar rate) needs to be paid a bit more than halfway towards Perito Morenco Glacier. We went off the bus on the right side of the tongue of the glaciar or more specifically in the laguna de los témpanos which proofed it's name as some great icebergs with fantastic shapes were swimming in there. We got into drysuits and other appropriate gear and did a kayak tour on the lagoon. I would not recommand it as you get worse views of the Perito Moreno Glaciar than from the normal walkways as the 600m safety distance needs to be secured and also you don't kayak a lot as the tour already starts close to the glaciar. So most of the time is about sitting in the boat and wait. But it was also not too bad of an experience but to my opinion not a smart place to book a kayak tour.
Afterwards we walked a bit at the main front of Perito Moreno Glaciar and it is like cinema within nature. Lonely Planet writes the Glaciar crashing into Península de Magellanes is "born to be a tourist attraction" and they're right. It's super beautiful and …
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I visited El Calafate in December 2021, where it was easy to arrange a day trip to Los Glaciares National Park. The trips seem to follow a similar itinerary -- boat tour to get up close to Perito Moreno Glacier, and then a couple of hours to visit the viewing platforms near the park's headquarters. El Calafate is a much more charming Patagonian town than Bariloche, where I spent a couple of days later in the same trip.
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The kick was key. There was a perfect angle and force to drive the front pitons of my crampon into the hard-packed snow. Once I had mastered that, the slopes were easy to climb. Usually, though, we avoided the ridges and just followed the gullies through which meltwater rivers ran fast and clear as vodka. I stopped to catch my breath for a second, marvelling at the other-worldly scenery. A distant crash brought me to my senses, a reminder that despite my inactivity I was still moving. Slowly, imperceptibly, the glacier on which I stood continued its inexorable forward motion, inching towards the point where its calving face continually fractured and crumpled down into the frigid waters of Lake Argentino.
As noted in other reviews, Argentina’s Los Glaciares National Park is a tale of two halves. There is a northern section around Lago Viedma running up to Mount Fitzroy, most of which lies within the World Heritage Site boundaries (a slice lies within the borders of Chile), serviced by the town of El Chalten. And there is a southern section around the snaky arms of Lago Argentina serviced by the town of El Calafate. (Strictly speaking there is a central section linking the two but that seems wilder and almost impenetrable). Having spent the previous week preparing for and hiking Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park my partner and I skipped the chance to hike from El Chalten and based ourselves for three nights in El Calafate to explore …
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There is a lot to the region that the WHS includes - it's easy to spend weeks here if you really wanted. I loved spending some time based in El Chalten and hiking around Mount Fitzroy, for instance
But I think the highlight is the Perito Moreno Glacier - one of the most popular tourist stops in southern Patagonia. Busloads of people come in and out of the site every day and it’s one of the main reasons travellers bother to stop in the nearby town of El Calafate (although it is actually quite a nice place in its own right). In fact, the whole region seems to be going through a tourist boom at the moment and visitor numbers are definitely on the rise.
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Los Glaciares is a national park in the southern Andes in Argentina. As the name suggests there are plenty of glaciers to see and explore, the most famous one being Perito Moreno.
The park is split into two parts: North and South. Our map doesn't quite convey this. The southern part is where you find the Perito Moreno glacier. It is serviced by the town of El Calafate that lies 1h drive outside of the park. The northern part holds the Fitzroy Mountain range and spots several great hiking opportunities. This part is serviced by El Chalten and both parts are a 3h drive on a nowadays good paved road apart.
I agree with Solivigant that El Chalten and the northern part are more interesting. It’s not so much that the city is nicer per se; construction has picked up and I guess in a few years it will be equally touristy as El Calafate. But you are on the edge of the park and less dependent on a tour operator or bus. As such, I would do a one day visit from El Calafate to see Perito Moreno and then head to El Chalten the very evening or the next day.
To me the park is one of the great national parks of the world, truly deserving of its inscription and worth travelling this far.
Getting There
El Calafate has an airport with connections to Buenos Aires, Bariloche and Ushuaia. Busses from both El …
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Most descriptions of Los Glaciares National Park provide as a “signature picture” the Perito Moreno Glacier on Lago Argentino. The glacier is undoubtedly impressive and must be one of the more easily accessible major “calving” glaciers in the world. The nearby town of Calafate is served by a good airport and airline service and exists almost entirely to serve tourism with plenty of hotels, restaurants and tour agencies. As a result the Glacier is very popular with tour groups passing through quickly – It is perfectly placed for a 1 day trip with a coach journey to the glacier, plenty of easy walkways overlooking it and the opportunity for a boat ride underneath on the lake right up to it and then an afternoon or early morning fight to the next destination on a package tour of Argentina or S America. This is by no means all that Calafate and the southern part of the park has to offer - there are opportunities to visit other glaciers which are not accessible by road on the series of lakes created by “arms” of Lago Argentino. And of course one can stay in the park and camp.
Los Glaciares park however covers an enormous area and we personally prefer the northern section based on the town of El Chalten - 220 kms away from Calafate on a dirt road. This town also lives by tourism but has a rather different atmosphere from Calafate – altogether “rougher” and more “frontier-like” with a high …
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