What's the best time of year to visit Patagonia?

In the Austral summer, which is between October and April. You can come at other times of the year, but the weather will be cold and perhaps roads being impassable, and some parks will simply close for the winter.

What is suitable clothing for hiking the trails in Patagonia?

The one climate you will not get in Patagonia is jungle, so there's no need to think about tropical heat and humidity. Nonetheless, you might experience bright sun, torrential rain and wind, and cold temperatures. Therefore, think about waterproof clothing, layers, sun protection, and really good hiking shoes. You don't need to pack a bulky parka, as these can be easily found and purchased even in small towns across Patagonia.

Can I bring my bike on the bus?

Yes, buses are outfitted to carry bicycles either below the seating area in cargo, or on racks attached to the front of the bus.

No, pets are expressly forbidden. National parks are still wild places, and your pet is not safe, which makes you not safe when with them. In addition, pets can transmit foreign diseases or contract a pathogen from wildlife.

Take the Bus to Park Laguna San Rafael

Kali Kucera
Land Travel and Adventure Expert

If you’ve been waiting to get to the glaciers, you will finally get your chance with Laguna San Rafael. Reputed to have some of the most photogenic scenes in all of Patagonia, this park will leave your jaw dropping many times over as you have a landscape that combines forest, waterfalls, lakes, and ice!

While there are only a couple of actual trails in the park, and one of those only accessible if you take a boat first, this is a park that is mostly about being on the water anyway, and you won’t regret being on a guided expedition one bit. Glaciers are titans of nature, and can quickly intimidate even the most stubborn of backpackers or kayakers, so choose this park to partner with professional guides who are ready and able to get you up close the giants.

There are many tour packages that will take you to Laguna San Rafael on five- or six-day journeys from Puerto Montt, but that’s not my aim. This article is for those of you who are traveling by bus or ferry to towns close to the park, and then embarking on adventures from those base camps closer to the park.

The largest town from which you use as a base camp is Cochrane, and that is where you probably are based already if you are following the series. You don’t have to change that, but the real place you will be going to embark on a visit to the park is Puerto Rio Tranquilo, which is back north 2.5 hours of Cochrane. It’s up to you if you’d like to change your lodging to there instead of Cochrane, but just be aware it’s a much smaller village with no ATMs or many services, just a bunch of expedition outfitters.

If you haven’t yet read up on some of the foundations of the entire fifteen-park route, go back and check out my overview post so you can get oriented.

CLOSEST AIRPORT HUB

Following this park series of articles, and going in the order presented, then the airport you will have gone through already is Puerto Montt.

However, if you’re starting your journey with this park, then you would be better to fly to Balmaceda. This is the airport that serves Coyhaique, Chile. From Coyhaique, buses leave daily to Cochrane.

PERMITS AND FEES

Parque Laguna San Rafael doesn’t currently collect park fees online like they do for other parks, and so you pay for those fees at a ranger station as you are entering the park by road going west from Puerto Tranquilo. If you are going with a guide in their transportation, they will usually make it easy by including the entrance fees in your package or collecting them at their office and they paying the ranger station for you.

The fee is 8,200 CLP ($8.50 USD) per adult, with adolescents and being roughly half that amount, and children under 12 years old are free.

For camping in the lake area, there is an additional 5,000 CLP fee per person/per night.

Get your bus or ferry ticket here on SouthAmericaBuses.com or AndesTransit.com and mention our blog when you receive your ticket. We'll send you a complimentary full-color detailed map of the full route of parks discussed in this article!

Where to Start

Starting in the same place you were stationed in visiting Park Patagonia (the previous park in this series), Cochrane, you can take the bus north to Puerto Tranquilo, but plan on doing that a full day ahead of your trip to the park because the bus will get to Puerto Tranquilo too late in the morning.

You could also simply hire a tour directly in Cochrane that will provide the whole experience to Laguna San Rafael and back to Cochrane, even though the ones we recommend are based in Puerto Tranquilo. Starting from Cochrane will likely mean you have to leave about 4 in the morning and won’t be back until 8 at night.

There are no buses for the 32km road going west of Puerto Tranquilo to the trails, piers, and other services of the park, so from here you do need the guides to transport you there.

The main attraction of the park is not easily accessed by land (unless you do the really difficult trail mentioned below that will take you a couple days). Travelers instead board small passenger ferries at Puerto Grosse, which then take you out into the actual lake to see the glaciers.

Park 12: Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael

Photo by Natalia Reyes Escobar CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Open Year Round

Topography: Coniferous evergreen forests and glacial ice pack.

Climate: Rainy and cold.

Why go?

Without traveling further south, this is where you go to see glaciers on a huge scale and up close. Plus, getting there is relatively comfortable. True, you can see the massive hanging glacier in Park Queulat up farther north, but only from a distance as it sits on top of a very tall cliff. Laguna San Rafael is similar to touching the back of a whale while out in a small boat at sea. It’s awe-inspiring.

Plus, the San Rafael glacier is not the only remarkable sight in the park. There are many smaller glaciers that are worth getting closer to, in fact they all line the mountainsides of what they call the “Valley of Glaciers” which is like a park within the park.

For a more challenging and longer expedition, some travelers choose to go (with guides) on horseback deep into the interior of the park to the magical Lago Leones (lake of lions). There on the high and frigid lake you can get closeup views of Mont San Valentin, which towers over the rest of the park.

Trail Guide

Name	Distance	Hiking Time (round-trip)	Difficulty	Features	Open
Puntilla del Cisne	3.7 km	2 hours	Easy	Easy walk from the boat dock to the foot of the San Rafael glacier	All year
Exploradores Glacier	2.7 km	6 hours	Difficult	A mountain hike up to the Exploradores Glacier.	All Year

Travel Strategy

There’s really no convenient way around not spending the night (and maybe the whole day) previous to your trek in the village of Puerto Tranquilo. The outfitters there are truly the pros when it comes to this park, better than those you can find in Cochrane. There are a few lodges in the village, enough to handle any amount of visitors, and there you can get a good night’s rest before meeting your guide early in the morning. We particularly recommend Nomade.

When you get back from the expedition, it will be about 18:30, sore and hungry, so plan on staying a second night in Puerto Tranquilo, and then the next day the buses coming through town to go back to Cochrane will be around 12:30 and 13:00. There are some times evening buses, but they are not regular or consistent, so only go for the afternoon buses with your planning.

Transportation Options to the Park

By bus from Cochrane

There are two departures by bus from Cochrane to Puerto Tranquilo , but only in the early morning. You can reserve seats online, and these make their way up north to Coyhaique, getting to Puerto Tranquilo in about about 2.5 hours. As a side note, they also will let you off in Aldana, which is at the intersection of Highway 265 that goes to northern portions of Parque Patagonia we discussed in the previous article as well as to Chile Chico and Argentina. But, this has no relationship to Laguna San Rafael.

By bus from Coyhaique

If you’re not following this hiking series in order and starting your adventure with a visit to Laguna San Rafael by flying to Coyhaique, then you can reserve bus seats that town to get to Puerto Tranquilo.

The buses from Coyhaique to Puerto Tranquilo have two departures in the morning year round, and an additional two departures in the afternoon in high season.

By catamaran from Puerto Chacabuco (tour)

Another full-service option is to just lodge in Puerto Chacabuco at Loberias del Sur, a luxury hotel that offers catamaran day-trips from there down through the fjords directly to Laguna San Rafael. This is a convenient all-day trip that doesn’t require you to go into the interior by bus, and is a great choice for those using the ferry packages because you can get to Puerto Chacabuco from Puerto Montt (and all ports in between) and return totally on the ferry.

The catamarans, however, don’t operate every day of the week (Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays only), skip the entire months of June and July, and won’t get out on the water if the wind and weather conditions are unsafe, so you have to plan this option with several caveats in mind.

My recommendation

Laguna San Rafael is such a beatiful park of maximalist proportions, I would not hesitate to sink a larger investment of my time and budget into multiple experiences based out of Puerto Tranquilo.

That means not just taking the bus from Cochrane or Coyhaique with the intent of lodging in Puerto Tranquilo, but committing to an extended expedition package with a local outfitter there to visit the glacier one day, and then go hiking in the Valley of Glaciers the next day, or vice-versa. This is one park you will regret leaving behind only seeing part of it.

Kali Kucera

Kali Kucera is the President of AndesTransit and an expert on land travel in Latin America. He is the author of two travel books: "365 Days on the Fiesta Continent", and "Bananas to Volcanoes", as well as co-author of "South America Borders", in addition to writing many articles on the adventure of bus travel to unusual and amazing places.