There is a minimum of 6 guests required for this journey and a maximum of 12. When we have reached our minimum, we will let you know, at which time you can buy airfare and your travel insurance.

• This journey is $7799 USD per person, based on sharing a room with someone.
• The non-refundable deposit is $1000 and holds your space
• The 2nd installment of $3500 is due on September 1, 2023
• The balance is due October 31, 2023
• The private room supplement is $1499. (Please note: if you request a roommate but there is no one else looking for a roommate, you are responsible for the private room supplement)

Price Includes: 

• Hotel accommodation, beginning on the night of February 23rd and ending on March 5.
• All ground transportation starting in Iguazu Falls
• 4 flights (Sao Paulo to Iguazu Falls; Iguazu Falls to Ushuaia; Ushuaia to El Calafate; Puerto Natales to Santiago)
• All breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 4 dinners
• All National Park entrance fees
• All tips at hotels and restaurants
• All tips to local guides
• Online photo album after the trip
• Triple carbon offsetting for the entire journey

Price does not include:

• International airfare
• Hotel night in Sao Paulo, Brazil on February 22nd
• 8 lunches and 9 dinners. Please see more details about this in the “Food in Patagonia” blue box below. 
• Travel insurance (required)
• Alcohol
• Laundry services
• Extra activities, such as horseback riding in El Chalten
• If you wish to have a private hiking guide in El Chalten, we can help arrange and their fees are typically $300/day

Please refer to the Price tabs for specific information about price & what is included in your journey.

The non-refundable $1000 deposit guarantees your space. The 2nd installment of $3500 is due on September 1, 2023 and the balance on October 31st, 2023. The private room supplement of $1499 will be added to the final balance.

For our American guests, we accept payments via check, credit, or debit card (via PayPal), Zelle, or Venmo. Lauren will send you these details after receiving your registration form.

For our guests outside the U.S., Lauren will connect with you about the best ways to transfer money.

We do everything in our power to do right by our guests. We are proud to say that in the wake of our COVID-related trip cancellations through 2020 and 2021, we were able to offer each of our guests the choice of a 100% credit, if not a full refund.

We’ve re-examined each trip and done our best to reduce the deposit amounts as much as possible. Upon your registration, your deposit immediately goes toward reserving your space for flights, hotels, and excursions that must be booked months in advance and are often non-refundable.

Cancellation by our guests

The cancellation charges are as follows unless otherwise indicated on the detailed itinerary for each trip. All cancellations must be received via e-mail or US mail.

• Cancellations prior to 120 days to departure, money will be refunded minus the non-refundable deposit.
• Cancellations received 61 to 119 days prior to departure are subject to a penalty of 50% of the total cost of the trip.
• Cancellations received 60 days or less prior to trip departure will forfeit the entire cost of the trip.

If a trip is cancelled by RetreaTours

When a tour is cancelled in the case of force majeure, the Tour Participant will receive a refund minus any funds that we are unable to recover from any supplier.

You can see the full cancellation policy in our contract here. 

RetreaTours is Climate Positive!

We purchase triple carbon offsets for your travels with us—that’s from your home, through the entire tour, and back to your home again, times three! 

RetreaTours is officially a Carbonfree® Partner with Carbonfund.org, as well as a partner with Cool Effect.

You may have heard the term “carbon neutral,” which means that a company offsets as much carbon as it produces. With this 300% offset, RetreaTours is actually offsetting more carbon than we produce each year, making us “carbon negative” (or “climate positive,” which has a nicer ring to it!)

Since 2012 we’ve focused on making travel safe and easy for our guests; with our triple carbon offset tours, we’re pleased to make our trips as sustainable as they are memorable.

Please see more at RetreaTours.com/CarbonNegative

There are no strict fitness requirements required for this trip because in almost every destination you can choose your preferred level of activity. However, here are some details to consider when deciding whether or not this trip is physically right for you!

Iguazu Falls

For the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls you have two options:

1. You can get out of our vehicle at the first stop and walk on the path along the falls 850 meters (0.53 miles) to the main viewpoint area, with many smaller viewpoints along the way. This path gives you a wonderful, suspense-building introduction to the falls, and you can see many of the small cascades in the system on the Argentina side from here.
2. You can stay on the bus for a few more minutes and get dropped off at the main viewing point and cafe with seating. From here there are accessible walkways and ramps, as well as an elevator so you can see upper and lower viewpoints. We will eat lunch near this spot so all of the group will end up here.

The Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls has many several walking paths with lots of viewing options. We will have a guided tour to Devil’s Throat, Upper Trail, and Lower Trail, or you can choose to explore independently at your leisure.  Here is a map of the paths on the Argentinian side:

The Upper Trail leads you along the river and the top of the waterfalls, for viewpoints like the one below. The roundtrip circuit is 1750 meters (1.09 miles) and is 100% wheelchair accessible.

The Lower Path winds you through the forest and gets closer to the cascades as they fall, like the view below. The lower circuit is 1700 meters (1.06 miles) and is 70% wheelchair accessible.

You take a train to get to Devil’s Throat, the main fall at Iguazu. From our hotel, it is a 20-minute walk to the train station (and we recommend being on the very first train at 9 AM!)  From the train’s endpoint to the actual viewpoint, it is a 2.2 km (1.37 miles) roundtrip walk on a metal-slatted walkway, over the Iguazu River, part of which you can see below:

Ushuaia & Tierra del Fuego National Park

You’ll need to transfer from a dock to a covered zodiac boat for a 10-minute boat ride from Estancia Haberton to Martillo Island to see the penguins. We spend one hour with the penguins; we only cover 100-200 meters at most, mostly on gravel and grass.

In Tierra del Fuego National Park you can choose to enjoy the scenery from the National Park Office and cafe, or to go on a short hike (~1 hour and ~3-hour options).  There will even be a nice 30-minute option for those wanting to get into the woods but don’t want to commit to a longer option!

El Chaltén

Due to the numerous hiking options depending on your level of interest, El Chaltén is truly the “Choose Your Own Adventure” portion of this journey! This website is a good overview. We have also prepared notes about many of these hikes which we will provide before the tour.

We have specifically chosen the hotel with the best view in town so you can enjoy a view without trekking, as well.

We’ll help you choose the best option for you, whether it’s a 9-hour trek to Laguna de los Tres or it’s relaxing over a Patagonian beer and local locro stew (or both!)

El Calafate

Perito Moreno Glacier has many walkways (map below) with upper and lower viewpoints–similar to Argentinian Iguazu but on a smaller scale. The white line on the map below is completely wheelchair accessible and provides stunning sweeping views of the glacier. The other paths do contain stairs to varying degrees.  We’ll suggest routes for you depending on your interest level; the yellow and blue paths below are recommended because we will see the southern face from the boat ride, making the very steep red trail unnecessary.

You can also choose to go trekking on the glacier itself if you are under 65. This activity is not included but we can help you arrange this excursion with a local operator. There are two options: a mini-trek and the “Big Ice” trek and we can tell you more about both if you are interested. The Big Ice trek is limited to those age 50 and under (we know, we know–that’s insane) and the mini-trekking to those under 65. While these excursions do provide an up-close and personal look at the glacier, we don’t believe they are necessary to fully appreciate the beauty of Perito Moreno.

Torres del Paine

While Torres del Paine does offer many trekking options, its beauty can be appreciated from viewpoints and with short walks. To that end, with our one full day in Torres del Paine National Park, we are choosing to show you the highlights of this massive park via vehicle and short walks. If you would prefer to spend this day on a longer trek in one area, we can help you arrange such an excursion.

Required Coverage

RetreaTours requires that each guest carries travel insurance that covers emergency medical treatment and emergency evacuation and repatriation. Please send Lauren your policy information as soon as you have it.

Suggested Coverage

We suggest trip cancellation insurance, as well, as you never know what obstacles life can toss at you leading up to a trip. However, we do not require this coverage, we only suggest it highly.

Please familiarize yourself with RetreaTours’ guest cancellation policy in your journey’s contract. Please read this article to understand a bit more about trip cancellation insurance and what it may or may not cover. “Cancel For Any Reason” policies do exist, as well, although do check to see what percentage of the trip cost they actually reimburse.

When to purchase your policy

Please purchase this insurance as soon as we tell you the trip has reached its minimum. Please do not wait until the last minute, should you need to use your (optional) cancellation coverage before then.

Where to search for policies

Below you will find some options to start your search for trip insurance. However, we ask that you carefully consider your choice in travel insurance. What works for some people may not work for others, particularly if you have any pre-existing conditions. Please do take the time to consider the best policy for your individual needs.

Squaremouth.com and InsureMyTrip.com are two sites where you can see and compare many policies at once, and you can refine the options by what coverage you would like. Squaremouth’s interface is very easy and intuitive to use, and you can easily opt out of trip cancellation coverage.

World Nomads provides policies for guests under 70 that includes trip cancellation options. Use the link above and pop in your info to get an immediate quote.

It may also be a good idea to check with your credit card companies, especially American Express, to see if they offer any medical coverage for travel.

Your passport must have at least 4 blank pages and be valid for at least 6 months beyond the end of the trip (that is September 3, 2024).

As of May 2023, there is no charge for visas to Argentina, Brazil, or Chile for Americans. If you have questions about your national, please drop us a line.

Vaccines

RetreaTours requires proof of a COVID-19 vaccine and booster for this journey.

No vaccines are required to enter our destinations, but we highly encourage you to work with your local travel clinic or the travel department of your local health department (often a much cheaper option).

Please see the CDC’s general advice for:

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Chile

Please see the NHS’s general advice for:

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Chile

As you can see in the CDC and NHS recommendations above, the Yellow Fever vaccine is recommended for Iguazu Falls (although proof of vaccination is not required to enter any country on this itinerary).

• What about malaria?

Both the CDC and NHS sites indicate malaria is no to low risk on this itinerary (the only “low risk” area being Iguazu Falls).

Altitude Sickness

Patagonia surely sounds like a place that is high altitude, but since we’re not scaling the mountains, we’re in good shape! Altitude sickness is something to be aware of over 8,000 feet. Our highest point is ~1350 feet in El Chalten. You can see the rest of our altitudes below:

• Iguazu: 640′
• Ushuaia: sea level
• El Calafate: 645′
• El Chalten: 1345′
• Torres del Paine (Lake Pehoe): 115′

Staying Healthy on Tour

Please visit our comprehensive article, “How to Stay Healthy While Traveling…Naturally,” which addresses all of the most common travel ailments.

This journey between the rainforest and Tierra del Fuego understandably runs the gamut of weather conditions, with highs in the 90s at Iguazu Falls and lows in the 40s in Patagonia, with humid conditions in Iguazu Falls and characteristic wind in Patagonia.

We’ll provide a packing list well before the journey, but the gist of it is “layers, layers, layers!”

Please note that this journey requires soft-sided luggage in order to fit inside the vehicles in Patagonia.

Temperature by location

These temperatures are based on historical averages and actual February and March 2022 temperatures. Keep in mind that these lows are for the middle of the night/before sunrise, and you can expect it to feel warm in the sun most days. 

• Iguazu Falls: 70°F to 90°F (21°C to 32°C), with high humidity
• Ushuaia: 40°F to 60°F (4.5°C to 15°C), with potential for strong winds
• El Chaltén: 40°F to 60°F (4.5°C to 15°C)
• El Calafate: 40°F to 65°F (4.5°C to 18°C)
• Torres del Paine: 40°F to 60°F (4.5°C to 15°C) with strong winds

Almost all dietary needs can be met on this trip, but we request that you email us if you have any severe allergies so that we can discuss your options.

What Meals Are Included on This Journey

• Every breakfast is included from February 24 (beginning at Melia Hotel in Iguazu Falls, Argentina)
• 5 lunches are included (which includes 1 boxed lunch at Perito Moreno Glacier)
• 4 dinners are included

Unlike most of our journeys, all meals are not included on this trip. This is because there is a wide range of variety and prices available for all meals, and we did not want to dictate your budget or your tastes. We wanted to allow greater variety to account for allergies, preferences, and appetites.

Eating out in Iguazu and Patagonia is very easy; every restaurant takes credit cards and we will always be able to change money for you. We will always have restaurant and dish recommendations for you!

Count on lunches being between $5-15 and dinners between $10-25+. However, if you wish to partake in the famous King crab in Ushuaia, bank on $50/person on average. The exception for these prices is one dinner and one lunch in Torres del Paine, Chile inside the park, where lunch will be ~$20 and dinner is $40 at the hotel (and includes a glass of wine).

Vegetarianism, Veganism, and Celiac in Patagonia

Argentina is famous for its steaks and Patagonia for its lamb, and the South Americans’ love of meat cannot be overstated. However, it is possible to eat vegetarian on this journey, but know that most vegetarian dishes do include wheat and/or cheese (think: empanadas, pizza, pasta, sandwiches). Because of that, this journey may be difficult for vegans who are also gluten intolerant. Celiacs who eat meat will find plenty to eat.

Please know that all soup bases and beans will most likely be cooked with some animal products (stock, lard, etc), unless you are at a dedicated vegetarian restaurant.

We’d be happy to field any specific questions you have about your dietary needs on this journey.

Each of these hotels was carefully chosen for their comfort, location, and amenities. They each have their own private bathrooms, heat (or air conditioning at Iguazu Falls), and hotels have wifi access, although it may be stronger in common areas (lobby, restaurants, etc). In more remote places such as El Chalten and Torres del Paine, please expect the wifi to be very slow.

Here is a list of all of our reserved hotels:

• Iguazu Falls, Argentina: Gran Melia
• Ushuaia, Argentina: Alto Andino
• El Chalten, Argentina: Chalten Suites
• El Calafate, Argentina: Sierra Nevada
• Torres del Paine, Chile:  Hosteria Pehoe

We are more than happy to recommend international flights, but ultimately you will make the purchase yourself. Here is some important information if you would like to research flights yourself.

ARRIVAL

We’ll take a flight together to Iguazu Falls on the morning of February 23rd from GRU airport, so it is recommended you arrive in Sao Paulo by the night of February 22nd. Your hotel night on the 22nd is not included in order to allow you flexibility, but we will make recommendations.

DEPARTURE

The trip comes to an end on March 6th when we fly from Puerto Natales, Chile to Santiago, Chile in the evening. This is the only available flight and arrives in Santiago close to midnight on the 6th. You may wish to spend the night at the Holiday Inn at the Santiago Airport before your flight home.

Please write to Lauren for any questions you may have about this journey.  If you have not received a reply within 48 hours, please do check your spam folder.

You’ll be joined on this journey by BJ & Lauren, owners of RetreaTours–and we are so excited to show you the natural beauty of South America! 

Husband-and-wife team BJ Graf and Lauren Rathvon have traveled the globe year-round since January 2013, researching, designing, and leading impactful journeys. 

We are committed not only to our guests but to our host destinations and the planet at large. We engage with local businesses and guides to keep money within the community, and we triple-carbon offset each of our tours.

We invite you to visit our Testimonials page to see what other people have to say about us!  You can head to our About Us page to learn more about our story.