Name: Patagonia Travel Tips: Everything First-Timers Need to Know!
Uploaded: 2026-01-27T18:17:54.000Z
Duration: 17 min 6 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

It's one word and yet most people imagine one single destination with some mountains and a glacier.

Adverbs of manner

But the reality is that Patagonia is massive, wildly diverse and surprisingly easy to misunderstand if it's your first visit.

I've been fortunate enough to do multiple trips across Patagonia, both on the Argentine and Chilean side, from the Andes to the coast.

And I've learned a lot of lessons along the way and I want to share those with you today.

So in this video I am sharing my top Patagonia travel tips for first time visitors.

These are things I wish I had known before visiting for the first time, and

these are things that are going to save you time, money and help your trip go a lot smoother.

So my tip is to focus on one region because Patagonia is massive and it is very difficult to see it all unless you have a lot of time.

So just to give you an idea, Patagonia spans two countries, Argentina and Chile.

It is 2,500 km from north to south and 800 km from west to east at its widest point.

So to give you a few ideas of the places you could visit, on the Argentine side you've got places like Bariloche, Villa Langostura, San Martin de los Andes, El Bolson Escal, and

then on the Chilean side you have Puerto Varas, Puerto Montt, Valdivia, Chiloe.

These are mountain towns that are great for hiking.

Lots of breweries, lots of chocolate shops, lots of lakes, and it's a great place to unwind.

Then you have Southern Patagonia, which is probably what you're envisioning when you're thinking of Patagonia.

This is where you're going to find glaciers and epic mountain peaks and some world famous destinations.

So to give you an idea, on the Argentine side you're probably thinking of El Calafate and El Chalten, Los Glaciades National Park.

And then over on the Chilean side you have Puerto Natales, Torres, El Paine National Park.

Further south you have Punta Arenas on the Chilean side, and

Ushuaia on the Argentine side, which is kind of of like the end of the world.

It is as far south as you can go, so reaching Ushuaia actually feels like a huge accomplishment.

And then to contrast all of this, you have coastal Patagonia on the Atlantic side on the Argentine side.

And this is where you can visit places like Puerto Madrin Peninsula, Valdes, Puerto Piramides this is a hub for wildlife.

We're talking penguins, southern right whales, sea lions, elephant seals.

And then as you continue further south, you can find Welsh culture, because this area was settled by a lot of Welsh immigrants.

And you can visit towns like Gaiman, Treleo, Dolovon, and it feels like a different world.

Welsh culture in Patagonia is quite unexpected.

Distances in Patagonia are very, very long.

It sounds like the kind of place you can visit in a week, but

You will need to be prepared to take flights or long overnight buses.

So just to give you an idea, say you wanted to drive from Bariloche to El Calafate, that would be 18 hours one way.

If you wanted to go from El Calafate to Ushuaia, that would be 11 hours, and

it would involve a ferry and a double border crossing.

And these times that I'm mentioning are if you are driving, if you are doing it by car, if you need to travel by bus, it's going to take even longer.

So my advice is to try to break up your trip into shorter, more manageable segments and, and

If you've got the time and you can do it, that is the best way.

Another thing that surprised me about Patagonia is that many of the destinations are seasonal.

So we first discovered this when we visited the seaside town of Las Grutas.

We got there at the end of the season and were surprised that hotels shut down, restaurants shut down, shops shut down.

So we had very limited options in terms of what we could do there, what we could visit, where we could eat.

And this is a theme that you're going to see across all of Patagonia.

It also happens in the trekking capital of El Chalten.

During winter, basically nothing happens there, and that's because winters are so extreme and so rugged.

So typically, a lot of businesses will start shutting down from late fall until mid spring.

So for several months out of the year, there isn't a whole lot going on in many Patagonian destinations.

So keep that in mind when you're planning your trip.

Next, let's talk about the weather in Patagonia, because it is quite varied because this is a massive region.

You know, the weather is going to vary from north to south.

That means you could be visiting Bariloche in the summertime and you could be roasting.

The temperature might be close to 30 degrees.

You could be swimming in lakes to cool down.

And to contrast, if you go down to El Calafate, where you've got glaciers.

You'll probably be wearing multiple layers and be all bundled up as you explore.

The weather changes four times in one day.

It's unpredictable, so keep that in mind when you are packing for Patagonia.

And these are the westerly winds that you typically experience between the 40 degree and 50 degree latitude.

This is an area that experiences a lot, a lot of wind and it can be quite extreme.

The app windguru is going to become your friend as you plan activities during your travels in Patagonia.

It is not uncommon to see vehicles overturned if they were traveling too fast and too light.

Sometimes during the extreme winds, you can lean your body into the wind and it'll hold you up and you might be talking to your friend right in front of you, shouting at them and the wind is still carrying away your voice and your friend cannot hear a word of what you're saying.

These are just a few of the things that we experienced during our first trip to Patagonia which really surprised us.

Also, I remember our first night in El Calafate.

The bedroom was on the second floor and the winds were so insane that day that we were convinced the roof was going to fly off.

So we actually ended up sleeping downstairs on the ground floor because that's where the living room was.

There was a sofa and we were just so scared to be sleeping up top.

That gives you an idea of how crazy the winds can be.

Now let's talk about wardrobe, robe and gear.

So it doesn't matter where you go in Patagonia, whether it's the coast or the mountains, you are going to be spending a lot of time in nature and that means you need to dress in layers.

So I would recommend quick drying or moisture.

Wicking shirts, fleece, rain jackets, hiking boots.

Try to choose something that is waterproof.

We were definitely not prepared or adequately dressed for a lot of the hikes we did when we visited Patagonia for the first time.

Layers are key and you definitely want waterproof or weatherproof stuff.

Even when it's cold and windy, the UV can be very high.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that sun protection is just as important as rain protection.

You don't want to get wet, but you also do not want to get sunburnt.

the sun is still burning you, especially if you're going on day long hikes, which you probably will.

Okay, now let's talk about food, specifically Patagonian cuisine and what to expect.

So if you've been traveling around Argentina for a while, you already know that barbecue is king, specifically beef.

When you make it down to Patagonia, it's going to be all about the lamb.

So this is because there's a lot of sheep farming.

From coastal Patagonia all the way down to southern Patagonia, there are so many estancias.

And then as you head further south, once you reach Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost province, you'll want to try seafood specifically.