Glaciers Gourmet Route Hour by Hour: La Soledad to Perito Moreno

The Glaciers Gourmet day runs eight hours port to port: boarding at La Soledad at 8:30, sailing at 9:00 and back at about 17:00, or about 11 hours with the bus from El Calafate. In between come Escuadra Bay, the Spegazzini channel, a walk at Puesto Las Vacas, lunch in the Upsala channel and the north face of Perito Moreno. The Glaciers Gourmet Experience is from US$235 a person (checked November 2026) for the classic deck with a lunch box.

Free cancellation runs until 24 hours before.

The stops on the map

Map of the Glaciers Gourmet route on Lago Argentino with ten numbered stops: 1 La Soledad Port, 2 Seco Glacier, 3 Spegazzini Glacier, 4 Puesto Las Vacas, 5 Upsala channel, 6 Upsala Glacier, 7 Bertacchi Glacier, 8 Canal de los Tempanos, 9 Perito Moreno Glacier north face, 10 Perito Moreno footbridges — Ten stops in the order the day runs, from La Soledad Port to the Perito Moreno footbridges. Escuadra Bay and the condor wall come before stop 2 and are not marked; the Upsala and Bertacchi glaciers are seen from the channel, not approached.

Cruceros Marpatag publishes only a handful of clock times for the day: the pickup, the boarding, the walkways drop-off and the return. The rest is the order of the route, so the hours below are the ones the company gives, not a timetable for every stop.

Before the boat: 7:15 to 8:30

On the options with transfers, hotel pickups in El Calafate start at 7:15 and can run up to 45 minutes late. La Soledad is Cruceros Marpatag’s own port at Punta Bandera, 45 km from town by its count, with free parking for those who drive. The park ticket can be bought at the port or online beforehand. Boarding starts at 8:30.

Morning: Boca del Diablo, Escuadra Bay and Spegazzini

Illustration: a narrow fjord with steep dark rock walls, two hanging glaciers spilling white and blue ice down the slopes above grey-green water, a white catamaran small in the distance, low cloud on the peaks — Illustration. Hanging glaciers above a narrow fjord, a catamaran in the distance.

The catamaran sails at 9:00 and crosses the Boca del Diablo, the lake’s narrowest passage at about 800 metres, into the north arm. It passes Escuadra Bay, with its tall rock walls and the condor nesting cliff, then turns into the Spegazzini channel for the Seco (also called Totalizador) and Heim glaciers and the Spegazzini front, which the national park describes as the highest in Los Glaciares. You watch from the four outer decks.

Ashore at Puesto Las Vacas

The boat lands at Puesto Las Vacas in Las Vacas Bay for a guided walk of about 50 minutes, through the plants and wildlife of the shore and the traces left by the people who once lived there. It is the only time ashore on the classic day.

Lunch in the Upsala channel

Lunch is served as the boat heads up the Upsala channel: the lunch box on the classic deck, four courses in the premium lounge. The Upsala and Bertacchi glaciers stay in the distance. The national parks administration restricted commercial navigation in the Upsala arm in 2016 and 2017, and the route’s own description is a panoramic view of the glacier and its icebergs.

Afternoon: Perito Moreno’s north face

The catamaran runs back south through the Canal de los Tempanos to the north face of Perito Moreno, the side of the glacier that faces the canal. On the footbridges option, you leave the boat at Puerto Perito Moreno at about 15:45, walk the Perito Moreno walkways for about two hours with a bilingual guide (1.5 hours from May to August) and take the bus back to El Calafate for about 19:00.

Check dates for the full route

Back at La Soledad: about 17:00

Without the footbridges, the boat is back at La Soledad at about 17:00, and the transfer buses reach El Calafate from 18:00. With the transfer, that makes a day of about 11 hours from the first pickup.

The walkways option looks at whether the extra stop is worth booking.

The Glaciers Gourmet Route, Hour by Hour