Northern Patagonia Travel Guide

Northern Patagonia is the version of the region that surprises people, because almost none of it matches what they came expecting. Instead of steppe and ice there are lakes, southern beech forest and volcanoes, and the towns are older and more settled than anything further south. Bariloche is the hub, sitting on Lake Nahuel Huapi with a chocolate industry, a ski mountain and a Swiss-styled town center that is stranger and more likable than it sounds. The Circuito Chico loops west out of the city past the best of the shoreline in an afternoon. The Route of the Seven Lakes runs north toward San Martín de los Andes through a chain of water and forest. Esquel sits a few hours south, quieter, and marks the point where the landscape starts drying out into the Patagonia most people picture.

This is the easiest part of Patagonia to reach and the cheapest to travel, and it is the only part with a real winter season. It is also the natural place to cross into Chile, either by the lake crossing to Puerto Varas or by road.

We have traveled all of it, including the drive around Bariloche and the road down to Esquel. The mistake we see most often is treating this region as a stopover between Buenos Aires and the glaciers. It rewards several days on its own terms, and it is far less crowded in the peak weeks than anything further south.