Northern Patagonia Travel Guide

Northern Patagonia tends to surprise people, because almost none of it looks like what they came expecting when they think of Patagonia. Instead of steppe and ice you get lakes, southern beech forest, and volcanoes, and the towns feel 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.

There is more here than the town itself. The Circuito Chico loops west past the best of the shoreline in an afternoon and the Route of the Seven Lakes runs north through a chain of water and forest. There are also a number of hikes to do and different parks to visit. This is also the easiest part of Patagonia to reach, and it is the only part with a real winter season for winter sports.

The mistake we see most often is treating this region as a stopover between Buenos Aires and the glaciers. We recommend spending a few days in the region, especially during the fall when the leaves change colors. It is also the natural place to cross into Chile, either over the lakes to Puerto Varas or by road.