Escapada de un día al Parque nacional Torres del Paine desde El Calafate
El recorrido sale desde hoteles céntricos de El Calafate sobre las 5.30 h. Le recogerá el guía bilingüe en un cómodo vehículo con aire acondicionado para comenzar el viaje.
Alrededor de las 10.00 h, llegará a la frontera y, después de pasar los procedimientos de seguridad necesarios, habrá una breve parada en la ciudad chilena de Cerro Castillo, donde se puede canjear dinero (el precio de la entrada al parque se debe pagar en pesos chilenos), disfrutar de un desayuno tradicional y conocer a los lugareños. A continuación, le llevarán a los pequeños autobuses para una mayor cohesión del grupo y una mayor interacción con el guía especializado.
A las 11.00 h continuará hasta el parque y llegará primero al lago Sarmiento. Habrá una breve parada para tomar las primeras fotografías y disfrutar del impresionante paisaje. La siguiente parada será en la Laguna Amarga, en torno a las 12.30 h, donde puede pagar el precio de la entrada al parque. Desde este punto, nuestro autobús pone rumbo a lago Nordenskjold, donde llegaremos a las 13.00 h. Aquí podrá ver una de las mayores atracciones del parque: los imponentes Cuernos del Paine.
En torno a las 13.30 h, llegará a la zona de Pudeto, a solo una ligera caminata de la cascada de Salto Grande, y tras una segunda caminata llegaremos al Mirador de los Cuernos. Esta parte de la esta excursión dura aproximadamente 2 horas. Poco después de las 16.00 h, el autobús llegará a la zona de administración del parque nacional, desde donde se dirigirá de vuelta a Laguna Amarga.
A las 18.00 h llegaremos a Cerro del Castillo para cambiar vehículos otra vez y volverá a El Calafate a las 22.30 h.
- Agua embotellada
- Almuerzo en caja para llevar
- Guía local
- Traslado de ida y vuelta al hotel (solo hoteles seleccionados)
- Traslado en autobús con aire acondicionado
- Precio de la entrada al parque nacional
- Propina (opcional)
- Recibirá confirmación en el momento de efectuar la reserva
- Los menores de 21 años deben ir acompañados de un adulto. Debe traer un documento de identidad y permiso de viaje de ambos padres si no viajan juntos
- Durante esta excursión habrá que caminar bastante.
- No apto para sillas de ruedas.
- La entrada al parque se debe pagar en pesos chilenos. Puede hacer el cambio en la frontera
- Está prohibido para cruzar la frontera con cualquier tipo de carne, fruta o verdura
I will say all the inaccuracies of this trip and especially on the "What to expect" section. 1) The tour is organised by Always Glacieres, a local El Calafate tour company. Viator is using Tangol and Tangol is using this local company.2) The bus did not have air condition.3) We did not start at 5:30 but the bus goes to each hotel starting at 6:20 am and they picked us after around 7:10 am. As a result, we arrived at the borders around 12:30. 4) We had to wait for quite a while in the borders and then there was a stop in a place with souvenirs (15 minutes) that you can exchange the money. This probably is the town Cerro Castillo but you don't meet the locals or is anything more than a stop for making Chilean pesos.5) All the following stops that we did, like the Lake Sarmiento and the Laguna Amarga, lasted 5 minutes and there was one more stop for 10 minutes where they had to pay the entrance with the collected money and we mainly waited in the bus. Finally, there was one more stop to see the last lake.6) Next was the trekking, we arrived there at 14:35 and I remember that because they said you have 45' minutes to go to the Salto Grande. When I asked the guy that the plan says 2 hours trekking showing the plan from Tangol and Viator, he told me that he is doing this trip the last 10 years and it is always the same. So we could not go for 2 hours hike but only for 45 minutes.7) The final stop is on the island where some people have paid extra for lunch there and you probably want to spent the time looking at the view outside. This was for 50 minutes.8) The boxed lunch is a ham and cheese sandwich with a bottle of water, a couple of sweets and it is definitely not enough for the whole day...9) After this stop you start the return trip to El Calafate. Another annoying thing is that we waited for 20 minutes in the bus for the people coming to join us in the bus and travel from Chile to El Calafate.10) We never changed bus for the Torres Del Paine park.11) Conclusion less than 2 hours nice stops (I include the lunch stop as the view was beautiful from there) and 14 hours of bus service or waiting for other people/border control.Torres del Paine is beautiful but the day trip is a bad idea.When we informed Viator for all these inconsistencies, they did not even change the description and they continue to use the same suppliers and try to sell a tour with lies. They also declined a partial refund for that.
Torres del Paine is beautiful and our tour guide was great, very knowledgeable. The tour included a very nice lunch in a beautiful location, much better than I expected. The down side is that you are touring a beautiful area in a large tour bus with 30 people. If I had more time, I would have spent more time and done more hiking and camping. That being said, if you are short on time or less fit, this is an incredible way to see Torres del Paine!