El Chaltén Travel Guide: What to Do, Where to Stay, and Travel Tips
El Chaltén is a picturesque town, considered the trekking capital of Argentina. It is the gateway to the trails of Los Glaciares National Park, and iconic sites such as Mount Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. It's a 2-hour drive from El Calafate, or a 3-hour bus ride.
We ended up spending 1.5 weeks in El Chaltén – initially we had just planned to spend a week, however we made the mistake of not pre-purchasing a bus ticket to our next destination. Because the season was winding down, at that stage (mid April) only one bus company was making the daily journey north to Bariloche – a common next stop on a travelers Patagonia loop, which meant that we couldn’t get seats for another week. Flights out of El Calafate were hugely expensive, and the only other option was to go back the way we came which involved multiple buses, a border crossing, and another flight. Safe to say, we decided to stick it out another week – luckily we had the gift of time, and even luckier (especially for Patagonia in mid-Autumn) we had many days of forecasted sun laying ahead of us.
Having a few extra days in El Chalten meant we could spread out the day hikes we had planned to do into overnight hikes, and this ended up being a much better option! First we tackled the Laguna de Los Tres hike to Mount Fitzroy, and then the Laguna Torre hike a couple of days later. You can read more about these hikes here:
One important thing to note when planning your Patagonia trip, is that El Chaltén is rather expensive. This is due to a mix of its remote location, being a touristy spot, and of course the ever-confusing and ever-changing value of the Argentinian Peso.
You would look at restaurant menus on Google, and within the space of four months, the prices would have quadrupled. It meant we had to be careful when selecting places to dine – some places were still relatively affordable, not being much difference in price to a meal back in Australia. But other places you might end up paying AUD$40/USD$27 for a burger!
Even the groceries were expensive – a packet of two-minute noodles were AUD$4/USD$2.70, a small box of oatmeal was AUD$9/USD$6, or a single tomato was AUD$2/USD$1.30.
For this reason, each accommodation we booked (we had to book a few due our lack of pre-planning!) we ensured they included breakfast in the cost. All breakfasts were much the same – toast with either marmalade or dulce de leche, yoghurt, cereal, eggs and coffee. Nothing fancy, but good enough to give us enough fuel for our daily adventures.
Below is an overview of where we stayed, what we ate and other tips to help you plan your stay in El Chaltén!
Where we stayed:
Mermoz
Cost per night: AUD$77/USD$51 inc. breakfast
Room type: Triple room (2 bunks, 1 single) with shared bathroom
Website: https://mermoz.hotelesenpatagonia.com/es/
We loved our stay at Mermoz. We booked it because it was the cheapest place in town with good reviews, and we extended it because:
The room was spacious – being made for three people but only being the two of us, we had heaps of room to sort out all our camping gear etc.
The shared bathrooms were always free, and clean – being a small hotel (I believe 6 rooms?) we never had to wait to use the bathroom, they were well kept and the shower always hot!
The hosts were really helpful – this was probably the biggest factor for us. We were allowed to leave our bags there whilst trekking the 4-day Huemul Circuit, and Lucia even bought the bags up to our room so they were all there when we returned. She also provided a lot of recommendations for hikes to do in the area, and provided us contact details for rental shops, bus companies and everything else we needed or she’d predict we may need!
Hosteria Los Nires
Cost per night: AUD$78/USD$51.20 inc. breakfast (weirdly, it was a lot more expensive to book directly with the hostel so we booked via Airbnb!)
Room Type: Twin, private bathroom in a hostel
Website: https://hosteria-los-nires-9301.hotelesenpatagonia.com/es/
Unfortunately for us, Mermoz had a last minute large group booking whilst we were on one of our overnight hikes and we hadn’t pre-booked that night, so we needed to find somewhere else to stay inbetween overnight hikes. This hostel was well priced, close to Mermoz and had good reviews.
We had a pleasant stay there – the room was a bit run down and only one power outlet in a very odd position halfway up the wall between the beds, but the hostel made up for that in their communal area with lots of tables, couches and ping pong table.
Posada San Antonio
Cost per night: AUD$57/USD$38 inc. breakfast
Room Type: Twin, private bathroom
Website: https://www.posadasanantonio.com.ar/
Once again, by the time we returned from our last overnight hike, our hostel was booked out so we found Posada San Antonio for our final night in El Chaltén .
Their staff were really lovely, and it was good value for money. The only downside was everything was a bit small – the room was smaller than our previous two making it hard to both pack and get ready at the same time, and the breakfast area was also a tight squeeze. Just our luck, we all seemed to have breakfast at the same time!
Where we ate:
Fuegia Bistro
What I ate: Beef Stew
What I drank: Half (well, just over half) a bottle of Malbec, split with our friend
What I spent: AUD$26.30/USD$17.30
This place was super cozy with a great atmosphere. I have a thing for unpretentious restaurants with bottles of wine lining the wall , and a delicious warm stew (a staple Argentinian dish, also very affordable!) with a Malbec was the perfect meal for a near freezing night outside. They also served warm bread with a homemade aioli whilst we waited for our stews which I could have easily demolished a whole plate of!
Pangea Restaurant
What I ate: Eggplant Lasagna
What I drank: Coke Zero
What I spent: AUD$16.30/USD$10.80
A colourful homely pub, with walls decorated with vintage artwork and flags hanging from the ceiling. My eggplant lasagne was absolutely coated in cheese, but it had enough vegetables in it for me to justify it as a healthy option. It had a perfect amount of herbs sprinkled on top so it balanced out the cheese. Tim had the ribs with fries, which if my lasagne hadn’t of been so tasty I would have been jealous of, his looked delicious! He’s not one to share food (tragic for me) so I can only take his word for it that it was as good as it looked.
Another great bonus of this pub is they had a great exchange rate for USD, and a LOT of pesos to exchange! We ended up swapping about USD200 worth.
Nomade
What I ate: Beef Burger with blue cheese
What I drank: House glass of white wine
What I spent: AUD$21/USD$14
Compared to our other meals out, this one was a little underwhelming. My blue cheese burger had so much blue cheese it drowned out the taste of the other fillings, and Tim’s medium rare steak he ordered turned out to be very well done.
Bourbon Smokehouse
What I ate: Fries with Aioli
What I drank: 4x house white wines (2-for-1 happy hour!)
What I spent: AUD$27/USD$18
So, not really a meal as such but this place deserves a mention! We went here on our last night in El Chaltén after completing a overnight hike. The place was absolutely buzzing – it was happy hour plus the football was on, so the place was packed with Brits and other football fans. Not that we watch football, but after spending so many nights just the two of us camping over the past two weeks or in quiet restaurants, it was nice to have some atmosphere around us.
*photos from hotels websites
Other Tips:
We experienced multiple power cuts when there, some were street-wide, others were town-wide. They would generally last an hour or two. Some places would close whilst the power was out, some would have back up generators, and others would only sell with cash.
Both the wifi and cell network are unreliable and slow due to the towers being located across the border in Chile. This shouldn’t be an issue if you are out hiking each day, but keep this in mind if you are planning any rest days, trying to get any work done or trying to watch Netflix in the evenings!
If hiring gear, allow enough time to try different rental stores. If you are looking in peak season (December – March) I would recommend hiring a couple of days in advance. It’s worth paying an extra day or two to guarantee you have your gear secured.
Also keep in mind that most rental stores close between 11am and 2pm, but are open late, around 9pm and 10pm.
If you are heading to Bariloche (or El Bolson, or anywhere north) after El Chaltén, book your bus in advance or you might end up waiting around a week like us!
Like everywhere in Argentina, the "blue dollar" currency is a lot better than what banks offer. To get the best exchange rate, bring USD with you to change at local cafes/restaurants/shops, get money out of Western Union, or use Mastercard or Visa for card payments (their rate is not quite as good as the blue rate but at time of writing, a lot better than the standard bank rate).
Hopefully this post has helped you plan your El Chaltén trip, or inspired you to visit!
What We Did:
Hiking, hiking, and more hiking! In all honesty there isn't much else to do in this town apart from climbing (a hobby I haven't picked up... yet). But there are so many hikes to choose from, you could spend months here and still not tackle them all!
We spent 10 days here in total, and 8 of those days were on the trails! These hikes all have their own blog posts:
IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to Argentina's ever-fluctuating currency, please check prices before planning your travels. These prices were correct as at April 2024. For more on Argentina's money situation, click here.
