Compare Discover South America: Chile & Argentina by Grand Circle Travel vs From Argentina to Chile with Lake Crossing in 12 days by Qwerty Travel Argentina

Day 1: Arrive Santiago, Chile • Chilean family winery

Meals included: Dinner

Accommodations: Crowne Plaza Santiago or similar

You will touch down in the Chilean capital this morning to begin your South American tour, where a Grand Circle representative will meet you and assist with the transfer to your hotel. While you wait to check into your room, take part in a guided orientation walk, giving you the lay of the land in your Santiago neighborhood.

Early this afternoon, meet your travel companions, including those who took our optional pre-trip extension to Peru: Machu Picchu, Cuzco & Lima, and your Program Director. You'll then enjoy a Welcome Briefing, during which you'll learn some more details of what to expect from your upcoming discoveries in South America. Then, depart for a nearby family-owned winery, where you'll enjoy a tour on one of Chile's most famous exports. Here, you'll also sit down with fellow travelers for a delicious Welcome Dinner.

Day 2: Santiago • City tour • Chilean history discussion

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Accommodations: Crowne Plaza Santiago or similar

This morning, embark upon a city tour of Santiago. Home to a third of Chile's 16 million people, Santiago rests at the confluence of the Mapocho and Maipu rivers, surrounded on all sides by Andean peaks. To be sure, it's a breathtaking setting for a capital that has witnessed a remarkable history—from settlement by conquistadores in 1541 to the Marxist, military, and finally, democratic governments of the 20th century.

This morning, pass through Providencia, a district of great tradition and strong commercial and social activity. Then begin your included city tour with a ride through the residential districts of Bellavista and Las Condes, where you will see beautiful homes and parks. As you continue, you'll see several historic monuments and buildings, including the Palacio de la Moneda, the current seat of the government. Stop for a stroll at the city's most important plaza, the Plaza de Armas, which has been the heart of Santiago since its origin in 1541. Ringing the plaza are many important buildings that are considered national monuments. Here you see the Correo Central (main post office), Iglesia Catedral (Cathedral Church), the Municipalidad de Santiago (City Hall), and the National Historic Museum. Nearby, you find the Mercado Central (Central Market), an elegant wrought-iron structure inaugurated in 1872 as the site of a National Exhibition. Now it is the city's central market, filled with colorful stalls and seafood eateries (called marisquerias). Here, you'll enjoy an included lunch.

Tonight, enjoy a discussion on Chilean history and the country's most controversial leaders: Allende and Pinochet.

Day 3: Santiago • Valparaiso tour • Graffiti Art of Valparaiso activity

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Accommodations: Crowne Plaza Santiago or similar

Today, set off to the Chilean northwest on a full-day tour to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is an important Chilean port city (and a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site), where 17 hills tower over the "basin" district.

The city's distinctive features include meandering cobblestone streets and ancient ascensores—electric cable cars that climb into hillside neighborhoods and afford splendid sea views. You'll ride one of these ascensores up the hill for one of the many views of Valparaiso, then walk through the colorful streets, known for the colorful public art on the walls. Learn more about this cultural heritage, and make your own contribution to a work in progress, during an exclusive Graffiti Art of Valparaiso Discovery Series event.

Afterward, enjoy lunch with a local family in their home in the hills of Valparaiso before returning to Santiago. Enjoy the evening and dinner at your leisure.

Day 4: Santiago • Puerto Varas • Angelmo Market visit • Mapuche discussion

Meals: Breakfast and Dinner

Accommodations: Hotel Bellavista

After an early breakfast, transfer to the Santiago airport for your group's flight to Puerto Montt. You'll arrive in the early afternoon, then enjoy an exclusive Discovery Series visit to Angelmo Fish Market with your Program Director. Walk amidst the bustling stalls and browse some of the local seafood found in the nearby Chilean lakes. Perhaps sample the local curanto stew, a mixture of meat, seafood, and vegetable, and admire an array of dried shellfish.

Following your market visit, you’ll transfer to Puerto Varas to check into your hotel, and then gather for an exclusive Discovery Series discussion on the Mapuche people native to this area. While the Mapuche only make up about four percent of Chile's total population, their traditions surrounding the extended family and their agricultural customs have had widespread influences.

Dinner this evening is included at local restaurant.

Day 5: Puerto Varas • Chilean rodeo demonstration & lunch

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Accommodations: Hotel Bellavista

This morning, learn more about the German immigrant heritage of Chile during a visit to a German family collection. Then enjoy a taste of everyday, family-centered Chilean life as a guest at a local horse-breeding ranch. During this exclusive Discovery Series event, you'll see how a farm family lives and works—and witness a Chilean rodeo demonstration as well. For lunch, enjoy a tasty homemade meal at the ranch in the company of these welcoming people before returning to your hotel.

This evening, you'll have a presentation to prepare you for tomorrow's travel through the Andes. The rest of the evening is yours to seek out dinner and spend as you please.

Day 6: Puerto Varas • Petrohue Falls • Andean lake crossing • Bariloche, Argentina

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Accommodations: Cacique Inacayal Hotel

Be prepared for an early start and a long—but very rewarding—day of travel today. First, depart for a morning tour of Petrohue Falls, where you can explore the lush setting surrounding the rapids. Petrohue Falls is located just a short distance downstream from Lake Todos los Santos, and the chute-like waterfall is supported by basaltic lava. Enjoy the views of Osorno Volcano in the distance.

Then, after a stop for an included lunch, you'll start your unforgettable journey across the border through the Andes from Chile into Argentina. Traveling in turn by bus, by boat, and back again, you’ll travel overland through picturesque mountain roads and also sail across the shimmering waters of the vast lakes of the Andes, taking your time to admire the scenery as you go.

Four buses, three boats, and a camera’s worth of memorable photos later, you’ll arrive in Bariloche in the early evening and check into your hotel. Dinner is on your own tonight.

Day 7: Bariloche • Panoramic tour & visit to Campanario Hill • Local brewery

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodations: Cacique Inacayal Hotel

Today Patagonia bids you bienvenidos as you awaken in Bariloche. Officially called San Carlos de Bariloche, this city is a curious amalgam of cultural influences. Its buildings recall the Austrian Tyrol in their design. Many of the ranches dotting the outlying Patagonian plains remain English-owned and run, worked by Chilean peons from over the border. (Film buffs: This is the territory where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made their real-life last stand.)

Bookended by stark granite peaks and mirrored in 40-mile-long Lake Nahuel Huapi, Bariloche is, quite literally, a breath of fresh air. Discover this on a panoramic tour this morning, which includes a visit to Campanario Hill. You'll go on to take in breathtaking views of the lake. Ride a chairlift to the top of Campanario Hill for spectacular views of the mountains (if the weather is clear). The lake is studded with fir-tree-covered islands. After that, you will enjoy a visit to a traditional brewery, where you'll have lunch and learn how this family prepares local beer.

This afternoon, enjoy time at your leisure. Rejoin your fellow travelers at your hotel this evening for an included dinner.

Day 8: Bariloche • Nazis in Patagonia discussion • Patagonian ranch visit • Optional Floating in the Limay River cruise  OPTIONAL TOUR

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Accommodations: Cacique Inacayal Hotel

This morning, enjoy an exclusive Discovery Series discussion on the Nazi presence in Patagonia during World War II. Later, you'll depart for the Patagonian steppe for an exclusive Discovery Series event, where you'll be the guests on a Patagonian working ranch. You'll have the opportunity to tour the ranch and its grounds, learn about life in the windy Patagonian steppes, and enjoy a traditional lamb barbecue lunch.

The afternoon is free for your own discovery. Perhaps you will visit the Museo de la Patagonia, with its archaeological, historical and cultural displays, or enjoy a walk through the beautiful city center. Or you can join us for an optional Floating in the Limay River cruise, to enjoy the steppe landscape and fresh air while you float along by raft.

Dinner is on your own this evening.

Day 9: Bariloche • Buenos Aires • Home-Hosted Dinner

Meals: Breakfast and Dinner

Accommodations: Panamericano Buenos Aires or similar

After breakfast, you'll have some time to bid Bariloche adios before transferring to the airport for your flight to Buenos Aires. You'll arrive in the late afternoon and continue to your hotel.

The most memorable part of your visit to this charming city may well be tonight’s dinner. Take a seat at the table of an Argentine family, share their evening meal, chat, learn about each other, and make new friends.

Prepare yourself for an evening seasoned with good conversation and fellowship.

Day 10: Buenos Aires Highlights tour • Tango lesson • Optional Tango Show & Dinner  OPTIONAL TOUR

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodations: Panamericano Buenos Aires or similar

After breakfast, set off on an included half-day tour of Buenos Aires. You'll see the city's elegant mixture of Spanish Colonial architecture and several traditional European styles. Visit Avenida de Mayo, which runs into Plaza de Mayo, where many buildings important to Argentine history are centered. See the Casa Rosada (Government House); the Metropolitan Cathedral; and the Cabildo, the first City Hall built during Spanish rule.

Next, you'll visit La Boca, Buenos Aires' first merchant and fishing port. You'll have time to visit the famous Caminito, an outdoor museum and art show where painters offer their tango pictures, or stroll along the renovated waterfront promenade.

Your tour passes by the beautiful Colon Theater. Built in 1908, this is one of the world's most famous opera houses, and international stars vie to perform here as they do at Milan's La Scala and Vienna's State Opera House. Continue on to the final resting place of Eva "Evita" Peron, the Duarte tomb at the Recoleta Cemetery. The cemetery is in the Recoleta district, an area of elegant homes, fashionable restaurants and shops.

Lunch is on your own. The rest of your afternoon is at leisure for you to discover Buenos Aires.

This evening, join a tango lesson and learn the basic steps of Argentina’s fiery, passionate, signature dance. Before it was a dance, tango was a sound—a composite of rhythms and voices born out of the slums of Buenos Aires, where a diaspora of Europeans, Africans, and idle, discharged local soldiers congregated and sang their tales of solitude and struggle. From the music emerged the dance, and that unique and passionate mix came to encapsulate, in the opinions of many, the Argentine national character.

Interestingly though, the tango was not always the celebrated tradition it is now. Many Argentines viewed its humble origins and sensual stylings as unsavory at best—and vulgar at worst. The tango had to cross the Atlantic and become the red-hot rage of Europe before it found favor in its native land. And in recent years, it has undergone a revival, receiving an injection of modern energy from artists like Astor Piazzola and receiving broader national (and international) exposure through TV, radio, and touring tango troupes.

While your steps may not be as sure as the most seasoned tanguero, you’ll learn the basics during this special lesson—certainly enough to impress the folks back home.

Now that you’ve learned the basics of the tango, you have the opportunity to see how it’s really done. Tonight, watch some of the best tango dancers and musicians in Argentina perform at a sophisticated supper club during an optional tango show and dinner.

Day 11: Buenos Aires • Parana Delta ride • School visit • Argentina Today discussion  FOUNDATION VISIT

Meals: Breakfast,  Lunch and Dinner

Accommodations: Panamericano Buenos Aires or similar

Today, experience a change of pace from city life as you take a tour of the area where the Parana River empties into the Rio de la Plata on its way into the Atlantic, forming a huge delta. This exotic landscape is just half an hour from the city but seems a million miles away. Traditional houses on pilotes (stilts) are surrounded by lush subtropical vegetation, and are built on islands that are separated by a twisting maze of waterways.

Enjoy a relaxing boat ride in this scenic area, which is one of Latin America's most amazing wetland environments. You'll sail through the many islands that populate the rivers of the delta, and take in the lush, subtropical scenery and plant life. Then, enjoy an included lunch, followed by a visit to a local school (when in session) supported in part by Grand Circle Foundation, where you'll have the opportunity to get to know students and teachers there.

Later, after returning to your hotel, you will attend an exclusive Discovery Series discussion on Argentina Today, highlighting the current state of Argentina's economy and political scene.

Then toast your adventures and companions from your South American tour at tonight's Farewell Dinner at a local restaurant.

Please note: The school visit will only be available while the school is in session, from September-November to March-May.

Day 12: Buenos Aires

Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast at the hotel together, enjoy a morning at leisure to explore Buenos Aires before lunch on your own. Tonight, fly back to the U.S. or continue on our Brazil's Iguassu Falls & Rio de Janeiro post-trip extension.

Day 1: Buenos Aires

Arrival at Buenos Aires airport and transfer to your accommodation. Rest of the day at leisure

Day 2: Buenos Aires – City tour

During the morning visit the city of Buenos Aires. This tour gives you the emotion of a multiple Buenos Aires. We will see the symbol of our city: the obelisk. We will visit different squares such as Plaza de Mayo, Plaza San Martín, Plaza Congreso. Avenues like Corrientes, Mayo, 9 de Julio, among others. Historical neighbourhoods: La Boca, San Telmo, Montserrat. Elegant neighbourhoods such as Palermo and Recoleta, and the most modern: Puerto Madero. Parks such as Lezama and Tres de Febrero. We will also visit financial and commercial areas and a Football Stadium.

Day 3: Buenos Aires

Day at leisure to discover this amazing city by your own or enjoy some suggested optional excursion

Day 4: Buenos Aires – Bariloche

Transfer to the airport. Flight to Bariloche. Arrival and transfer to the hotel. 

Day 5: Bariloche – Short Circuit

Circuito Chico is a Scenic Tour on which to enjoy good food as well as the beautiful views. The scenery is magnificent along the whole drive, and there are several natural lookouts, such as López Bay and “Punto Panorámico” panoramic lookout. Cerro Campanario, a hill standing “in the center of the landscape” (Km 17), has a chairlift that will carry you up to “the heights of amazement” to enjoy the most beautiful view in the area.

Tasty specialties at several tea houses and restaurants along the way add flavor to the scenic tour. Hotel LlaoLlao and San Eduardo Chapel, opposite Puerto Pañuelo, are unique tourist attractions. If you have time, the easy paths through Llao Llao Municipal Park provide an opportunity for a peaceful walk through the forest. Another alternative is to drive a few more kilometers to the traditional village Colonia Suiza with its unique atmosphere of a historical old rural settlement.

Other attractions along Circuito Chico are regional craft products including knitted garments, woodwork, candles, pottery and cosmetics, among others. Don’t miss the Small Circle Scenic Tour!

Day 6: Bariloche

Today you have a free day to enjoy and spend on your own or enojoy some suggested optional tour.

Day 7: Bariloche – Lake Crossing – Puerto Varas/Puerto Montt

Trasandino Crossing. This pioneering journey quickly became one of the attractions of Lake Todos los Santos and Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park, the first national park in Chile and the second oldest in America. The circuit offers travelers the opportunity to marvel at the nature of two national parks Andean environment, the Pérez Rosales in Chile and the NahuelHuapi in Argentina, “surf” the Andes through lakes and rivers, visit places magic, as Puerto Blest and Peulla, and enjoy, in the headwaters of the course, two beautiful cities: Bariloche and Puerto Varas.

Day 8: Puerto Montt/Puerto Varas

Day at leisure to discover this amazing city by your own or enjoy some suggested optional excursion.

Day 9: Puerto Montt/Puerto Varas – Santiago de Chile

Transfer to the airport in Puerto Montt. Flight to Santiago de Chile. Arrival and transfer to the hotel.

Day 10: Santiago de Chile – City tour

The city tour is a tour of the historical, commercial and zones.- tour and outer courtyards of the Government Palace “La Moneda” (visit determined by the activities of the President), view the historic center with the Plaza de Armas areas Cathedral, Central Post Office, City Hall, etc. It then passes through the main avenue of the city “La Alameda”, Santa Lucia Hill, Forest Park, Museum of Fine Arts, the bohemian Bellavista neighborhood and then continue to Cerro San Cristobal, natural view of the city.- We follow the modern residential and commercial areas, sectors that reach the foot of the Cordillera de los Andes. New neighborhoods such as Santa María de Manquehue, Las Condes and Vitacura, Bicentennial Park, mixed with areas of advanced architecture as in the Barrio El Golf For those who wish may end the tour in a modern shopping center or return to the hotel.

Day 11: Santiago de Chile

Day at leisure to discover this amazing city by your own or enjoy some suggested optional excursion.

Day 12: Santiago de Chile

Transfer to the airport for your departure flight.