Safari to Bariloche

hiking, boating, golf and winter sports

Set around 1000 km southwest of Buenos Aires and 1500 km north of Patagonia, Bariloche is the lake district of Chile.

This temperate region is certainly one of the most beautiful parts of the country, with rich farmland and beautiful lakes, leading up into lush forests, topped off by stunning snow-capped mountains.

Many people will be struck by the similarity that this area has to parts of North America and, particularly, to Switzerland. This similarity is amplified by the fact that the area was largely settled by German, French and Italian immigrants and features classic Alpine architecture both in the towns and the countryside.

The area offers a huge range of Alpine activities, with lots of hiking, biking and boating during the summer, skiing, snowboarding and snow-shoeing during the winter.

The area also contains a couple of superb rural estancias, set on the steppe to the east, where horse-riding with local gauchos is a particular speciality.

The area also has an unusually strong native culture. The local Mapuche tribe is famed for having successfully driven off the advances of both the Inca and the Spanish. These people retain an unusually powerful sense of identity to this day.

The best way to visit this area is usually to split 4-5 nights across two different lodges, which enables you to travel the famous Seven Lakes Highway and explore the scenic smaller towns of Villa La Angostura and San Martín de los Andes.

As well as connecting south by air to the Los Glaciares area, it’s also possible to take the interesting Lake Crossing through the mountains to the Los Lagos area of Chile, from where you can continue southwards to Torres del Paine.

The best time to visit Bariloche is very much dependent on whether you are looking to do summer or winter activities.

The vast majority of overseas travellers visit during the Oct-Apr warm dry summer season, since this is the best time to visit most other parts of the country.

During the Oct-Apr summer season the conditions are usually relatively warm. Average daytime temperatures usually reach around 20C/68F, with nighttime temperatures holding up around 5C/41F. Rainfall is relatively low, at around 25 mm (1”) per month. Sunshine is up around 10 hours per day, peaking in Dec-Feb (around 75% of daylight hours).

Those travellers who want to go skiing, snowboarding and other such activities tend to visit during the May-Sep winter season. Since the skiing here is not generally considered to be good enough to attract people from around the world, most visitors at this time are from Argentina and other neighbouring countries.

During the May-Sep winter season the weather is usually cold and wet or snowy. Average daytime temperatures usually manage to reach around 7C/65F, with nighttime lows dropping to around 0C/41F. Rainfall is up around 125 mm (5”) per month, with heavy snow cover, especially at higher altitudes. Sunshine drops dramatically to around 4 hours per day (around 40% of daylight hours).

Getting there

If you are heading to the main San Carlos de Bariloche or Villa La Angostura areas then you can fly into the larger San Carlos de Bariloche Airport (BRC).
If you are heading for the more northerly San Martin de los Andes area, then you can fly into the smaller Aviador Carlos Campos Airport (CPC).

If you want to connect southwards into Patagonia then there are two options …

The first is to fly from Bariloche (BRC) to El Calafate (FTE) in the Los Glaciares area, from where it’s possible to cross the border by road into Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.

The second is to use the famous Lake Crossing to reach Puerto Montt (PMC) in Chile, from where you can fly on down to Punta Arenas (PUQ), in order to access Torres del Paine. From there you can cross back into the Los Glaciares area of Argentina and fly back from El Calafate (FTE) to Buenos Aires.

uncannily like the northern hemisphere