El Calafate Glacier Boat Tour | Gourmet Glaciers aboard Maria Turquesa

Going on an El Calafate glacier boat tour was one of the highlights of our trip to Patagonia! This is our experience of the Gourmet Glaciers tour aboard Maria Turquesa.

If you only make time for one excursion in El Calafate, I would make it the boat tour to the glaciers aboard Maria Turquesa with MarPatag. This was the highlight of my trip to El Calafate and I haven’t stopped raving about it to anyone who will listen!

So what was so amazing about this glaciers boat tour, you ask?

Well, for starters the number of icebergs and glaciers we got to see and how close we got to them!

Los Glaciares National Park forms part of the South Patagonian Ice Field which stretches across Argentina and Chile. It is the largest ice field in South America and it feeds numerous glaciers!

When you visit Los Glaciares National Park from El Calafate you come face to face with the most famous glacier of them all, Perito Moreno. However, there are many other glaciers to see within the park – many of them far larger and grander – but most travellers don’t know about these since they can only be reached by boat!

There were so many highlights during our glaciers boat tour aboard Maria Turquesa: cruising the milky turquoise waters of Lago Argentino, feeling the icy sub-Antarctic breeze blowing in our faces, fishing chunks of iceberg for our beverages, seeing waterfalls formed by meltwater cascading down the mountains and so much more!

I’ve visited some truly majestic places across Patagonia, but the experience of seeing these glaciers up close was the one that moved me to tears. I loved this tour and at the end of the day, my husband and I looked at each other and agreed that we’d be willing to get back on the same tour and do it all over again the next day.

So without further ado, here’s a recap of our experience on this El Calafate glaciers boat tour, so you know exactly what to expect.

🛥️ Maria Turquesa Full Day Sightseeing Glaciers Cruise – This is the El Calafate boat tour to the glaciers that we booked. This is a full-day tour (approximately 9 hours) and it includes a packed gourmet lunchbox.

Transfer to Puerto Soledad

First things first, we had to make our way to the port!

This El Calafate glacier tour started with a 48-kilometre drive out to Punta Bandera / Puerto Soledad which is a private port on the southern shores of Lago Argentino just west of El Calafate.

You can book this tour with transfers or without transfers. We opted for the transfer which included pickup and drop off at our lodgings in El Calafate. Pickups start at 07:15 am so you’ll want to be up bright and early.

Alternatively, if you’re planning to rent a car in El Calafate or if you’re staying outside the urban pickup areas in town, you can make your own way to the port.

Los Glaciares National Park Entrance Fee

Before boarding our vessel, Maria Turquesa, we had to pay the admission fee to Los Glaciares National Park since the whole cruise takes place in the park.

There was a small booth where we all lined up to pay the fee. You can view current admission rates here since these vary for international visitors, national visitors and provincial visitors.

I’ll also mention that even though they accept debit and credit card payments, it’s a good idea to have some Argentine pesos on you to pay this fee since the internet does tend to cut in and out in these remote places. Sometimes you have to attempt a payment multiple times and other times it just doesn’t go through!

Tip: If you’re planning to visit Los Glaciares National Park on two consecutive days, you can save 50% off your second visit. We paid for this pass since we knew we wanted to come back to visit Perito Moreno Glacier and explore the balconies and boardwalks.

El Calafate Glacier Boat Tour

So, now I’m going to give you a play-by-play of our day on the Gourmet Glaciers tour so you know exactly what to expect, should you decide to do it!

After paying our admission fee to Los Glaciares National Park, we boarded the vessel at 8:30 am and set sail by 9:00 am.

As we were leaving port, we decided to get some hot beverages. We each ordered a vanilla cappuccino with a medialuna.

Once we left port and were out cruising Lago Argentino, we were able to go out on the deck and it wasn’t long before we spotted our first iceberg.

In fact, the day was full of icebergs and glaciers!

Seco Glacier

The first glacier we visited on our glaciers boat cruise was Seco Glacier, which translates to ‘dry glacier’. This is a hanging glacier and its name refers to the fact that it is currently receding.

Unlike other glaciers in the park that flow directly into the lake, Seco Glacier ends on a rocky outcrop without reaching the water. This gives it a somewhat barren and stark appearance, contrasting sharply with the lush surroundings.

Heim Glacier

We continued towards Heim Glacier, which is a hanging glacier that had these incredible meltwater cascades running down the side of the mountain.

Spegazzini Glacier

Next on the itinerary was Spegazzini Glacier, named after Carlos Luis Spegazzini, the Italian-Argentine botanist who was the first to study the local flora.

The main characteristic of this glacier is its height which reaches 135 meters along its front. This makes it the highest glacier in Los Glaciares National Park and one of the most important!

Due to the glacier’s steep and high front wall, you can often witness spectacular calving events, where massive chunks of ice break off and crash into the lake, sending waves rippling across the water.

Puesto de las Vacas

Halfway through the cruise, we disembarked at a place called Puesto de las Vacas, which literally translates to ‘cow stall’.

This is a remote part of Los Glaciares National Park, where a Finnish-Chilean couple lived and whose job it was to capture the wild cows that escaped from the nearby estancias and bring them back into town!

For this part of the excursion, we were split into smaller Spanish and English-speaking groups and we went on a guided hike.

It was nice to stretch our legs before getting back on the boat for more glaciers!

Upsala Glacier

That afternoon we also visited the Upsala Glacier and Bertacchi Glacier.

Upsala Glacier is a valley glacier, currently in a state of recession, that sits on the eastern side of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.

It is named after Uppsala University in Sweden since they sponsored the first glaciological studies conducted in this area.

Bertacchi Glacier

Bertacchi Glacier is one of three lesser eastflowing tributaries of Upsala Glacier together with Cono Glacier and Murallón Glacier.

However, Upsala Glacier has retreated to such a degree that it no longer constrains Bertacchi Glacier.

The Gourmet Glaciers Lunchbox

We then took a pause from all the glacier-spotting to have lunch.

The name of this particular tour is Gourmet Glaciers, and you can choose between a gourmet tasting menu served on the private deck, or a fancy lunchbox, which is what we opted for.

We were served a Patagonian lamb sandwich with caramelized onions and cheese, a side of roasted carrot and potato wedges and one non-alcoholic beverage per person. For a packed lunchbox, it was a really nice meal!

Because this tour was a special occasion, we also decided to order a bottle of wine – Malbec, of course! – to toast to such a wonderful day.

At one point during the boat tour, the guides fished a piece of iceberg from the lake, so guests had the option to sip whiskey with glacial ice. It was a pleasant surprise when the servers came around with chunks of the iceberg for anyone who wanted to add it to their drinks – we did!

Then for dessert, we got a brownie and dulce de leche mousse with blueberries. We weren’t even expecting dessert, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Canal de los Témpanos

All through lunch, we continued our El Calafate glacier boat tour towards Canal de los Témpanos which translates to ‘iceberg channel’.

The channel is named so since this is where the ice that breaks off Perito Moreno Glacier ends up.

Because we ended up revisiting Los Glaciares National Park the day after this glacier boat tour, we had the opportunity to see this place up close.

There is a very short and easy hike to Mirador Canal de los Témpanos via a boardwalk where you can stand on the shores of Lake Argentino and watch the icebergs bob in the water.

Perito Moreno Glacier

Then it was time for the main attraction: Perito Moreno Glacier!

This particular glacier is the icon of Los Glaciares National Park. It’s the reason why people travel all the way to Patagonia…to see this one glacier!

What is so special about the Perito Moreno Glacier?

Well, for starters it’s one of the few glaciers in the world that is still growing.

It’s also pretty massive! The glacier’s front is 5 kilometres long, its height above the water is 60 meters, and its total depth is about 170 meters – so you’re actually only seeing a small part of what it is.

Sometimes you can build up an attraction in your head and then it’s a bit underwhelming, but this was far from the case with Perito Moreno Glacier. If anything, I would say the experience was overwhelming!

Seeing that wall of blue ice, feeling the glacial air blowing in my face, and watching as chunks of ice calved into the water was nothing short of spectacular.

There are so many Perito Moreno Glacier boat tours and sometimes choosing one can feel a bit overwhelming, but I was very happy with our decision.

All in all, it was an amazing day and an experience I hope to repeat again the next time I visit El Calafate, hopefully bringing my parents and in-laws along!

How to book the Gourmet Glaciers Tour

So how do you book this El Calafate glaciers boat tour aboard Maria Turquesa?

Good question! There are a few different ways.

• Viator: The Gourmet Glaciers boat tour is listed on Viator. This is the easiest and most straightforward way of booking this tour, especially for foreigners. It also means you can book your tour well in advance, which is a good idea if you’re visiting during the high season (December-March) when the tour can sell out days in advance. The downside is that the tour does cost a bit more when you book through Viator.

• Tour operator: MarPatag Cruceros is the tour operator for the Gourmet Glaciers cruise aboard Maria Turquesa. Their rates are listed here in ARS. Booking things in Argentina isn’t always very straightforward, so if you want to book directly with MarPatag Cruceros you’ll either need to send a message through their contact form and wait for a response or get in touch via Whatsapp. It’s a bit more work, but you can get the tour for a bit cheaper.

• In person: Booking in person is always a bit of a gamble in terms of availability if you’re visiting El Calafate during the high season. This is because tours like this one can book up. If you only have a few days in town, you probably don’t want to risk it! However, if you’re staying in El Calafate for a while, you can try to book something as soon as you arrive for a later date. This involves a bit more legwork, but most of the tour agencies are located along Avenida del Libertador, so it’s just a matter of going in, asking prices and comparing.

Our experience on the Gourmet Glaciers Cruise

It can be hard to put this experience into words, so I think it’s best I show you. I think this video captures the magic of our El Calafate glacier boat tour and why we loved it so much. Enjoy!

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