Luxury lodges in Los Glaciares

Explora El Chaltén is tucked deep into a valley with breathtaking mountain views: arriving here feels like discovering a secret known only to a few. Its location demands you drop your bags the instant you arrive to hit the hiking trail: simply walk out of your door and into the beautiful surrounding lenga forest, and keep on going until you reach the nearest granite peak.

Rooms lean to the minimalist end of the luxury scale, with a focus on getting guests outside: pure trekkers looking for somewhere comfortably high end to relax will find their place here. A large number of trails that start at the lodge, and superb guides to lead as many hiking excursions as you desire.

At the end of the day you can enjoy superb dining, with a menu created specially for Explora by Pablo Rivero, one of Argentina's most celebrated chefs. 

The lodge has sister properties in Torres del Paine and Patagonia National Park, but Explora El Chaltén probably offers the purest hiking experience of the three.

Remote seclusion is at the heart of Aguas Arriba. There’s not even a road to get here: guests arrive by private boat, pulling up at a jetty on the far wooded shores of Lago del Desierto.

Aguas Arriba is a romantic boutique log cabin that prides itself on the truly personal and high quality service it offers: From the moment you're presented with your own cosy pair of slippers, to the end of the day when you sink into a sofa in front of the log fire, everything is smoothly tailored to making feel exactly at home.

There is a series of great walking trails from the lodge (either self-guided or with one of Aguas Arriba’s guides). The views are truly worth every dollar: everywhere you look there are mountains, glaciers and verdant forest, whether you’re out on the trail or sitting on the veranda of your room.

While there’s plenty to explore outdoors, Aguas Arriba also works perfectly as an off-grid retreat, where you can relax in intimate luxury, truly disconnected from the outside world.

Those looking to feel dwarfed by Patagonia’s wilderness will find their joy at Estancia Cristina. This historic estancia is all about luxury among the big skies, far from civilization. Even getting here is part of the adventure: sailing for two hours on a catamaran past mountains and glaciers, to a place that’s barely a dot on the map.

Accommodation is in five houses that make up the old ranch. The estancia no longer raises livestock, but it has a museum following the story of the Masters family who founded it in 1912 and still run it today. The service and food is uniformly excellent and excursions range from horse riding to hiking to the stunning Upsala glacier.

But whether you’re drinking in the views of mountains from your porch, or exploring the lakeshore with the lonely wreck of the boat that bought the first pioneers here, Estancia Cristina is somewhere to come to lose yourself in the vastness of Patagonia's landscapes

Eolo is remote enough to breath in the vast silence of the Patagonian pampa, yet close enough to Perito Moreno glacier to easily visit one of the region’s mightiest attractions. The lodge sits high on a hill with a commanding position over a landscape that sweeps endlessly to the horizon.

The rooms themselves are decorated with deliberate understatement: the designers know you’ll be looking out at breathtaking views from every corner of the lodge. 

Eolo is a Relais & Chateaux hotel, with a strong focus on making guests as comfortable as possible. There are plenty of classic outside activities, but it’s inside where Eolo shows itself as one of the region's best luxury accommodations.

The service is impeccable, with world class gastronomy and matching wine cellar. Switch off and let someone bring you another glass of malbec as you watch the light play on the landscapes outside.