Customer Reviews

Pros: excellent scenery, guiding was fair to excellent, reasonable value, swoop organizers were helpful and responsive to issues. Cons: lodging was variable..refugios are not a highlight...some better than others, food options also variable, should have easy hikes first and move to progressively harder hikes instead of the reverse!!! If you can afford it, choose a better option...if not, grim and bear it!

Seeing San Raphael glacier

Spotting a Puma in the wild!

Trekking from El Chalten

Reaching the Torres lookout on the last day of our self guided W trek

Seeing all of the different and changing landscapes on each day’s hike (ie. glaciers, mountains, water springs).

Walking the glacier

Reaching the base of the Towers on a bad weather day and having the sun come out just as we arrived at the moraine lake

Kayaking on the glacial lake!

The Australis is well-run and enjoyable. There was no one highlight of the places we visited - Cape Horn, the fiords, the penguins, and so on. The wild and beautiful mountains and glaciers were amazing to see.

Hiking Torres de pines, riding horses with Guchoo on three ranches People very friendly Telling friends and family via Facebook with photos Would not probably return as there are other places in the world To go

It was a good trip but I wouldn't want to do another trip in that way

The trip was great. Highlight was our night in bader valley because we were ‘alone’ of course with our guide and porter and the trek up there was challenging so we felt incredibly accomplished once we arrived and got to imenjly amazing views and waterfalls. Second best day was the last 10 minutes of the towers climb. You’re so exhausted and you know your close and then you get to the top and the view is jaw dropping. We also LOVED the domes frances for sleeping after 3 nights camping it felt like heaven!!

Patagonia was a great place to walk. Lots to see and do. Open landscapes, spectacular mountain ranges and glaciers. We met some interesting people. Some of which were on a similar journey to us, some were more 'local'. Everyone seemed friendly and interested in our lives too! We completed the 'W' trek quite comfortably. We enjoyed the cosy accommodation and comradery of other trekkers. Everyone had their own agenda and were happy to share their experiences.

Highlights: Hiking to the blue towers in Torres del Paine and hiking to base of Fitz Roy in El Chalten. Landscapes in Torres del Paine (Cordillero, lakes, glaciers) were stunning. no wildlife to speak of on the W Trek. The Trek afforded us the ability to meet like minded trekkers, willing to get up early and challenge themselves on steep trails through wind, rain, sun , all for the the love of the outdoors. Most magical moment was kayaking 21km on the Rio del las Vueltas, with crystal blue skies, views and reflections on Fitz Roy, Cerr Torre on the river! Booked when we arrived in El Chalten, not through Swoop.

The trip was really nice. The guide was friendly and knowledgble, the experience authentic as we stayed in ‘refugios’ that are still being used today, and the scenery was stunning (on the days it didn’t rain ;) ). The food was good, and we felt very welcome at the estancia. What bothered me was the extreme caution for safety, and the fact that we could only walk on the rides (as I’m an experienced rider it would be nice to do some faster riding now and then and thus also see more of the park and warm up a little bit). On the trip, there’s also to do a boat trip on the 4th day, this wasn’t mentioned to me beforehand.

I did enjoy the trip, though I was surprised by the group I was with. From conversations before I booked I did expect to be the youngest but for the average group age to be 40-50. On my group the average was 60+. Luckily some members were up for the more physical treks so I didn’t think my time was impacted by that. I was, however, roomed with a woman who was 70+ and we did not make the best roommates due to our age difference. Not enjoyung the rooming situation did negatively impact my trip.

Wonderful landscapes. I like the moments of ice collapses at the glaciers.

The highlight was our puma tracking trail with Antonia in TdP (6.2km) which also took us to ancient cave paintings or the condor trek we did where we got to "soar" in the Patagonian wind at the top of our mountain and condor lookout. She tailored made an experience for me (a non-hiker) that made me absolutely fall in love with the park. She found was to get us to taste, see and smell all the truly wild and magical pieces of this special place. Without her wisdom and enthusiasm, our experience would have been so different, and I'm certain it would not have been as good. Whether we got Antonia by luck or by a plan, she was absolutely perfect for us. We are looking forward to keeping in touch with her.

The highlight was probably the whale watching and the penguin colony on Peninsula Valdes. The wildlife, landscape, people were amazing as usual! Unfortunately (and this was known to me in advance) the food in Patagonia leaves much to be desired....