Making it to the beautiful endpoints of our two very demanding hikes (Laguna des los Tres & Mirador Base Towers).

Great holiday

EcoCamp lived up to its expectations. Our room although just a standard dome, was comfy and cozy as well as sturdy as it withheld strong winds and rains during some nights during our stay. Facilities were well kept - showers were hot and high pressure. Excursions were well planned and curated with enough variability in areas of the park, distance, difficulty, etc. Guides were extremely friendly and personable which brought a greater sense of community to the EcoDome guests. Guides were also very knowledgeable.

It was much bigger than we anticipated and had beautiful views all across the park. The highlights for us were the Base Towers hike, French Valley hike as well as the Grey Glacier boat ride.

We appreciated that there were three levels to select every evening for the following day. The guides were excellent at level setting the hikes/journeys expectations to us and providing the weather forecast. We enjoyed every excursion (and guide). No complaints - we just wished that the guides took into consideration various skill levels of guests. We did Base Towers with one other couple who very novice so our guide had to stay back with them while we went ahead (with a signed disclaimer waiver). Our only wish was that there were two guides assigned to that hike to account for the difference in guest skill levels. The guides overall were great at providing information on nature and park history. They were present but also gave us space to enjoy the trip.

Our drivers and guides were generally all very friendly, polite and helpful throughout our entire trip - both in Torres Del Paine/EcoDome and elsewhere.

Pack layers and make sure you invest in a breathable windbreaker as the rolling Patagonia hills and mountainside does get windy. Hiking poles made the demanding hikes (with big elevation gains) much easier on the way up and down. Organize a quart sized bag with various (processed) snacks to take on each hike to make it easier to grab & go as well as to contain wrappers to pack in/out. Packing cubes were super helpful in organizing clothing as well.

Yes

No

No

I would level set the difficulty of the recommended hikes is appropriate for each clientele. In El Chalten, we had two back to back days planned with demanding hikes which was too much for us (we ended up just doing the guided Laguna des los Tres and not the self-guided Turnado Pliegue one). It would be more helpful to have list of various hike options in each area and their difficulty level, elevation gain, distance and estimated completed time (whether you source it from AllTrails or somewhere else). We met another Swoop client couple who also had a demanding hiking itinerary who struggled with the EcoDome hikes (medium & hard) so I had to recommend alternative hike options to them for when they went to El Chalten afterwards since they did not have the fitness level to complete the scheduled guided hikes.

We were super excited to finally fulfill our dreams of going to Patagonia! My husband was definitely prepared but looking back I felt like I should have done more incline walks/stairclimbers/weight lunges to be in better shape for the demanding hikes; however, I was able to still complete them in a slower pace with a few extra breaks. We both felt like we packed appropriately for the trip, but may have packed a bit too much for cooler weather than what we actually had. There wasnt anything we forgot to pack/missed during our trip.

It has given us an even greater appreciation of nature and sustainability/preservation practices.