Introduction: Bariloche to El Chalten
Bariloche to El Chalten is quite the long journey as the fastest road is about 1391km. There are through 3 ways of making it:
- By plane
- By Bus
- By car
We opted for the plane in the end but will give you some insight of the 3 options as we spent time on them.
Table of Contents
By plane
The fastest way but not the cheapest. We checked on Skyscanner, google flight and ended up buying a ticket from Expedia. In order to get a better price, we also stayed longer in Bariloche.
Our plane was then from Bariloche (BRC) to El Calafate (FTE) at 12pm and latest for 1h45. It cost us 146 euro per person.
El Chalten doesn’t have an airport and therefor you must go through el Calafate first and then take a bus or van. But all together it stands faster. See the full article about the ride between El Calafate and El Chalten here.
We left Bariloche around 10:30am and arrive in El Chalten around 5:45pm. So, the total journey took us 5h15min.
By Bus
Another options, is to take a bus directly from Bariloche bus terminal to El Chalten. There is a daily departure at 8am with MARGA TAQSA. The journey takes 23h10min and the arrival is planed for 7:10am the next day.
The cost for a ticket on Busbud is 119€, but this ticket can be bought for around 80 to 90€ in the terminal.
By car
That’s the option, we would have loved to take if we had more time. We would have rent a car in Bariloche and give it back in El Calafate or take a bus to Puerto Mount (Chile) and give it back in Puerto Natales (Chile).
From Bariloche we would have driven to:
- El Bolson (only for a departure from Bariloche) and then cross the border to Chile
- Chaiten to visit Pumalin Park
- Puyuhuapi to visit Queulat National Park
- Coyhaique to visit Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo
- Puerto Río Tranquilo to visit the Patagonia National Park
- El Chalten for Laguna de Los Tres
- El Calafate for Glacier Perito Morino
From Puerto Mount to:
- Chaiten to visit Pumalin Park
- Puyuhuapi to visit Queulat National Park
- Coyhaique to visit Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo
- Puerto Río Tranquilo to visit the Patagonia National Park
- El Chalten for Laguna de Los Tres
- El Calafate for Glacier Perito Morino
- Puerto Natales to visit Torres del Paine
The cost and the duration of this, would have been greater but would have made an amazing road trip. We had planned for these 7 to 10 days.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain (?)
Where to stay in El Chalten
- Budget: Lo de Guille
- Mid-Range: Complejo “Nahuel Pan “
- Luxurious: Destino Sur Hotel & Spa de Montaña
