Getting to the Perito Moreno Glacier

The glacier sits 80 km from El Calafate on paved road. Everything else — which port, which car park, which bus — depends on what you have booked.

Hours, prices and access verified by the Perito Moreno Glacier Tours team — last checked August 10, 2026.

The three arrival points

Several different places on the map get called “the glacier”, and booking the wrong transfer sends you to the wrong one.

A minitrekking booking that says “without transfers” expects you at Bajo de las Sombras under your own power, and on most listings it also drops the walkways from the day entirely. That is a different product at a lower price, not a discount on the same one.

Driving yourself

Take RP 11 west out of El Calafate. It is paved the whole way, skirts the southern shore of Lago Argentino, and takes about an hour and a half at a sensible speed. The road climbs through steppe before the first view of the ice opens at the Curva de los Suspiros.

Car parks serve the walkway area: a lower one for general traffic, and an upper one reserved for vehicles carrying visitors with reduced mobility. A free shuttle runs between the parking area and the walkway entrances during opening hours.

Fuel up in town. There is no service station between El Calafate and the park gate, and the wind on this stretch pushes consumption higher than the distance suggests.

Buses and transfers

Scheduled buses run from the El Calafate terminal to the glacier and back, sold as a round-trip ticket with a fixed return. They are the cheapest way in and include no guide and no boat. Guided day tours collect from hotels between 07:00 and 09:30, with the exact window confirmed the evening before.

Pickup is not universal. Several operators serve only centrally located hotels with a staffed reception; if yours sits on the edge of town or is a short-let apartment, expect to be given a nearby meeting point instead. Confirm this when you book rather than at 07:00 in a lobby.

Reaching El Calafate

Comandante Armando Tola International Airport (FTE) sits about 20 km east of town and takes domestic flights from Buenos Aires and seasonal international services. Transfers meet arrivals; the drive into town takes twenty minutes.

By road, El Calafate connects to El Chaltén (220 km, paved via RP 11, RN 40 and RP 23), to Río Gallegos, and across the border to Puerto Natales in Chile for Torres del Paine. Daily buses run on all three. Border crossings add time that no same-day glacier tour will absorb.

Once you are there

The walkway network splits into named circuits at different heights. The central balconies face the ice front head-on and are the busiest. The lower circuit runs closest to the water. An accessible route with ramps and a lift reaches the first viewpoint without stairs, and wheelchairs are available at the main circulation area. Everything else involves substantial flights of steps.

The visitor centre has toilets, a cafeteria and shelter, which matters more than it sounds when the weather turns. Two of the tours on this site are wheelchair accessible; the full picture is in the FAQs, and the physical requirements for the ice sit on the safety page.

Timing your day

Allow ninety minutes each way for the transfer, two to four hours at the walkways, and an hour for the boat if you have booked it. That is a full day and it does not combine with an afternoon flight. Several operators state plainly that the excursion cannot share a day with an airport transfer.