Los Glaciares National Park and the Perito Moreno Glacier
The glacier is one attraction inside a park of 726,927 hectares. Understanding how the park is organised explains the ticket, the two very different halves, and the other ice you can reach.
The park in numbers
| Fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Created | 1937 |
| Area | 726,927 hectares |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 1981 |
| Province | Santa Cruz, Argentine Patagonia |
| Gateway towns | El Calafate (south), El Chaltén (north) |
| Protects | Continental ice fields, Andean-Patagonian forest, Patagonian steppe |
Two zones, two holidays
The park splits into a southern and a northern sector, 220 km apart by road, and they ask completely different things of a visitor.
Zona Sur is the glacier half. El Calafate is its base. Access runs through the Portal Río Mitre for the Perito Moreno walkways and through Puerto Bandera for the Lago Argentino cruises. Tickets can be bought at the gate or online, and this is where the guided-tour infrastructure sits.
Zona Norte is the trekking half, centred on El Chaltén beneath Mount Fitz Roy. Its trails run to Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torre. Ticketing there is online or by QR code at the portals only, and cash is not accepted.
Entry fees
One ticket, one park, whichever sector you enter. Rates below took effect on 1 June 2026.
| Category | Fee (ARS) |
|---|---|
| General — non-resident | 50,000 |
| Argentine resident | 25,000 |
| Santa Cruz resident | 8,000 |
| Second entry within 72 hours | 50% discount |
Argentine retirees and pensioners with the correct documentation, residents of El Calafate, El Chaltén and Tres Lagos, children under six, and people with disabilities and a companion are exempt. Foreign retirees pay the general rate. Flexipass tickets over three or seven days and an annual pass suit anyone combining both sectors. Full practicalities are on the visitor information page.
The other glaciers
Perito Moreno is the most accessible of the park’s ice, not the largest.
- Upsala — the biggest in the park, reached only by boat from Puerto Bandera. Retreating steadily, and boats now keep further back than they once did.
- Spegazzini — the tallest front, visited on the same cruises, with a landing in the Spegazzini channel on some itineraries.
- Viedma — the park’s largest by area, in the northern sector on Lago Viedma, with ice treks run from El Chaltén.
- Onelli and Seco — smaller fronts passed on the longer navigations.
Only the multi-glacier cruise reaches Upsala and Spegazzini in a day, and it pays for that in glacier time at Perito Moreno. The trade is set out on the key facts page.
One park, several very different days
Walkway visits, boat safaris and cruises to Spegazzini and Upsala, compared side by side.
Compare Perito Moreno Glacier tours See cruise availabilityWildlife and landscape
The steppe on the drive out holds guanaco, rhea and, with luck, grey fox. Andean condors ride the thermals above the ridges, and the lake shallows near El Calafate draw flamingos and black-necked swans in summer. The forest around the walkways is lenga and ñire, turning deep red in April.
Pets are not permitted anywhere in the park, and drone use is restricted. Stay on the marked structures and trails: this is protected land, and the boardwalks exist to keep both you and the ground beneath them intact.
Why the park was created
Los Glaciares was established in 1937, in the first wave of Argentine national parks, and its purpose was never only scenic. The Southern Patagonian Ice Field it protects is one of the largest freshwater reserves outside the poles, and the park’s western boundary follows terrain that was still being argued over with Chile when Francisco Moreno was surveying it.
UNESCO inscribed the park as a World Heritage Site in 1981, citing the ice field, the glaciers that drain it and the transitional zone between Patagonian steppe and Andean forest. That listing is why the infrastructure at the walkways is as restrained as it is: everything built there has to justify itself against the designation.
The rules that shape a visit
A handful of park rules catch visitors out, and none of them is negotiable at the gate.
- No independent access to the ice. Walking on the glacier is permitted only with a licensed operator, and there is no route onto it from the walkways.
- Stay on the pasarelas. The walkways exist because the terrain below them is unstable and because calving ice throws water and debris further than it looks.
- No drones. Recreational flying is prohibited across the park.
- Pets are not admitted, and there is nowhere to leave one at the entrance.
- Fires and camping are restricted to designated areas, none of which is at the glacier.
The safety reasoning behind the first two is set out on the safety and access page.
Planning around the park
One full day covers the Perito Moreno walkways. Two lets you add a cruise or an ice trek without rushing. Combining Zona Sur and Zona Norte needs at least four days and a bus or hire car for the 220 km between them. If that is your plan, the Flexipass pays for itself.
Compare every option in the southern sector at Perito Moreno Glacier Tours, or read the FAQs and the traveller reviews.