The Big Ice trek on the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate was one of my most amazing travel tours ever. I highly recommend trekking on the glacier if you want to truly experience the beauty and vastness of a glacier.

Making a reservation - If you email Hielo y Aventura, they will tell you to stop by the office in downtown El Calafate to book the trip – you can’t book online. If you really want to book the trek in advance, ask your hotel concierge to make the arrangements. Tour operator’s website is at [--]. You can pay with credit card. If you choose to book Big Ice rather than Mini-trekking, the booking agent will try to “scare” you with equipment needs and the strenuous nature of the trek. Don’t be daunted; rather, read our experiences below re: clothing/gear and which trek to book. The trip isn’t cheap; we spent about $100US/person for the trek; the national park entrance fee is extra. You also have to bring your own lunch. But hey – you’re helping to preserve one of the only glaciers in the world that is still in balance, so don’t sweat the dough.

Clothing/Gear – The other parts of our Argentina travels included a week in Buenos Aires and a week in Mendoza in late spring; certainly warm-weather travel. Thus, we didn’t want to bring out all of our ski gear for a single day’s hiking on a glacier. Although most people were outfitted in insulated ski jackets, you don’t need them. We dressed in thermal underwear (key!), jeans, wool socks, ski gloves, ski hat, non-insulated leather Timberlands, mid-weight fleece jacket and light rain-jacket shell; and, were perfectly warm – sometimes hot. Although I didn’t pull out either of the two sweaters or the extra pair of wool socks I brought just in case, I would still recommend carrying them. It rained much of the day, so the most important thing to have is the rain jacket.

Tour guides – our tour guides were very warm and professional. We were split into a Spanish speaking group and English speaking group (about 12-15 in each group); the English speaking guide was very fluent and was able to explain all of the environmental/ social/ natural aspects of the glacier and was able to answer all of our questions. Their primary concern was our safety and they would stand at “tricky” spots to offer a steadying arm and to make sure that we didn’t fall. Additionally, the tour operator and guides are very environmentally oriented and do what they can to be good environmental stewards.

Big Ice vs. Mini-trekking – If you don’t look like an REI card-carrying member, the booking agent may try to push you towards the Mini-trekking tour. The three of us who went on the tour are fairly fit, but certainly are not super-athletes. If you can hike 8-10 miles a day at a moderate pace, you should be fine. Hiking on ice with the crampons is more strenuous than trail hiking, but not exhausting. That being said, the pace that is set is not appropriate for young children or travelers with knee/back ailments. We were hiking from about 10am -4pm with a half an hour stop for lunch. On our way back, we saw the Mini-trekkers, who were about 50+ people climbing up a big slope near the edge of the glacier. It was too much of a mass-tourism experience to me; I certainly felt that we made the right choice with Big Ice.

My only complaint was that Big Ice was truly a “trek” and there weren’t enough time for photographs; although I suppose it isn’t a valid complaint since I came home with 300+ photos. I would have liked a little more time to stay in one place more (maybe a 1 hr lunch) and just “experience” what it was like to be on a glacier.

The best part of Big Ice was hiking into the center of the glacier. Since the English group split up from the Spanish group, sometimes you would feel like your little group of 14 were the only signs of life for hundreds of miles around. The scenery was spectacular, but I won't spoil your visit by describing all the cool surprises that the guides had in store for us. You can see the pictures attached (which really don't do it justice).

Go on Big Ice, and enjoy!

This is a must see attraction!!! Words can't capture the beauty of this glacier. The weather was surprisingly warm when we were there (December 12), and you are just about guaranteed to see "calving" of ice off the glacier (sounds like thunder).

My wife and I visited Argentina (B.A., Bariloche, El Calafate and Ushuaia) for our honeymoon (October 2005).

From Bariloche (my previous review) we flew to El Calafate. If you have made reservation with a travel agency, they will come to pick you up. If you are the adventurous / spontaneous type and didn’t make reservations, you have 2 options. Take a taxi or a shuttle, the shuttle is about 5 dollars cheaper, maybe less, the only problem is that they make multiple stops to drop off passengers. We learned our lesson and took a taxi on the way back. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the city from the airport, therefore if you want to go by your own schedule, take a taxi. It allows you more time to go shopping or relax. People complained to us that they were picked up 2 hours before their flight, while we left 40 minutes before our flight.

We stayed in El Calafate 3 days and 2 nights. I thought it was more than plenty; unless you plan to take a horse back ridding tour to Perito Moreno. We stayed in “Posada Los Alamos”, a very nice hotel, we got a chance to see “Calafate Parque Hotel” and it seemed a very nice hotel. Los Alamos has a golf course across the street from the hotel as well as their restaurant where a complementary breakfast is served every day. At check in the hotel provides each guest with a voucher for a complementary drink. The bellboys at the hotel were very courteous; they wait at the curb to help their guests with their bags.

The first day we tour the town; there is only one main street, Av. Libertador where most of the shops and restaurants are. 2 good restaurants that we tried were “La Vaca Atada” (good trout) and Ricks Café. Now if you want to get the most for your dollar, go to Rick’s café it is a “tenedor abierto” in other words ALL you can eat “Parrilla”. They had great choices, “Biffe de Chorizo”, lamb, sausage and rabbit. It cost us $20 (59 Pesos) for 1 buffet, 1 regular plate (pasta) and a bottle of wine.

For Perito Moreno, all tours leave really early in the morning since it is located far from the city, about 2 hours… it depends how many people are in your tour. We chose the mini-trekking with a 2 hour stop at the rails. It cost about $100 with the Park entrance fee. (Make sure to ask if your tour includes the fee). I am not sure if the $100 were per person or for the 2 of us. The bus first stops for pictures in front of the “Los Notros” hotel. It is a very beautiful hotel with an incredible view, they charge about $1,000 a night but it includes everything… The bus then takes you to the rails where you get to see the glacier up close… I have been to 3 other glaciers (Peru, Alaska and Ushuaia) and this one is the best by far!!!. The picture does not come close to the real beauty of the glacier. Pieces of ice fall all the time which makes a very loud noise, very similar to thunder, the bigger the pieces the bigger the noise and the splash.

After the rails the bus takes you to a boat which first takes you very close to the glacier, as it maneuvers through small icebergs you get to see how high the glacier really is (200 feet). After the ride the boat takes you to land where groups are formed with multiple guides (English and Spanish). The guides will give you and help you put on the spikes to climb the glacier. The hike last about 2 hours, bring your camera and food. We brought cookies and mix of nuts with raisins, don’t worry about water, the glacier water is very good. The one thing the tour gave us on top of the glacier was water, chocolate and scotch. The hike is not that difficult. A 70yr old man made it… granted, he had his own guide and in some instances he had to crawl… but at the end he made it. I hope I can do that at 70.

I hope that this information was helpful. If I ever go back, I heard that there is a 2 day horse back ridding tour that starts from El Calafate and it goes all the way to Perito Moreno. If anyone has done it, please post.

Good Luck!!