Todo Glaciares Tour: Upsala & Spegazzini by Boat

There is a moment on this tour when the engines drop to idle, the catamaran drifts, and an iceberg the size of a small house floats past your shoulder. Nobody talks. You came to El Calafate for Perito Moreno, and you got it. This is the other glacier day, the one most first-timers skip, and it is quietly one of the best things you can do on Lago Argentino.

The Todo Glaciares tour is a full-day boat trip that sails Lago Argentino from Puerto Punta Bandera to the Upsala and Spegazzini glaciers, weaving through a field of icebergs and landing at Base Spegazzini for a couple of hours on land. It is the headline way to reach the park’s largest and tallest glaciers, which you cannot see from any road.

This guide is for travelers who already have Perito Moreno on the plan and want a strong second glacier day, and for anyone deciding between the walkways, the mini-boat, and a full Lago Argentino navigation. If you are still shaping the whole stop, start with the El Calafate trip planner and come back here for the boat-day detail.

Todo Glaciares tour at a glance

Here is the fast version before we get into the why and how. Treat every figure as a planning estimate and confirm current details with the operator before you pay, because Argentine prices and schedules move quickly.

If that table already told you what you needed, book it and skip to what to bring. If you want to understand the route, the alternatives, and whether it is worth the cost, keep reading.

What the Todo Glaciares tour is, and the route it sails

Todo Glaciares means “all glaciers,” and the name is doing some marketing work, but it is not far off. This is the most complete navigation of the North Arm of Lago Argentino, and it reaches ice you simply cannot get to any other way.

Argentina’s national parks service lists Solo Patagonia as the official concessionaire running the Todo Glaciares and Sunset navigations from Puerto Punta Bandera. That detail matters more than it sounds. Boat access inside Los Glaciares National Park is concessioned, so you are not choosing between dozens of random operators on this exact route. You are mostly choosing between Solo Patagonia’s standard navigation and a couple of premium products from MarPatag.

The route is the real draw. Solo Patagonia describes the day starting at Puerto Punta Bandera, sailing the North Arm (Brazo Norte), crossing the narrows known as the Boca del Diablo, then heading into the Upsala Channel to drift among the icebergs that calve off the Upsala Glacier. From there the boat turns toward the Spegazzini Channel, passing hanging glaciers, Seco, Heim Sur and Peineta, before reaching the tallest glacier in the park: Spegazzini. The day finishes with a landing at Base Spegazzini, right in front of the ice.

So in plain terms, a typical Todo Glaciares day looks like this:

• Hotel pickup in El Calafate, around 7:00 a.m. if you booked the transfer.
• The roughly 47 km drive to Puerto Punta Bandera across the steppe.
• Boarding around 8:30 a.m., sailing around 9:00 a.m.
• The North Arm and the Boca del Diablo narrows.
• The Upsala Channel and its icebergs.
• The Spegazzini Channel and the hanging glaciers.
• The Spegazzini glacier face.
• A landing of around 2 hours at Base Spegazzini.
• Sailing back to port, then the drive home, with drop-off around 5:00 p.m.

That is roughly a 9-hour commitment with transfer, of which around 5 hours are actually on the water. It is a long day, and it is mostly a sitting-and-watching day rather than a hiking day. Knowing that in advance is half the battle.

One honest framing before you book: this is a North Arm tour. You do not see Perito Moreno on a standard Todo Glaciares trip. They are on opposite sides of the lake system, and confusing the two is the most common planning mistake I see. If Perito Moreno is what you are picturing, you want the walkways or a mini-trekking day instead, and Todo Glaciares becomes your second day, not your first.

Where the Todo Glaciares tour leaves from and how to get there

Every Todo Glaciares departure leaves from Puerto Punta Bandera, on the shore of Lago Argentino. This is not the same place as the Perito Moreno ports. It sits to the west of El Calafate, around 47 km away, which works out to roughly a 45 to 50 minute drive.

You have two sensible ways to reach the port.

Book the transfer

The simplest option is to add the round-trip transfer when you book the tour. Solo Patagonia and the agencies that sell the navigation will pick you up at your hotel, usually around 7:00 a.m., drive you out to Punta Bandera, and bring you back afterward, with drop-off around 5:00 p.m. If you are not staying somewhere with hotel pickup, they assign a meeting point. For most travelers without a car, this is the right call, and it removes any stress about timing the boarding window.

Drive yourself

If you have a rental car in El Calafate, you can drive to the port and use the parking there. Solo Patagonia notes free parking at Punta Bandera, while some agencies charge a small fee, so check which applies to your booking. The road is paved highway for most of the way. A reader on one of the review sites asked whether the drive is paved or gravel, and the honest answer is that it is mostly sealed road with the usual Patagonian caveats about wind and weather. Driving yourself saves the transfer cost and gives you a slightly more relaxed morning, but you need to be at the terminal in time for the earlier boarding window (often around 8:30 a.m. for the no-transfer rate).

Either way, build in a buffer. Patagonian mornings can be windy, the steppe drive is exposed, and you do not want to be the person sprinting down the dock as the gangway comes up.

What you’ll see: Upsala, Spegazzini and a lake full of icebergs

This is where the tour earns its reputation. You are visiting two genuinely different glaciers on one lake, and they impress you in completely different ways.

Upsala, the giant

Upsala is the heavyweight. Calafate Tours describes it as the largest glacier in the park, around 765 km² in area and roughly 53 km long, with an ice front about 4 km wide rising around 60 meters above the water (and another 40 or so meters below it). That makes it one of the largest glaciers in South America.

You usually view Upsala from a respectful distance, and there is a reason for that. The glacier is retreating quickly, and the channel in front of it fills with icebergs. The Argentine glaciology institute IANIGLA has documented Upsala’s front receding around 3.2 km between 2000 and 2020, roughly 160 meters a year, and you can read that retreat in the water. Every iceberg drifting past your boat broke off that wall. On a sunny day, calving happens several times an hour.

The icebergs are the show here. The captain typically holds the boat among them for a long while, and they come in every shade of blue and every odd shape the sun and water carve out. You do not need to rush your photos. Once the first wave of excited passengers gets their shots, the deck quiets down and you can simply watch.

Spegazzini, the tall one

Then the boat turns toward Spegazzini, and the feeling changes. Where Upsala sprawls, Spegazzini rises. Its walls climb up to around 135 meters above the water, the tallest glacier front in the park, which is roughly the height of a 45-story building looming over the lake. It is narrower than Upsala, around 1.5 km across, but the verticality is what gets you. Calving is less frequent here, but when a block falls from that height, the sound carries.

Unlike Upsala, and unlike Perito Moreno, Spegazzini is the one you can land in front of, which brings us to the part of the day that surprises people.

The Base Spegazzini landing

After the glacier face, the boat docks at Base Spegazzini for around 2 hours. There is a short trail, often described as around 300 to 600 meters, on wooden walkways and metal grating through the lenga and ñire forest, leading to viewpoints over the Bay of Glaciers. It is easy and accessible, not a hike, and it gives you a land-based angle on the ice that the boat cannot.

At the end sits the modern Refugio Spegazzini, with a cafeteria, restrooms, and a terrace. You can buy a hot meal or a coffee, or you can do what I would do and bring a picnic from an El Calafate bakery the night before. Many regulars pack their own lunch and eat it on the rocks with the glacier in front of them, which is a hard view to beat. Solo Patagonia has also added new Spegazzini walkways and a viewpoint called the Mirador de Agostini, so the land portion has improved in recent seasons.

The Estancia Cristina add-on (and the Upsala question)

Here is something the booking pages tend to blur. If your dream is to get close to the Upsala Glacier itself, rather than just sail among its icebergs, there is a different excursion that does exactly that: Estancia Cristina.

Estancia Cristina is a historic sheep and cattle ranch tucked at the far end of the Upsala arm, reachable only by boat. The day also leaves from the Punta Bandera area, usually around 7:00 a.m., and includes a longer sail, around 2.5 hours, down the Upsala Channel before landing at the estancia. From there you choose your flavor of the day. The Discovery option runs a 4×4 trip up to the Upsala Balcony, a roughly 9.5 km route climbing several hundred meters for a panoramic land view of the eastern Upsala front. Other versions add trekking or focus on the ranch’s Costumbrista Museum (the old shearing shed) and a walk to a waterfall. It is a long day, often around 13 hours, and operators bill it as the tour that still offers genuinely close views of the Upsala front by land.

So which do you book? Think of it this way:

• Choose Todo Glaciares if you want the most complete glacier navigation, Upsala icebergs plus the tall Spegazzini wall plus a landing, in one comparatively efficient day.
• Choose Estancia Cristina if Upsala specifically is your obsession, you like the idea of a remote estancia and a 4×4 viewpoint, and you do not mind a very long day with less time at glacier fronts.

They are siblings, not the same tour. A few agencies sell combined packages over two days, but most travelers pick one. If your second glacier day is also your only spare day, Todo Glaciares packs more variety into the time.

Todo Glaciares vs the other glacier experiences

This is the comparison the operator pages will not give you straight, because they want to sell you the boat. So here is the candid version of how Todo Glaciares stacks up against the two experiences people most often confuse it with.

The key insight: these are not competing versions of the same thing. Perito Moreno is on one part of the lake, reached by road, and you stand across the water from it on walkways. Todo Glaciares is on the North Arm, reached only by boat, and shows you two glaciers Perito Moreno’s day never touches.

That is why, for most first-time visitors, the answer is not “either, or.” It is “Perito Moreno first, Todo Glaciares second if you have the day.” The Perito Moreno mini-trekking versus Big Ice comparison covers the ice-walking choices on the Perito Moreno side; Todo Glaciares is a different kind of day entirely, more about scale and water than about stepping on ice.

If you are deciding how many days to give El Calafate in the first place, the El Calafate itinerary guide lays out where a boat day fits, and the broader list of things to do in El Calafate puts it next to the estancias, the Glaciarium, and the quieter options.

One more group worth naming: if your trip is light on hiking by design, this tour is a gift. It is one of the most spectacular things you can do in southern Patagonia without lacing up boots, which is why it features in the Patagonia without hiking planning.

The premium option: MarPatag, gourmet and overnight cruises

If the standard catamaran does not sound special enough, or you want a meal worth remembering and a smaller-feeling experience, the other official concessionaire on this lake is MarPatag, and it operates at a different tier.

Glaciares Gourmet

MarPatag’s Glaciares Gourmet is a full-day cruise, around 8 hours, aboard a more comfortable vessel. It also departs from the Punta Bandera area, boarding around 8:30 a.m. and sailing around 9:00 a.m. The route is the differentiator: alongside Spegazzini and Upsala, it sails to the north face of the Perito Moreno glacier, the side you never see from the walkways, and disembarks at Puesto Las Vacas for a roughly 50-minute guided walk. A gourmet lunch is available on board, and there is an optional drop-off at the Perito Moreno walkways at the end of the day. So this is the one tour that genuinely combines all three headline glaciers, with food to match.

Spirit of the Glaciers

For the splurge of the trip, MarPatag also runs the Spirit of the Glaciers, a 2-day, 1-night cruise aboard the M/V Santa Cruz. It carries a small number of passengers in outside cabins, with full board including drinks, and lands at Puesto Las Vacas and Seno Mayo while sailing in front of Upsala, Spegazzini, Mayo and Perito Moreno. This is closer to a small expedition cruise than a day tour, and it sits at a much higher price point. If a Patagonia cruise through fjords and glaciers is the kind of travel you love, this is its El Calafate cousin.

Here is the simplest way to think about the ladder:

• Todo Glaciares: standard catamaran, Upsala and Spegazzini, a landing, best value of the boat days.
• Glaciares Gourmet (MarPatag): more comfort, gourmet lunch, adds the Perito Moreno north face.
• Spirit of the Glaciers (MarPatag): overnight cruise, all-inclusive, the highest tier.
• Estancia Cristina: the Upsala-by-land alternative with a 4×4 viewpoint and a historic ranch.

Most travelers are happiest on the standard Todo Glaciares. The premium tiers make sense if the food, comfort, or the chance to see Perito Moreno from the water genuinely matter to you, not just because they cost more.

What to bring, and the seasickness question

Lago Argentino is a big lake, and the weather near glaciers is its own thing. None of this is hard, but a little preparation changes the day.

Bring:

• A windproof jacket or shell. Near the ice, the temperature can drop several degrees below what it is on the rest of the lake.
• Warm layers, dressed onion-style so you can adjust.
• A hat you can secure, and sunglasses with a strap if you have them. The wind on the open decks is notorious, and Lago Argentino has claimed many a loose hat.
• Closed shoes with grip for the walkway trail at Base Spegazzini, which can have wet, slick sections of metal grating.
• Sunscreen, even on a gray day. Glacier glare is real.
• A packed lunch from an El Calafate bakery if you would rather picnic than buy on board.
• A camera or phone with a full battery, and a power bank for the long day.
• Your passport or ID for the park ticket, and an offline copy of any ticket you bought online.

On the seasickness question, the short answer is that most people are fine. The boats are modern, stable catamarans with double hulls, and one operator notes that the design keeps motion-sensitive passengers comfortable in normal conditions. That said, Lago Argentino can get choppy when the Patagonian wind picks up. If you know you are sensitive, take a preventative medication around 30 minutes before sailing, sit on a lower deck where the motion is gentler, and keep your eyes on the horizon and the glaciers rather than on a screen.

A few field-tested tips from people who have done this day:

• The lower decks are calmer, less windy, and usually less crowded than the top deck, with views that are still excellent.
• The captain holds position at each glacier for a good while, so there is no need to elbow for the rail in the first minute.
• Some boats carry on-board photographers who will take your portrait in front of the ice and sell you the digital files cheaply, which is worth it if you want one good shot of yourself.
• It is family-friendly. Travelers regularly bring children, and the steady hum of the catamaran has lulled more than one toddler to sleep in a sheltered corner.

On weather and cancellations: the tour normally runs in rain and wind, because that is just Patagonia. It is canceled only when conditions are unsafe to sail, and that is the captain’s call. Build a flexible day around it if you can, and do not stack a tight onward connection right after.

How and when to book the Todo Glaciares tour

You can book through Solo Patagonia directly, through a reputable El Calafate agency, or through the usual online tour platforms. Whichever you choose, sort out a few things before you pay.

Confirm:

• Whether the transfer from your hotel is included or an add-on.
• The boarding time for your specific rate, since the with-transfer and no-transfer departures differ.
• That the national park entrance fee is separate (it almost always is) and how to pay it.
• The cancellation and weather policy.
• Whether you want the Captain’s Club upgrade, which buys a private deck, an open bar, and a set menu.

On park tickets, do not get caught out. Like every excursion inside Los Glaciares National Park, Todo Glaciares requires a park entry that is not included in the tour price. You can buy it online in advance through the official APN sales site to skip the queue, or sometimes at the port terminal. Crucially, select the Puerto Punta Bandera access when you buy, not a Perito Moreno sector. And if you are also visiting Perito Moreno, time your two glacier days within the discount window: the park offers a reduced second-day rate when you visit on consecutive days, so keep your first ticket. The El Calafate planning guide walks through the current ticket categories in detail, and you should check the official APN page close to travel because fees change.

On timing, the best months for this tour are roughly October through March, the southern spring and summer. Visit Argentina gives El Calafate’s ideal window as October to March, with a dry, cold, windy climate. In that window the Upsala Channel tends to have fewer icebergs blocking the approach, so the boat can sail closer to the ice. In deep winter, the channel can partly choke with ice and limit how near you get, and daylight is short. For the month-by-month picture across the whole region, use the best time to visit Patagonia, and if you are still assembling the wider route, the Patagonia itinerary planner shows where an El Calafate boat day slots in.

Book ahead in peak season. January and February fill up, and the premium MarPatag products and the Captain’s Club sell out faster than the standard catamaran seats.

Is the Todo Glaciares tour worth it?

Yes, for most people, with one condition: it should be your second glacier day, not a substitute for Perito Moreno.

Here is the honest weighing. Todo Glaciares is a long day, much of it spent sitting on a boat, and it is not the cheapest excursion in El Calafate once you add transfer and park entry. If your time or budget only stretches to one glacier experience, spend it on Perito Moreno, where the walkways give you hours of unforgettable viewing for far less effort and money.

But if you have a spare day, this tour shows you a side of Los Glaciares National Park that almost nobody who only does Perito Moreno ever sees. Upsala’s iceberg field feels genuinely polar. Spegazzini’s wall makes you feel small in a way the wide Perito Moreno face does not. The Base Spegazzini landing breaks up the day and puts you on land with the ice. And it does all of this with no hiking required, which makes it a rare big-ticket Patagonia experience open to families, older travelers, and anyone who would rather not strap on crampons.

Choose Todo Glaciares if:

• You already have Perito Moreno covered and want more glaciers.
• You like the idea of icebergs and a tall ice wall more than ice-walking.
• You are traveling with people who cannot or do not want to trek.
• You want an accessible day; the infrastructure here is built for it.

Think twice if:

• You have only one glacier day and have not yet seen Perito Moreno.
• You dislike long boat days or get badly seasick in choppy water.
• Your budget is already stretched by an ice-trekking splurge.

For me, the verdict is simple. On a 7-day El Calafate-and-El Chalten trip, I would keep it tight and might skip this. On a 10-to-14-day southern Patagonia route with an extra day in El Calafate, I would book it without hesitation and bring a picnic.

Final thoughts

The thing I keep coming back to is that whiskey-on-glacial-ice cliché that every review mentions, because it is real and it is earned. After a day of icebergs and a 135-meter wall of ice, sailing back across the lake with a drink chilled by ten-thousand-year-old ice does not feel like a gimmick. It feels like a fitting end to a day that most visitors to El Calafate never give themselves.

Todo Glaciares will not replace Perito Moreno in your memory, and it should not. But it adds something Perito Moreno cannot: the sense of how vast this ice field really is, glimpsed from the deck of a boat threading between bergs. If you have the extra day, give it to the glaciers you cannot reach by road. Pack a windbreaker, secure your hat, and let the captain take his time.

When you are ready to fit it into the bigger picture, head back to the Perito Moreno glacier walkthrough for the full El Calafate plan.

Todo Glaciares Tour FAQ