BootsnAll Travel Community

I would like to visit the lakes district for 5-7 days this March. We prefer hiking, kayaking, simply outdoors to visiting restaurants. Ican not decide which area to visit.
Do you have any suggestions? We'll be coming from either El Calafate or Puerto Natales. Thank you!

Both the Argentine and Chilean parts of the Lake district (Between Bariloche, Argentina and Pucon, Chile) are well worth seeing, and with 7 days you should be able to see a decent amount.

Here is one of many possible routes, assuming you have a rental car. This route could be started in Pucon or Bariloche, I will discribe from Bariloche:

1) Starting in Bariloche drive around the NE side of Lago Nahuel Huapi to Villa Angostura (paved) and stop there for the afternoon to hike out to the Arrayanes forest. You can either stay in Villa Angostura or continue north on the Los Lagos road (dirt- not the road that goes to the border) and camp in PN Nahuel Huapi / Lanin- Lago Traful had a nice campsite.

2) From Angostura (or Traful if you camped there) Continue north on the Los Lagos road at a casual pace past Pichi Traful and many lakes, possibly camping at Lago Hermoso or continuing on to San Martin de los Andes.

3) From SMdlA head west along the north shore of Lago Lacar to Paso Huahum and cross the border into Chile. Then take the ferry across Lago Pirehueico to Purto Fuy (there are a couple of ferries each day during the high season). Be sure to stop at the Salto Huillo Huillo falls just west of Puerto Fuy and continue on to Choshuenco where there are several nice places to stay and camping on the shores of Lago Panguipulli.

4) From Choshuenco head NW around Lago Panguipulli to the town of Panguipulli and then north to Villarica. You can stay in Villarica or head another 40 minutes east to Pucon. Villaricia is more laid back, Pucon has more activities- choose your pleasure.

5) Spend a day or more in/around Pucon for hiking in the national parks, whitewater rafting, hiking up Vn. Villarica, etc.

6) Head east from Pucon to Paso de Manuil Malmal for great views of Vn. Lanin and Arucaria trees. Continue over the border and down to Junin de los Andes, then take the highways from there back to Bariloche.

That's just a general idea of what you can do. You can find good maps of the entire region in both Pucon and Bariloche and make your own itinerary. Be sure to go slow and leave time to stop at overlooks and interesting side roads- you never know when you will find something interesting.

Cheers!
Mark

Hi MarkCO,

your description of the circuit is wonderfule, thank you.
The only thing I am not sure about is taking the rental car across the border, any suggestions of the rental companies in Bariloche that would allow us to do so?
Also, what could be roughly the length of the described circuit? cheers