Santiago to Southern Chile (Patagonia) to Buenos Aires. | Chile - Lonely Planet Forum

ONLINE

Sun, 04 Jan 2015 14:40:37 +0000

Hello.

A friend and I will be flying into Santiago, Chile on March 16th of this year. However we would like to head down to southerly Chile to see parts of Patagonia. Flights are expensive but alot quicker. What would the buses be like and how long would it take? It looks like it could take a couple of days at least.

We were thinking of spending around two weeks getting down there (stopping along the way to explore and take in sights) before spending maybe a week or so in Patagonia. I would like to see Mendoza for a couple of days but it looks like a very odd route to take to go from Santiago to Mendoza back into Chile and then head south..

We then want to head straight up to Buenos Aires from Southern Chile. Once again do you think a flight is more recommended or just spending a few days on buses for cheaper?

ONLINE

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 20:30:17 +0000

Argentine buses are pretty expensive, even if you get a good exchange rate for your USD. To give you an example, the bus from Bariloche to El Chaltén costs 1600ARS which officially is 200USD, but with a good exchange rate on the blue dollar (google this if you don't know what i'm talking about), it comes to about 130USD. For a one-way trip, it's pretty pricey.

I recommend going down to Puerto Montt by bus from Santiago, spending a couple of days in the Lake District area (Pucón, Puerto Varas), and then flying to Punta Arenas. From there you can bus your way back up through Argentina, stopping at perhaps El Calafate, El Chaltén and Bariloche. You might consider flying from one of these places back to Buenos Aires.

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Sat, 16 Jan 2016 01:00:36 +0000

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