Perito Moreno is one of very few large glaciers in the world that is not retreating. It advances at roughly two metres a day at the face and calves at about the same rate, which leaves it close to equilibrium — a five-kilometre wall of ice, sixty to seventy metres high above the water, that has held more or less the same position for a century while almost every other glacier on earth has gone backwards.
Nobody is entirely certain why. The leading explanations involve its particular catchment, the steepness of its feed and the depth of the lake it calves into, and glaciologists are careful to say it is an exception rather than evidence of anything reassuring.
The ice dam
Because the glacier's snout runs right up against a peninsula, it periodically seals off the Brazo Rico arm of Lago Argentino entirely. Meltwater then builds behind the dam — historically by twenty to thirty metres — until the pressure tunnels through the ice, opens an arch, and the arch collapses.
The rupture happens every few years and cannot be scheduled. When it is expected, the viewing platforms fill.
El Calafate and the park
El Calafate is a town of around 25,000 on the shore of Lago Argentino, with the airport and the hotels. It exists because of the glacier and does not pretend otherwise.
Los Glaciares National Park is eighty kilometres west, with boardwalk platforms facing the ice front, boat trips that go close to the wall, and ice-trekking with crampons on the surface.
El Chaltén, three hours north, is the walking village below Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre — Argentina's trekking capital, and a place where the granite spires are famously often in cloud.
Torres del Paine in Chile is five hours southwest across the border, which makes a combined trip straightforward and is how most people do it.
An honest note on the count: this is a small town serving a national park, and the four and five star inventory is correspondingly limited. Five properties clear the bar. The rest of the town is guest houses and hosterías, several of them very good.
The five below are grouped by position.
Outside town, on the steppe
Between El Calafate and the park.
Eolo Patagonia Spirit occupies an estancia-style building on four thousand hectares of open steppe forty kilometres from town, with no other structure in sight, a pool, and the Andes along the horizon. It is the best hotel in southern Patagonia and it is deliberately isolated.
Eolo Patagonia Spirit
Estancia steppe, near El Calafate · 5★ · $$$$
Four thousand hectares with nothing else in sight
Check availabilityEl Calafate
The town on the lake.
Xelena Hotel & Suites sits on the lakeshore at the edge of town with a spa, a pool and rooms facing the water and the flamingos on the lagoon.
Xelena Hotel & Suites
Lago Argentino shore · 5★ · $$$
A spa and pool facing the lake and the flamingos
Check availabilityDesign Suites Calafate occupies a position above the town with a design-led interior, a spa and views over Lago Argentino.
Design Suites Calafate
Above El Calafate · 4★ · $$$
Design-led with views over Lago Argentino
Check availabilityEsplendor by Wyndham El Calafate sits in El Calafate with contemporary rooms, a good restaurant and the main street nearby.
Esplendor by Wyndham El Calafate
El Calafate · 4★ · $$$
Contemporary rooms near the main street
Check availabilityHotel Kosten Aike occupies a building in the centre with reliable rooms, a garden and the best value in town.
Hotel Kosten Aike
El Calafate centre · 4★ · $$
A garden and reliable rooms at the best town rate
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The hosterías and guest houses across El Calafate and El Chaltén are excluded, and in El Chaltén in particular they are essentially the only accommodation. They are guest houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Walk the boardwalks at the glacier, which run several kilometres on different levels, and stay longer than you planned. Calving happens without warning and the sound arrives after the ice does.
Take a boat to the north or south face, which puts you close enough to judge the scale properly, or book a mini-trekking session on the surface with crampons.
Go to El Chaltén for a day or three. The Laguna de los Tres walk to the base of Fitz Roy is about ten hours return and steep at the end; Laguna Capri is a shorter version with the same view.
Try the calafate berry the town is named for, in jam or ice cream, and note the saying that whoever eats it returns to Patagonia.
Cross to Torres del Paine if you have the days. The border crossing is straightforward and the two parks complement each other.
Practical notes
El Calafate has an airport with flights from Buenos Aires in about three hours. The glacier is eighty kilometres west by road, about ninety minutes.
October to April is the season, with December to February the warmest and busiest. Wind is constant and can be severe. Winter is cold, quiet, and the glacier is arguably better without crowds.
Layers and windproofs matter more than warmth. The weather changes within the hour.
Every hotel bookable in El Calafate
Is the glacier really not retreating?
It is close to equilibrium, advancing and calving at similar rates, and it is an exception rather than a general sign.
What is the ice dam rupture?
The glacier periodically seals a lake arm, water builds behind it and eventually breaks through in an arch that collapses. It happens every few years and cannot be predicted precisely.
Why so few hotels?
It is a small town serving a national park. Five properties clear four stars; the rest is guest houses.
How many nights?
Three. One for the glacier, one for El Chaltén, one spare for weather.