Wild Patagonia
Patagonia with the gravel left in, on the crossings most itineraries route around.
Email this journey
Tell us your trip details and we'll put together a complimentary Stradora Expedition Pack for the journey.
The route
Sixteen nights on the rougher side of Patagonia by motorcycle, weighted towards gravel and the remoter Andean crossings. Compass hire the bikes and there is no option to bring a rider’s own.
Santiago, a flight to Temuco and a bus to Pucon start it, on Lago Villarrica below the volcano, then the Chilean Lakes District and Petrohue on Lago Todos los Santos. Hornopiren National Park follows, and the Carretera Austral begins in earnest with two fjord ferries down to Caleta Gonzalo.
Lago Yelcho and Futaleufu come next, then Puyuhuapi Lodge, which can only be reached by boat, and Queulat National Park with its hanging glacier. Coyhaique follows below Cerro Macay, then Cerro Castillo National Park and Puerto Guadal, with the marble caves on Lago General Carrera reached by boat and the San Rafael glacier beyond them.
The Andes are crossed into Argentina for the steppe and Ruta 40 to Perito Moreno, then Los Alerces National Park, which is UNESCO listed for its stands of alerce, some of them well over two thousand years old. Bariloche follows with the Circuito Chico and Cerro Otto, then the Seven Lakes Drive and the crossing back into Chile to Pucon, Temuco and Santiago. Prices are quoted in US dollars, per person. The gravel is the whole proposition here: these are the crossings that the smoother itineraries route around, and loose surface riding at Patagonian wind speeds is harder work than the mileage on paper suggests. Sixteen nights also keeps this to a fortnight of leave rather than three weeks, which makes it the more practical of the two Patagonian rides for anyone with a job to come back to.
Images selected by Stradora to represent the journey.
What's included
- Airport transfers
- return flights Santiago to Pucon
- motorcycle rental
- fuel
- tolls
- border paperwork
- services of ride leader and support vehicle driver
- support vehicle with passenger carrying ability
- non-alcoholic drinks on the support vehicle
- breakfast every day
- lunches and dinners on mentioned days
- 16 nights accommodation in excellent small hotels and resorts
- pre-departure material and route maps
- entrances to all mentioned national parks
Not included
- International flights
- visas if required
- personal spending money
- lunches and dinners not on the mentioned days
- personal health insurance
- tips and gratuities
Ready to drive it?
16 days, from £7,340pp