How to get to the Perito Moreno Glacier by water: the road to the cruise port

How to get to the Perito Moreno Glacier depends on how you want to meet it. Parques Nacionales runs fee gates on both roads in the south of the park: on RP 11 to the glacier itself, 80 km from El Calafate, and at Puerto Bandera, 47 km out by RP 11 and RP 8.⁷ The first road ends at the walkways. The second ends at a lake shore, where the boats wait. Which one you take decides what you see first, and how the glacier appears: from a balcony above the ice or from the deck below it.

This page follows the second road: the full-day cruise starts there. The boat crosses Lago Argentino, visits the Spegazzini and Upsala glaciers first and keeps the Perito Moreno, seen from below, for last. If your only goal is the famous face, the walkway road takes you straight to it. If you want the whole lake, the port road is your way in, and the glacier comes to you at the end of the sailing.

Either way, all of it begins in El Calafate, the town on the lake where hotels, agencies, rental desks and the bus terminal sit. Both roads leave town to the west on RP 11.⁸ The difference shows after the first stretch of steppe, when the port road turns off toward Punta Bandera while the glacier road carries on to the Rio Mitre gate and the forest of the Magallanes Peninsula. On a map both routes look close; on the ground they lead to quite different days.

No car? Then the easy answer to how to get to the Perito Moreno Glacier from El Calafate is the cruise's own pickup. Parques Nacionales notes that visitors without a vehicle can book a transfer to the port along with the trip,² and the listing on this site offers pickup, with the options shown for each date. If you make your own way, the meeting point is La Soledad, the operator's private port at Punta Bandera,²⁰ at 8:30 AM.

Be ready early. The operator says its pickup round through town can take up to 45 minutes depending on where you are staying,⁹ and the driver waits only 5 minutes at each address before moving on.¹⁷ Have breakfast before the window opens, keep your layers and day bag by the door, and sit in the lobby rather than your room. A missed pickup is an easy way to lose a cruise, and an easy one to avoid. Save the operator's contact number in your phone before the morning too.

On the road you cross open steppe before the turn to the port. The municipal tourism office describes the first 40 km of the glacier road as Patagonian steppe before the national park entrance,²¹ and the port road shares the start of that landscape: wide, dry, wind-bent country with the mountains growing ahead. Have the camera out for the animals of the steppe, and grab a lake-side window if you can.

The port sits inside the national park, and the access fee is paid at the Punta Bandera gate.² It is not part of the cruise fare: the operator points you to the ticket desk at the port or the online shop of Parques Nacionales.³ From 1 June 2026 the general fee is ARS 50,000 for the south and north zones alike,^31,32 while children up to and including age 6 pay nothing.³³ The park publishes its full list of reduced and exempt categories: check it before you pay.

At the gate you can pay by Visa or Mastercard credit card, by debit card, in cash in Argentine pesos, or online in advance.¹⁰ The operator suggests carrying pesos in cash for the fee,²⁷ which also covers you if a card terminal fails. Cash machines in El Calafate work around the clock, while the town's single bank serves customers on weekdays, 8:00 to 13:00.^34,35 Withdraw the day before, and a broken machine on the morning cannot hold you up.

Buying online the evening before saves time in the queue, especially when several coaches arrive at once. Keep the ticket on your phone and as a screenshot, since the signal can drop inside the park.³⁰ If you also plan to visit the walkways on another day, read the park's current rules for a second visit before you buy, and keep the receipt from the first day with your passport. The park staff at the gate are the people to ask if anything about your ticket is unclear.

Those who stay on board sail back to La Soledad. On the operator's own timetable the gourmet cruise boards at 8:30 and disembarks at 17:00, 8 hours on the water,¹¹ and the listing gives a total duration of 8 to 12.5 hours depending on the option. Add the 47 km drive back¹ and the drop-off round through town when you plan dinner. Booking the table for later in the evening leaves room for a slow drop-off without a rush back to the hotel to change.

For the evening, book a table in advance in high season, and arrange a taxi rather than hailing one if you are going out: the UK government advises booking taxis ahead where you can.³⁷ If you drove, take it slowly on the way back. The light lasts long into the evening in summer, but summer is also when the park's winds are strongest,³⁸ and the road from the port is quiet. Watch for animals on the verge at dusk and keep both hands on the wheel in gusts.

A last tip for the way home: keep a warm layer out of your bag. Even on a sunny day, hours on deck can leave you tired and chilled by the late afternoon, and the coach or car back to town is when it shows. With the port, the gate and the pickup sorted, the only thing left to plan is your seat on deck for the first glacier. Our route map shows where that is, and the weather page covers what to wear for it.