Is El Calafate safe, and what should you wear on the glacier cruise?

Is El Calafate safe? Government travel advice gives no reason for alarm. Canada's advice for Argentina, last updated on 14 October 2026, is to take normal security precautions across the country,¹ and the higher level of caution it sets applies to the Greater Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, because of crime there.⁷ Nothing in that advice singles out El Calafate or the national park.

Normal precautions still mean something. Pickpockets work buses, trains and their terminals around Argentina, the UK government warns:⁸ keep your bag in front of you at the El Calafate terminal and on the airport shuttle. In bars and restaurants, never leave a drink unattended and do not accept food or drinks from strangers.⁹ That advice matters most on a celebration night after the cruise, when a crowded bar makes it easy to look away from your glass.

For taxis, the UK government advises booking in advance where you can rather than taking whatever passes.¹⁰ Ask your hotel to call one, especially at night or from the bus terminal. The same habits that keep you comfortable in any small tourist town work here: keep valuables out of sight, carry a copy of your passport, and know where your accommodation is before you set off in the dark.

The weather around the glaciers is cool all year. For the low-lying parts of the park, Parques Nacionales puts the winter mean at 0.6°C and the summer mean at 13.4°C,²⁷ and rainfall of 500 to 900 mm a year, rising from east to west and spread fairly evenly through the months.²⁸ In other words, the closer the boat gets to the Andes and the ice field, the wetter the air tends to be. Pack for rain even when the sky over town is clear in the morning.

Wind is the factor that shapes the deck. According to the town's tourism office, the prevailing winds come from the west and southwest and pick up in frequency and strength in summer,³ and the park's own climate note agrees that summer is the windier season, with deep snow kept for the cold months.¹¹ On an open deck, a fresh breeze off the ice feels far colder than the thermometer suggests. Wind chill, not air temperature, is the number to dress for on the lake.

Above all, expect change. The park warns that weather conditions can switch from one moment to the next at any time of year.²³ A cruise can start in sunshine and pass through rain, sleet or a sharp squall before lunch, then clear again by the north wall of the Perito Moreno. The town's own figures put the average annual temperature at 7.2ºC, with July around 1.8ºC and January at 18.6ºC.²⁰

Anyone hoping for a Perito Moreno Glacier boat tour close to the ice wall should know where the limits lie. The gourmet day does reach the Perito Moreno, nosing down the iceberg channel to its north wall,³² while the listing is clear that the Upsala and Bertacchi are viewed only from afar. Expect to watch every face from a distance, with the whole wall in view rather than a slice of it.

Distance matters near calving ice. Parques Nacionales describes the fall of large blocks of ice as a spectacle in its own right,³³ and the walkway map adds that flying shards from a collapse can travel dozens of meters.³⁴ A falling block also sends a wave across the water. From a safe distance you see the whole face and the fall, which a boat right under the wall would miss. Keep your eyes on the face and your ears open for the crack.

A few park rules apply on every boat as well. Drones are prohibited in the park:³⁵ leave yours at the hotel, and feeding wildlife is forbidden.³⁶ Prone to seasickness? Sit low and amidships, keep your eyes on the horizon and take your usual remedy before you board: wind can whip up a chop even on a lake. Fresh air on the open deck helps too, as long as you stay well wrapped up and keep a hand free for the rail. Eat a light breakfast rather than none at all, and keep heavier food for later in the day.