Santiago-Ushuaia-Buenas Aires….how long?
 

I will be leaving Santiago at the beginning of November to drive down to Ushuaia (primarily on the Chilean side of the Andes) & then up to Buenas Aires.

I will be meeting a couple of friends in BA and so need to get a rough idea of how long the trip will take at a leisurely pace & seeing stuff on the way.

I can take as little or as much time as I like….I just need to coordinate with my friends so that we arrive in BA at roughly the same time (+/- a few days)

I am thinking 6 weeks down & 2 weeks up (total 8 weeks) but that is just a guesstimate

Your thoughts please?

I can share our (wife and I, https://Xplore2Gether.net) experience.

We left Santiago Dec 10, headed south in Chile and the Carratera Austral to Chile Chico, then visited El Chaltén, Calafate and the Perito Moreno glacier, Torres de Paine and then reached Ushuaia on Feb 2. Spent 6 days in Ushuaia and returning north, we took the ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt, 5 days on Isla de Chiloé, then over the Andes to Argentina, spending a week in the Lakes region and Bariloche before heading to Buenos Aires, where we arrived (just in time for the pandemic - but that is besides the point [emoji37]) on March 10.

3 months, taking it slow. We were on motorcycles, two old retired people with no time pressures. One could knock 3 weeks off that and still see plenty and not feel to rushed, imo. E,g., skip Chiloé and Lakes Region and a day or two less here and there.

Hope that helps.


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We left Santiago Oct 8th, arrived in Ushuaia Nov 6th, left Nov 10th and arrived in BsAs Nov 23rd. So 47 days.

The route was Santa Cruz, Talca, Pucon, Valdivia, Osorno, Puerto Octay, Puerto Varas, Castro, Puerto Varas, Bariloche, El Bolson, Trevelin, Los Antiguos, Sierra Andia, La Leona, El Calafate, Torres del Paine, Puerto Natales, Punta Arenas, Porvenir, Rio Grande, Ushuaia, Rio Grande, Rio Gallegos, Puerto San Julian, Comodoro Rivadavia, Sarmiento, Puerto Madry, Peninsula Valdes, Caleta de Loros, Viedma, Bahia Blanca, Mar del Plata, Balcarce, Tandil, BsAs.

Bear in mind that we had visited various parts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego previously, and that we have subsequently "filled in some gaps" and revisited several areas.

Your plan looks fine, have fun!

Don't forget to leave a couple of additional weeks for your Antarctic cruise!

The two months you're planning will be enough time, but you're likely to find yourself regretting all the stuff you missed out on--people you met who invited you on adventures you couldn't take advantage of, towns and natural areas you hurried through, times you kept riding into hurricane-force winds instead of taking the afternoon off, and more like that. That's what "a leisurely pace & seeing stuff on the way" suggests to me.

And FWIW, I spent about three months riding that area (plus 3 weeks in the Malvinas, South Georgia, and Antarctica) and still felt I missed a lot. Of course, I've felt the same everywhere in the world and on every form of transport, regardless of how much time I spent.

Did the same trip in Jan 2020, (two bikes, 4 persons). 4 weeks relaxed riding down to Ushuaia via Carretera Austral and 2 weeks high tailing it back to Montevideo, Uruguay. We are oldies in our 70's, definitely not road burners.

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