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Patagonia Motorcycle Tour

South until the road runs out.

Bariloche to Ushuaia with the Andes on the right the whole way down: Ruta 40 through the steppe to the glaciers, then Ruta 3 across the Strait of Magellan to the end of the road. Guanacos, wind, a glacier five kilometres wide, a lamb over an open fire, and a wooden sign where there is nowhere left to ride. Departures announced soon.

How many days does a Patagonia motorcycle tour take?

Operators running Bariloche to Ushuaia typically schedule ten to seventeen riding days, and the difference is how much of the northwest and the Chilean side gets added. The distances set the floor. El Calafate to El Chaltén alone is 214 kilometres, and the steppe between Bariloche and the glaciers is several hundred kilometres of road with almost nothing on it. Gentleman Biker's day count is announced with the departure.

Is Ruta 40 paved?

Most of it, now. One recent count puts the Patagonian stretch at more than ninety-seven percent asphalt. The gravel that remains is known by name: seventy-two kilometres between Tres Lagos and the Lago Cardiel junction, forty-eight between Río Blanco and Turbio Viejo that turn to mud in rain, and 111 kilometres of washboard between Cabo Vírgenes and Ruta 3 at the very end. A Harley handles all of it at the speed the surface allows.

The road, in order.

Bariloche, a lake town with an alpine building code from 1940. The Seven Lakes road, 110 paved kilometres through two national parks. Then the steppe, and the hand stencils at Cueva de las Manos, blown onto the rock nine thousand years ago. Fitz Roy over El Chaltén. The glacier at El Calafate. Torres del Paine across the line. The ferry. Ushuaia, where Ruta 3 ends at kilometre 3,079 on a bridge over the Río Lapataia.

Dinner is a lamb on an iron cross.

Cordero patagónico al asador: a whole lamb splayed on a cross of iron and stood before a wall of fire for hours, burned over lenga and ñire wood with calafate branches for tinder. It is served in estancias and in town, and La Tablita in El Calafate is the place riders get sent to. Malbec comes from Mendoza, further up the same road, where more than forty thousand hectares of it grow.

El Chaltén exists because of a border argument.

The town under Fitz Roy was founded on 12 October 1985 to put Argentine residents on ground that Chile also claimed. The dispute over Lago del Desierto went to arbitration and was settled in Argentina's favour in 1994. The 1991 census counted forty-one permanent residents. It is now the trekking capital of the country, and it still has the feel of a place built in a hurry for a reason.

The nights are in hotels like the Llao Llao.

The Llao Llao, built between two lakes outside Bariloche in 1940 and one of the Leading Hotels of the World since 1999. Eolo, a seventeen-room Relais & Châteaux lodge on the steppe between El Calafate and the glacier. Los Cerros above El Chaltén, with Fitz Roy in the window. The Arakur on its hill above Ushuaia, the last of them. The hotel list comes with each departure.

What riders ask about Patagonia.

The weather in season, whether the route crosses into Chile, and whether the glacier is still doing what the guidebooks say it does. The answers below are current as of this year, which matters for the glacier.

What is the weather like in Patagonia in the riding season?

Cool and windy. Summer afternoons in Bariloche reach the low twenties; Ushuaia rarely passes fifteen. Rain can arrive on any day and leave in an hour. The wind is the constant. Riders pack for four seasons and wear most of them.

Does the Patagonia tour cross into Chile?

Yes. Torres del Paine is in Chile, reached through the Cerro Castillo crossing from El Calafate. Getting to Ushuaia by road means crossing into Chile and back out again, with a thirty-minute ferry across the Strait of Magellan at Primera Angostura in between.

What is the best time of year to ride a motorcycle in Patagonia?

November to March. December to February brings the longest days and the warmest afternoons, and also the strongest wind. Most of the southern lodges keep the same season.

Do I need an International Driving Permit to ride in Argentina?

Yes, and it has to be the 1949 format: Argentina and Chile signed the 1949 Geneva convention and not the 1968 Vienna one. It is carried with the home licence, and the tour crosses into Chile and back.

Is the Perito Moreno glacier still advancing?

No. For decades it was the exception among Patagonian glaciers. A study published in 2025 found it has retreated more than eight hundred metres since 2019, after coming off the underwater ridge that held it in place. The face is still five kilometres wide and seventy metres tall, and it still calves into the lake in front of the walkways.

The other rides, and the experience.

Patagonia, Northern Thailand, the Dolomites, and Tuscany, each with its own page, and the page on the days, the hotels, the meals, and the motorcycle.

Join the interest list.

Argentina, Thailand, or Italy. Say which.