Search for a Patagonia tour and two different worlds come up. On one side, the catalogs: Torres del Paine, Perito Moreno, El Calafate, a group of fifteen, hotels booked a year ahead. On the other, a handful of small expeditions for a few people. Both are called Patagonia. Almost nothing else connects the two.
I run a small expedition into the Aysén region of Chile, so you know my angle in advance. Still, I will try to describe both options as they are. Including the cases where a packaged tour is the better choice.
What a catalog Patagonia tour usually means
A typical packaged tour runs two to three weeks and covers the famous names: Torres del Paine National Park, the Perito Moreno glacier, often a Chile and Argentina combination, sometimes Tierra del Fuego. You travel as a group, sleep in hotels or guesthouses, and the itinerary is fixed day by day.
It has real advantages. You see the places you have read about. You do not have to handle logistics in a country that speaks mostly Spanish. An established tour operator is bonded and insured, and when something goes wrong, there is a company behind you. For a first trip to South America it is a reasonable choice. So is it for anyone who wants comfort and as many famous sights as one trip can hold.
You give something up in return. You go where the bus goes. And the bus goes where the road goes. You stand at the viewpoints with other groups. The itinerary cannot bend to the weather or to you. And of the money you pay, only a part stays in the region.
The Patagonia the catalogs skip
Between Torres del Paine in the south and the Chilean Lake District in the north lies Aysén, the most sparsely populated region of Chile. Fjords, temperate rainforest, thermal springs, and the San Rafael glacier, which no road reaches. The Carretera Austral only passes through. The inner fjord can be reached one way: by boat, with a local captain.
That is exactly why the big tours do not come. A bus with fifteen people has nowhere to stop, there are almost no hotels, and the program has to follow the weather, not a catalog. Aysén is Patagonia for small groups. That is what the expedition is built around: 12 days, 3 to 6 people, sleeping in tents, cabins and boat berths on the fjord.
Tour operator and expedition: where they differ
Group size. A packaged tour needs 10 to 16 people, otherwise the economics of the bus and the guide do not work. An expedition into Aysén works the other way around: the group has to fit on one boat. Six is the ceiling, because the captain will not take more.
The route. A tour operator takes you to the places you know from photographs. Everyone else knows them too. The expedition goes into the layer no catalog reaches, because no catalog leads there.
The rhythm. A tour has a fixed itinerary. If it rains, the plan holds. The expedition has a loose program in four phases, and the order of the days follows the weather and the fjord.
Where the money ends up. With a classic tour, a large share of the price goes to intermediaries. Our expedition pays local people directly: the captain of the Patagonia I, family ranches, Chilean guides. The money stays in the region, with the people who make the expedition possible.
Guarantees. One thing has to be said for the established operators: Czech law requires them to carry insolvency insurance (or a bank guarantee). An expedition stands on a contract and on terms you can read in advance. With us, a full refund applies if you withdraw more than 90 days before departure and the application commits you to nothing. Read both and decide for yourself.
What to ask before you pay anyone
Whether you choose a tour operator or an expedition, ask the same questions. How many people are going, an exact number, not a "small group". Who actually leads the trip, and have they been there, or are they reselling someone else's product. What exactly the price includes: domestic flights, meals, park entries, boat transfers. What happens when the weather turns. And what the cancellation terms are, in writing. Anyone serious will answer in specifics. Our answers are in the FAQ and in the briefing document.
Which to choose, and when
A packaged tour fits if you want the famous sights of both countries in one trip, if this is your first journey outside Europe or North America, or if you want a large organisation behind you. A small expedition is for people who are done collecting sights. For those who want to know one place properly, to be outdoors, on the water and among locals. And who do not mind a thermal spring instead of a spa, or a tent instead of a hotel now and then.
Patagonia is big enough for both. It just helps to know what you are actually buying.