A Patagonia trip is one for the memory lane. No matter how you end up traveling in Patagonia, be it as a part of a group, traveling solo, or with friends and family, you will collect memories that last you a lifetime. However, traveling in that region can be challenging, because it is remote and not well connected by public transportation. In this post, we will discuss whether you should rent a car in Patagonia, its pros and cons, and determine what would be the right decision for your travel plans.
13 reasons why you should rent a car in Patagonia
Here are some reasons why you should rent a car in Patagonia, based on your itinerary and travel goals.
1. You want your itinerary to be open!
This is an obvious one, but having a car allows you to be totally flexible and open with your itinerary. You can make plans to add a quick detour, you can decide when to drive, and you can change as you want/need. It is an amazing feeling to not have constraints on your travels by having a car!
2. You want to make pit stops anywhere
With a rental car, you have the ability to make pit stops anywhere. Whereas, with a bus, or shared taxi, you have designated stops that you cannot change. Having the ability to stop anywhere while traveling in Patagonia is remarkable because you get to see some incredible sights.
For instance, while driving in Argentina’s Ruta 40, we saw flamingoes on the side of the road! I’m not kidding, as they were hanging out in a water body literally next to the highway. We were able to pull over safely on the side of the road and take some pictures. Oh, and getting out of the car was an interesting experience because the wind speeds were so, so, high that we could barely open the car door! The passenger door would promptly close shut every time we tried to pry it open! 😀Ultimately, both of us had to use all of our strength (me from the inside, my husband from the outside) to get it to open up. Such an experience would not be possible if we were not in a car.
3. You have less time
If you plan to travel to Patagonia in two weeks or less, and you want to visit both Chile and Argentina, you will want to rent a car. Even with decent connections to and from the main viewpoints, you will lose a lot of time when using a bus.
Since you have limited time and will want to make the most of your vacation, you should rent a car.
Speaking of less time, you may want to consider doing the partial W trek instead of the complete W trek. Here are 10 reasons why this may be the right decision for you.
4. It’s easy to drive in Patagonia
The classic road trip in Patagonia covering Punta Arenas in Chile all the way to El Chalten in Argentina is made of two major highways. They are Ruta 9 (or Ruta fin del Mundo; so whimsical, right?) and Ruta 40 in Argentina.
Both of these roads are well maintained. You can drive at around 110 kmph for most of the way (except near towns), and so, they are fairly fast too. In addition, there are barely any other cars on the road. You drive on the left side of the road like most parts of the world. Thus, it is quite easy to drive there.
5. It’s an amazing drive
Very few road trips in the world can rival the classic Patagonia road trip. The landscape is incredibly stunning, with the views of the steppe unfolding on either side of the road. You will also encounter ultra-unique views along the way. Think of long stretches of green pastures, barely any trees and vegetation, backgrounded by towering mountains with dramatic ridges and cliffs.
Furthermore. you will spot a guanaco or twenty right next to the road (in fact, you have to be careful around those animal corridors). Definitely stop for photos and selfies with those unique creatures, but don’t get too close to them!
6. You want to take the road less traveled
Most visitors to Patagonia visit the tried and tested locations of Torres del Paine National Park and El Chalten. With a car, you have the option of visiting some of the places inaccessible by public transportation.
Now you can take detours, visit less-trafficked spots, and get away from the crowds. For instance, when we were in El Chalten, we drove north to the border of Chile where we saw Glacier Huemel and Mirador de Glaciares. On the way to that spot, we stopped at several points of interest along the way. If we did not have a car, we would not have made it there.
7. You don’t want to worry about lugging your bags
One of the major perks of renting a car in Patagonia is that you don’t need to worry about luggage, and how many bags you have. You can choose to pack all your belongings in 1-2 bags or you can carry several. You can have a food bag, a suitcase with all your clothes and a hiking bag in addition. You don’t have to jostle and heave your bags as you embark and disembark from the bus.
8. You don’t want to adhere to schedules
I mean, there is some schedule you will need to maintain. But, for the most part, your days in Patagonia are your own. With a car, you are less bound by timelines. You won’t need to wake up by a certain hour or leave your hotel by a certain time in order to catch a bus.
Renting a car allowed us to avail of the last available time slot for a mini trekking experience on the Perito Moreno glacier. We had not booked the tickets in advance and went to their offices on the day we arrived at El Calafate. There, we learned that they had tickets for 2 people at 3 pm only on the day we were leaving El Calafate to go to El Chalten. There were no other tickets available in those 3 days.
Because we had a car, we jumped on those available tickets and decided to drive to El Chalten late in the evening. Luckily, since it was summer at the time, sunset was around 9:30 pm. So, we had plenty of daylight to drive in.
If we did not have a car, we would have needed to skip this experience. Which would have been a shame considering how amazing it was!
Note: Let our near-miss be a warning for you. If you want to go trekking on a glacier (Mini trekking or Big Ice experiences on Perito Moreno), book well in advance.
9. You want to experience driving in another country or continent
Call it frivolous or call it adding another feather to your cap. But, driving in another country or a continent (assuming you are not a local), is thrilling! Just as driving in your country has rules and nuances, so does driving in Chile and Argentina. Plus, you get to brag to your friends that you have driven to the southernmost tip of South America!
10. You are dreaming of visiting far-flung places
Renting a car allows you to visit far-out places away from the heart of Patagonia. Take, for instance, the end of the road Ruta del Fin del Mundo in Chile. At the southernmost point of this road is a place literally named “End of the World” or Fin del Mundo. It takes just over 1 hour of driving south from Punta Arenas to reach this spot. From there, you can visit the ruins of an old fort.
Or perhaps you have a few extra days and want to continue traveling north of El Chalten to one of the estancias there. You can get there easily with a car.
11. You want to sleep in the car in comfort
You may be able to catch a wink or two in a bus but it cannot compete with the comfort of having a car with seats that lie flat. The main advantage here is that one of you can drive while the other passenger gets some rest.
12. You wish to drive close to trailheads
With a car, you don’t have to hike an extra mile or two just to reach the trailheads. Having the ability is nice for two reasons. First, you can reach the trails earlier than other people who are hiking and thereby, get an earlier start to your hike.
Second, a mile or two may not be a big deal in the morning, but by the time you finish your hike in the evening, you will be thankful that you don’t have to walk those extra steps.
On El Chalten’s Mt Fitz Roy hike, we parked our car right at the trailhead. By the time we were done with the trail, we had hiked over 16 miles in total and were super glad to have a car waiting for us at the bottom of the trail.
13. You want to stay at remote hotels
In the major towns of Patagonia, there are plenty of hotels in the heart of them offering easy access to restaurants and tour agencies. However, there are plenty of accommodation options outside the towns too. The cool thing about these hotels is that they offer a myriad of activities and accommodation types.
In El Chalten, we stayed at Estancia La Quinta which was a farm. The hotel rooms are located at the old farmhouse. Staying at a place like this allowed us the unique opportunity to visit the Bahia tunnel, and take photos like the one below on the estancia grounds.
6 reasons not to rent a car in Patagonia
On the other hand, there are some important reasons to not rent a car in Patagonia. While renting a car does come with some awesome perks, you may not need or want to get a car depending on where you go and how you travel.
1. If you only want to go to the main spots
The big question on most travelers’ minds is whether you need a car in Patagonia. Having rented a car in Patagonia, I can tell you that you don’t need one if you intend to visit the major towns and cities only.
There are plenty of bus connections among the towns of Puerto Natales to El Calafate and El Chalten.
2. You will miss out on a big travel experience
For a lot of travelers, experiencing public transportation is an important way of getting to know more about the place you visit. So, if you rent a car in Patagonia, you will miss out on getting to experience how the bus system and transit work there.
For instance, when visiting Switzerland, one of the best ways to travel is the renowned Glacier Express from Zermatt to St Moritz. Additionally, have you really traveled in Venice if you did not ride the Vaporetto?
In any case, renting a car was the right decision for us. But, be sure to evaluate if it is the right decision for you.
3. Renting a car is expensive
You likely already know this. So allow me to confirm. Renting a car is not cheap in Patagonia. In fact, everything is a little more expensive here. And car rentals are right up there in their prices. To get a decent deal, you need to book a car well in advance, and you will still end up paying an arm and a leg.
4. You have to deal with parking
Having a car comes with its challenges such as finding parking and ensuring you get a hotel with free parking. In Punta Arenas, it was difficult to park anywhere within the city limits (and there was no free parking!). So, remember these extra things you will have to deal with.
5. You may need to drive a manual
Car rentals in Patagonia cities and towns mostly stock stick-shift (or manual) cars. If you are used to driving only automatic cars, this will be a challenge. One way to get around this is to look for only automatic cars when reserving your car.
Since I don’t drive a manual car, when booking our car, we made sure to book a car in the “automatic” category. Needless to say, it was more expensive than the manual one. 🙁
6. Someone in your travel group has to drive
What I mean by that is, that there will always be the need for one member in your travel group to be on driving duty. This is a minor nuisance if you are a group of friends traveling together. But with only two travelers, only one of you will be able to relax while the other concentrates on the road.
Important tips on renting a car in Patagonia
Now that you have all the pros and cons of renting a car in Patagonia, here are some tips to keep in mind when renting a car.
Before booking the car
- Make sure to check websites such as kayak.com for good deals. These websites present information from different dealers so you can pick the best deals.
- Traveling during the high season? Book plenty in advance, like 6 months. I mean it. They get reserved early!!
- Traveling to Chile first? Note that you may not get a car in Puerto Natales because it is a smaller town. If that happens, look at renting in Punta Arenas instead. This is especially true for the high seasons. Also, based on our experience, car rental places in Puerto Natales were closed on Christmas Eve, unlike in Punta Arenas.
- Check your company-provided discounts. If you work in a big company, this is a nice perk to take advantage of. As a matter of fact, using a discount like this is how we got a sweet deal on our rental with Avis.
- In general, renting a car in Argentina is more expensive than in Chile.
- You don’t need a 4WD vehicle or even an SUV, but having an SUV is nice when you drive over the gravel roads present in many parts of Patagonia.
At the car dealer
- Take a LOT of photos and videos when you get the car. I always take a lot of photos when renting a car, because you never know. But, the admin told us to take videos at our rental agency, which was a neat idea!
In fact, it was so neat that in the middle of our trip, we realized that we had a broken reflector above the tail light on the passenger side. We thought we had managed to damage it while driving. But, we went back to the video I took on the day we picked up the car, and lo and behold, the reflector light was broken then! - If you plan on traveling across international borders, be very diligent about your paperwork. The immigration agents are strict and you need to furnish the paperwork containing the right number of stamps when you return your car. When you exit country 1, you get one immigration stamp. When you enter country 2, you get another immigration stamp. So, by the time you return your car to country 1, you will need a total of 4 immigration stamps. If you do not have all of the 4 stamps, you will incur a hefty fine!
As you plan your epic Patagonia trip, keep in mind these 16 mistakes you should avoid in order to have an awesome trip.
While driving the rental car
- Be careful driving over gravel. Gravel roads are in many spots around the Patagonia region. If you veer off the main roads at any time, you will likely drive on gravel roads. Plus, while crossing from Chile to Argentina, or vice versa, you have a section of around 6 miles of gravel roads.
Be careful to not have stones flying into your windshield that can lead to cracks. - Do not go off-roading in your car! Tempting as it may seem, do not go off-roading unless you want to incur a fine later for messing up your car.
- Don’t pick a car up in one country and drop it off in the other. It is very expensive. In fact, most car companies don’t even allow it. But don’t worry, driving within Patagonia is not as long or painful as you may think.
- Get an alternate driver on the rental agreement. It should go without saying but have at least two drivers so you can switch.
- Don’t rely on Google Maps blindly. The routes it shows may end up not being the right one. In fact, when driving from Puerto Natales to El Calafate, Google Maps tells you to take Route 7 from Tapi Aike to El Cerrito since that is the shortest distance. However, the better road (read: not gravel) is to continue on to La Esperanza, and then head to El Cerrito.
- There are very few rest stops and gas stations. Make sure to fill up whenever you see a gas station, even if you are not close to running out. This is because gas stations sometimes run out of gas. So, you do not want to run the risk of having to get your car towed.
Process of renting a car in Patagonia
So, you’ve decided to rent a car. Here is everything that goes into the process of renting a car in Patagonia.
Where to rent a car in Punta Arenas, Chile
The best place to rent a car in Punta Arenas Chile was Avis. We tried to reserve a car in Puerto Natales but as mentioned earlier we found out that that rental place was closed on Christmas Eve. Therefore, we decided to drive all the way from Punta Arenas to the town of El Chalten.
Thus, if you want to rent a car in Punta Arenas, Chile, this place is my recommendation:
EMSA Rent A Car Avis
Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins 808, 6200000 Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena, Chile
We also made a pit stop at their Puerto Natales office because we had to pick up the paperwork from there. So, if you want to pick a car from this location you have the option to do so. Just note that their hours are more restrictive than the Punta Arenas office.
How we made the booking
As noted earlier, I was able to book with Eva Avis by using my company’s discount on car rental agencies. We browsed several rental car company offers before landing on Avis. We picked them because they were the most reasonably priced for an automatic car which was a requirement for us. Additionally, we had to make sure that the location was open on Christmas Eve since that was the day we wanted to go from Chile to Argentina per our itinerary.
Once we had finalized the Punta Arenas location for our pickup I checked their reviews on Google. They had pretty good reviews which helped us make the decision, and we finalized the booking.
The rental car pick-up process
We tried to pick up the car a day earlier because we wanted to start driving north early the following day. However, the rental car agency told us that they did not have the car available at that time. So, we went back the following morning to pick up our car at the original date and time.
Luckily, we were able to get an SUV vehicle. The admin who processed our car told us to take loads of photos and videos upon pickup. They walked us through the details of the rental agreement. They also gave us tips on how to drive from Punta Arenas through to Argentina.
Next, they told us about the roads to avoid when crossing the border (they even included a printed map of the road) and what to look out for at the Immigration Center. They warned us about crossing the border and entering Argentina without adequate paperwork and stamps. The immigration authorities are very serious about not having the complete set of stamps which could lead to a hefty fine.
However, when they tried to process the immigration papers for entering Argentina, the government website stopped working. Since we were getting late and we wanted to get a head start to our road trip we asked them if we could collect the printout at their Puerto Natales location. They were very accommodating and allowed us to do so. They even called their colleagues in the other office, and by the time we drove into Puerto Natales, all of the papers were available for easy pickup.
Afterward, they walked us to our car, gave us time to take plenty of pictures, and told us to drop it off on the day of the scheduled dropoff.
The rental car drop-off process
At the end of our trip, we dropped off the car back at the same location where we picked it up. As mentioned earlier we found a broken reflector light in the middle of our trip. Thankfully, we had found that the video we took earlier showed this damage.
When we dropped off the car we showed them the video. The admin inspected our car and told us that it looked good and we were getting our full deposit back. We completed the drop-off in less than 30 minutes. One additional perk of renting at this place is that they offer a complimentary transfer to the Punta Arenas Airport.
Overall, it was a really good experience and I would hardly recommend this place to get a rental car in Patagonia.
Next, read up about how I trained to hike starting from 3-4 miles in a day to 16 miles in a day! This post will help you plan and train for your Patagonia trip, or any other hiking trip.
