Finis Terrae: Exploring the Wilds of Southern Patagonia

This was the trip of a lifetime which exceeded our expectations in every regard. The trip was a perfect combination of experiencing the incredible beauty of Southern Patagonia and Cape Horn, sandwiched between two fascinating cities: Buenos Aires and Santiago. We recommend arriving to Buenos Aires a few days before meeting up with the Road Scholars’ group as there is just too much to do in this city. Our group leader, Melina Gavira, was exceptional: experienced, well-organized, hard-working, knowledgeable, warm - and just plain nice. She made sure that everyone in our group was having the best experience possible every day. The food on the ship, the Ventus Australis, was absolutely delicious as was the food at the Hotel do Pane in Torres de Pane National Park, and throughout the trip. The lecturers and guides were all extremely knowledgeable and dynamic and we feel we learned so much from them about these two complex countries of Argentina and Chile. But most of all it is the wild beauty of Southern Patagonia that we will carry with us forever. We are so grateful to Melina and Road Scholars for this amazing adventure!

A taste of South America. I now know more about and have a new appreciation for our southern neighbor on this planet. Big cities to remote places, this program has it all.

Our trip to Patagonia was truly amazing! A once in a lifetime trip. Our tour guide, Marisa Zeidan went above and beyond to ensure we had a safe, enjoyable and memorable adventure! Thank you Marisa!

A truly wonderful experience. Fast paced with some late nights and typical Patagonian weather. So not necessarily an easy trip, but definitely worth the effort. Excellent lectures & content experts. Comfortable accommodations & wonderful food. So very glad I went.

Team Georgina ! Thank you leader and thank you co travelers. So much we saw, so much we discovered, so many laughs. Can we start again ?

Breathtaking trip. Fall in Patagonia is a beautiful and colorful time to visit. It was physically taxing at times with uphill and downhill hikes, the 175 stepss to the lighthouse at cape Horn, and no elevator on the cruise ship. I suggest you consider taking some knee braces if your knees trouble you at all. Hiking sticks are also probably a good idea to relieve jolts on the knees. But the trip was worth all the pain! Melina was fantastic as a group leader and all the local leaders and lecturers were top notch.

A great program in an absolutely stunning part of our planet! I walked a lot, learned a lot and had tons of fun! There is nothing like Cape Horn at sunrise!

Our trip leader Tom Tricollota did a fantastic job on this Patagonia trip.

A perfectly executed trip that we thoroughly enjoyed. I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone interested in exploring Patagonia.

an excellent program/tour, really enjoyed it

It was a fantastic trip, in many ways. I do have one suggestion: No one wore their name tag after the 2nd day, and so most of us did not learn the names of the other travelers until the trip was almost over. It would have been very useful to have a single sheet (or two sheets max) with thumbnail photos of everyone, captioned with names and home city . It should be pretty easy to produce and send out before the trip. Thanks for everything. Bob Coats

A great adventure in Patagonia, as well as Buenos Ares and Santiago. Great group leader, terrific schedule of activities. The glaciers and penguins were such a great experience. The special chef-prepared "gastronomical experience" in Tierra Del Fuego was fantastic. Great mix of experiences in big, vibrant cities and in the Patagonia wilderness. Loved it!

The intinerary, the tour leader and experiences were way beyond expectations!

Well organized and diverse program with lots of activities and learning. Strongly recommend it!

A trip of a lifetime. Speechless. Highly recommend!!!

Fabulous trip to Patagonia with Natalia Bertoni

This was one of our most favorite trips!!! full of natural beauty, exploration and adventure!

We did the Finis Terrae: Exploring the Wilds of Southern Patagonia program in February 2024. The program was excellent, informative, and very well done. Our group leader was exceptional, and all of the local guides were very good.

Excellent program with a great variety of history, art, nature, culinary experiences and the wonderful people of Argentina and Chile. I strongly recommend this trip!

A great program -- the landscapes are beautiful and the penguins are adorable. The physical activities of stair climbing and rocky terrain walking, including many going uphill, was more than I expected. I am glad I brought my walking poles. Our group leader stayed behind so no one was left back.

Our recent trip to Southern Patagonia was an amazing way to explore the fjords, glaciers and mountains by hiking and by cruising among the islands. Our guide, Horacio, made the adventure interesting by sharing personal stories that enhanced our understanding of what we were seeing. The others in our group were interesting to get to know and they added a lot to the trip.

I loved the Finis Terrae: Exploring the Wilds of Southern Patagonia program. It had a nice mix of cosmopolitan Buenos Aires and Santiago with Patagonia and Cape Horn. Bring your appetite. The food and wine are delicious. Felipe is an excellent tour guide who made sure that everyone was comfortable and enjoyed themselves.

Great program with outstanding group leader and awesome experiences Wouldn’t have missed it for anything.

This was without a doubt the best vacation of my life. Just about everyday exceeded my expectations. Our guide and the guides we met along the way were exceptional.

This was a wonderful program and we were so lucky with the weather given Patagonia reputation for it's rapidly changing climate conditions.

Every one of the Road Scholar tours I have been on has been a great learning experience, this one was not different. The bonus is also making new friends for years to come! Thank you for the great programs you have planed for the participants.

We thoroughly enjoyed our Finis Terrae:Southern Patagonia trip, our first Road Scholar trip and our first time in South America. The combination of Buenos Aires and Santiago city tours, expedition ship cruise and Zodiac landings near glaciers, and hiking in Torres del Paine and Tierra del Fuego National Parks made for a very exciting, interesting and varied experience that exceeded our expectations. Our tour leader, Georgina, was especially fantastic, making sure our tour group knew when and what to expect each day, and she made sure the journey and experience for everyone in the group was seamless. We were happy to be part of a great group of travelers, and under Georgina's guidance and friendly and gregarious nature we all bonded well as a group. We certainly recommend the trip for anyone interested in the Patagonia region and also Georgina as a tour leader for any future trip. Ken and Alice.

I love Road Scholar Tours. I’ve been on three trips namely UTAH National Parks, Best of Greece and just recently Patagonia which also included Buenos Aires and Santiago Chile. My next trip with Road Scholar will be in May 2024 through Turkey. Another adventurous tour!!! The group leaders are all very experienced, know, well organized and super fun!!! I also enjoy the educational aspect of their programs with lectures about the history, culture, people and cuisine of the difference cities I have been. I usually travel solo and feel very safe with them. I highly recommend Road Scholar Tours!!! You will make so many wonderful new friends and cherished memories!

This rich trip was very well organized and led by a dynamic tour leader, offered breathtaking nature and a variety of engaging activities in different settings, provided excellent accommodations and food, and ensured a terrific two weeks!

This trip to Patagonia was so amazing! The hiking, water, mountains, glaciers and animals were all out of this world! Marcel Gonzalez was an outstanding group leader and all of the guides were fun and knowledgeable. Expeditions on the zodiacs were very special and awe-inspiring. I will cherish this opportunity for the rest of my life.

This is a fabulous trip! I highly recommend it. The agenda is chock full of varied activities and excellent lectures. The cruise aboard the Stella Australis couldn't have been improved upon. The twice daily expeditions aboard the zodiacs were exciting. We were lucky that the weather didn't prevent any activity from taking place.

Outstanding program!! Our guide, Marissa Ziedan was the best guide I have had in all of my Roads trips.

I am grateful that i was able to attend such an outstanding RS Program with interesting cities as well as the natural beauty of Patagonia. Our guide, Marissa Zeidan, was excellent and insured that from Buenos Aires, Patagonia to Santiago everything was perfect!

Be prepared for very, very windy conditions on some of the outdoor activities ....especially in the southern part of the trip.

I highly recommend this excellent RS trip to Argentina and Chile. It was a well balanced program between large Latin American cities (Buenos Aires and Santiago) and the beautiful and remote regions of southern Argentina and Chile. I especially enjoyed traveling to Cape Horn and through the fjords of southern Chile on the Australis expedition ship. Torres del Paine was amazing and wild! Overall, the trip was well organized and provided lots of outdoor activities, hikes and sightseeing opportunities. I felt I learned many new things about the two countries and the natural Patagonian environment. I also have a better understanding of the region's cultural diversity and history. Our tour director, Marcel, was the best!

I highly recommend this program. Great and beautiful places to visit that differ from the ordinary.

Excellent trip! A trip of a lifetime. My best ever, don't miss out!

This was a fabulous trip with a great leader and many, many beautiful and exciting experiences.

This trip was wonderful! The group leader, local experts, and guides were knowledgeable and interesting to talk to. The places we were able to explore were beautiful. It is hard to pick one special highlight from this trip because each day was magical. From watching mountains and glaciers on the deck of the expedition cruise to hiking in the national park there was never a dull moment. Time in the cities at the start and end of the trip were perfect bookends to provide a view of what the countries and people were about.

This is an excellent tour. The sites you visit are spectacular, the accommodation and food very good and the tour leader and other guides are very experienced and knowledgeable. It’s not cheap but the value is definitely there, especially when compared with other companies’ offerings. Highly recommended.

The trip Finis Terrae: Exploring the Wilds of Southern Patagonia is the most wonderful trip I have ever done. The program leader is Melina Gavira, she is amazing!!! I really love this trip with a group of absolutely great participants.

This was a trip of a lifetime. Scenery is unparalleled in Torres del Paine. The boat to Cape Horn, glaciers and penguins is not to be missed. Melina was an excellent guide - she is very passionate about caring for her participants. An added bonus was seeing the World Cup in South America when Argentina played in the final.

Our first trip with RS but not our last. Patagonia was a wonderful experience, well planned, an incredible guide Marisa, a great group to travel with. Overall, couldn't be better. We never expected a trip to compete with an African Safari and the Galapagos, but now we have three "best ever" trips!

t'was terrific

My husband and I have been on over 20 RS programs since 2001. This was one of the BEST! There was a massive amount of red tape and paperwork involved in traveling to Chile due to COVID , but that's not the fault of RS. I think that was one reason that our group consisted of only 3 participants, which was a major plus for us! We felt very safe, since over 95% of the population there has been vaccinated, and you basically can't go anywhere without proof of immunization. Note: our trip went only to Chile, and did not include Argentina, which was fine with us. Our guide Marcel Gonzalez was sensational! The scenery was amazing in every location. We were lucky to be able to hike out to the overlooks at Cape Horn, and had fairly decent weather on the cruise, which was five nights rather than four. That was great! We have lots of details and photos in our blog; hope you enjoy reading it: http://www.mytripjournal.com/Lois_and_John_Patagonia

Among the 30 or so Road Scholar trips we've been on, it's a standout.  First of all Torres del Paine and the whole of Patagonia are picturesque, beautiful places, and the itinerary took us into wonderful parts of them, from quiet walks along lakes, to zodiac rides to the base of glaciers, to an island full of penguins, to spectacular sites around the Torres, to a beach at the southernmost part of South America, to walks where we saw flamingos in a lake and rheas in a field and guanacos alongside the path, to funiculars up to a peak overlooking all of Santiago, to an eco-horse farm outside of Santiago with traditional dances and foods, and so on. The accommodations were perfectly clean, and convenient, and in the case of Torres del Paine, the Pehoe Inn - it's beautiful and quaint! - located in the middle of the lake, a beautiful place to watch sunrises and sunsets on the mountains, and with a hill behind it you can climb! The food, also excellent, Meli (our leader) made sure we had plenty of chances to have good, authentic local meals.  Meli is a outstanding caring and effective leader, who shares information all along the way. She's always thinking about what can make our experience better.

If you think you have encountered the most dramatic landscape in the world, you haven't! Patagonia is phemoninal! Majestic, wild, dramatic--full of rare wildlife and hiking adventure. I was overcome every day I woke up or hiked along a 12" wide path in Torres del Paine with our passionate knowledgeable guides!

What a magnificent trip! Patagonia is a unique and stunning part of the world. The trip included Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, Cape Horn and Torres del Paine in Chile. For folks interested in seeing gorgeous land/seascapes and interesting animals, this is a trip of a lifetime! Beautiful glaciers! Beautiful mountains and lakes! Albatrosses, condors and guanacos! As a bonus, we also got a brief glimpse of two magnificent cities, Buenos Aires and Santiago.... The Road Scholar local guides were all very good: informative and helpful. In addition to much natural history, we were also taught about the complicated history of both nations. The group leader was excellent: besides being informative and helpful, he worked hard to smooth out any ruffles and took fantastic care of us all.... The fellow travelers were also fun and interesting to spend two weeks with.

Talk about shock and awe! Do not hesitate to go on this program. See it before others discover the beauty of Tierra del Fuego. See it while you can enjoy the history, the wildlife, and those magnificent glaciers. Tierra del Fuego is a real treasure.

The Finis Terrae adventure in South America exceeded my expectations and kudos to RS for an informative, exciting, and lifetime experience that will inspire future trips with RS!

The geology, flora and fauna are just out of this world.

Excellent adventure & group. Favorite Local Guides: Isabel (Ushuaia) and Jean (Santiago) - excellent communication skills. Favorite Local Lecturer: Terry (Santiago) - excellent communication skills and preparation. National Guide (Gabriel) looked after the group under especially difficult conditions, including medical evacuation and outbreak of UR Infections during the last half of the trip. Credit to Gabe also for his presentation regarding South American fossil evidence for Continental Drift. I appreciate Gabe's technical knowledge and his desire to communicate. Gabe speaks English with an American accent, making his commentary easy to understand, even for tired travelers. The hotels were excellently located. The hotels and the V. Australis were at a very high standard - very comfortable. V. Australis crew observed strong safety protocols, permitting inexperienced travelers to safely make their zodiac rides. Possible improvements: 1) When we left EZE secure area, Road Scholar sign was nowhere to be seen. Eventually we met local guide. Also: no local commentary during drive from EZE to our hotel. 2) Tango show appeared to be more athletic than cultural. Also the dinner served at the show left a number of travelers with digestive upset. The show kept tired travelers up late before next day's early flight to Ushuaia - possibly facilitating URI outbreak later in the trip. 3) First hiking excursion from V. Australis (Wulaia Bay) resulted in failure of the summit group to remain cohesive. Guide stated group must finish summit hike at the same time as lookout group, but my estimate is we returned to the ship almost 1/2 hour before the lookout group! 4)There was some confusion about exact timing. If individual paper handouts are to be avoided, I suggest a written schedule of tomorrow's events posted at dinner - travelers would photo them to get exact times. 5) 8:00 dinner is late! Combined with new food, this could interfere with sleep and facilitate URIs!

This was an amazing, most interesting and pretty physically challenging trip. Amongst the most memorable events were reaching the top of Cape Horn, the 6.9 km (273 m elevation gain) hike to Mirador Lookout seeing the Icebergs floating on Gray Lake & Grey Glacier, watching Magellan penguins nesting on Magdalena Island and of course, seeing the elegant Guanacos in Torres del Paine National Park. Our trip leader Marcel Gonzalez was amazing! He made sure at all times, that each member of our group of eleven is doing well. Local guides in Buenos Aires (Sandra), in Ushuaia, all personnel on Ventura Australis, at Torres del Paine National Park (Xavier), and in Santiago (Jean) were very good, knowledgeable, teaching us about history, animals, nature and politics in each place we saw. This was truly, a memorable trip! The only things I would recommend modifying are as follows: 1) Wine Tasting in Buenos Aires: Wines were not of wine tasting quality. 2) Dinner and Tango Show in Buenos Aires: Dinner and Tango show was held in a very touristy venue. We were lined up at the tables like "sardines". Dinner was average; Tango show very "touristy". I would recommend seeing the true Tango dancing at a smaller, genuine venue. Same with the dinner. 3) Three night accommodation in Torres del Paine National Park on an island in Lago Pehoe was not very good. Food was very average. The hotel was like a Youth Hostel, something out of the sixties. The only thing great about the hotel were amazing views of Torres del Paine.

What a terrific trip this was. It was the perfect combination of incredible and diverse scenery, enjoyable hikes, and excellent information and learning sessions. The four days on the Stella Australis and the three days exploring Torres del Paine National Park were experiences of a lifetime. The days were basically full from morning till bedtime, yet I never felt too rushed or too busy. If you decide to go, make sure you bring rain pants and a good rain jacket and plenty of warm layers. At least in November, the idea of shorts and t-shirts was a tad laughable. Melina Gavira is the epitome of a good trip leader--knowledgeable, empathetic, organized, enthusiastic, personable, and a calm problem-solver. If you have a chance to travel with her to this South American version of paradise, grab the chance and go. If you have a group half as compatible as we had, you've got it made. We've done nine Road Scholar trips, and this was right up there at the top of list.

This was a better than expected trip for me! It was my husband’s dream to go to Patagonia, not so much mine, but I was completely won over by the astonishing beauty in a rare and different part of the world on this trip. It has great diversity - starting and ending in two major cities, with jaw-dropping outdoor views and experiences in-between. Glaciers, icebergs, penguins, snow-covered mountains (and for us, actual snow!), waterfalls, wildlife and birds, birds, birds. Patagonia can truly go through four seasons in a day - be sure and bring warm, waterproof layers - especially for on the boat - you have to sit and slide on wet Zodiac pontoons, plus you might often be hiking in wet, windy and/ or snowing conditions. I brought a pair of light waterproof rain pants that I wore over warm fleece pants from REI - it worked out perfect - the rain shell pants could easily be rinsed/dried of mud (yes, there will be mud!) overnight and the fleece pants stayed clean and dry.. Also used a wind/rain shell over a down puffer jacket that worked out well too - light and warm. And if you can waterproof your shoes you will be better off - your feet will get wet on the glacier hikes. Last piece of advice: if Melina Gavira is the group leader - sign up as fast as you can - never seen anyone do it better!

Please send me the full review form, as you sent my husband, Fred Knight.

Wow! What a wonderful way to see this stunning part of the world. Glaciers, penguins, condors, turquoise lakes, craggy peaks, wild Cape Horn, Zodiac adventures. Fascinating and fun, and just enough of a challenge each day to get the juices flowing.

This trip was an epic adventure for my wife and me! Spectacular, extraordinary, magnificent! We ran out of superlatives to describe what we saw and did. The variety built into this trip: the big cities (Buenos Aires at the beginning and Santiago at the end), the breath-taking scenery in Patagonia, the ship taking us to phenomenally gorgeous places, the hikes, the lectures, the group, the guides, the events = a truly incredible and perfect experience! Plus we hit a "sweet spot" with the weather. It was a trip of a lifetime!

We had a wonderful time on our Road Scholar excursion to Cape Horn and Torres del Paine National Park, both spectacular places.

We usually avoid group tours because we like the freedom to explore places of our own choosing at our own pace. However, arranging transportation, accommodations and informative guides in a remote part of the world like Patagonia would have been challenging even for us experienced world travelers, so with some trepidation, my wife and I signed up for this tour. We were not disappointed. Every aspect of this Road Scholar tour was well organized, instructive and fun. Our tour guide, Marcel, was informative, humorous, and contributed to a "feel good" group atmosphere throughout the trip. The ship, Ventus Australis, was superb both in accommodations and food. The expeditions by Zodiac boat to glaciers, Cape Horn and Magallanes Island were the highlights of the trip for me. I highly recommend this trip to anyone who, like me, has always dreamed of exploring Patagonia.

A wonderful way to experience the beauty and wonder of southern Patagonia! It was a great way learn about the fascinating countries of Argentina and Chile both from the very cosmopolitan capital cities to their most remote and spectacular islands and fjords.

This program was a mind blower! Unique beauty. Great staff and fellow travelers.