Desert, Ice and Falls by Jet

Ten nights from the high desert of northern Chile to the granite towers and glaciers of Patagonia, then north to the falls at Iguaçu, with a small private jet making every connection, from Santiago at the start to Buenos Aires at the end. A private guide and 4x4 in the Atacama, a dawn search for pumas on a conservation ranch at the edge of Torres del Paine, and the falls with early and late access from the hotel.

Length: 10 nights
Pace: Four stays
Style: Private jet, walking, stargazing, helicopter
Route: The Atacama Desert to Torres del Paine to El Calafate to Iguaçu Falls

The Atacama DesertThree nights
Torres del PaineThree nights
El CalafateTwo nights
Iguaçu FallsTwo nights

A sand dune ridge running into eroded desert under a blue sky.

Days 1 to 4 · three nights

The Atacama Desert

A flight of under two hours from Santiago. Awasi gives each room its own guide and 4x4, so the days run at your pace: walks and bike rides through the desert, Rainbow Valley for its colours and its petroglyphs, and at night the sky through a powerful telescope.

Where you stay

Awasi Atacama

Awasi Atacama is in the village of San Pedro de Atacama, high in the Andean desert, with rooms built of stone, adobe and wood under thatched roofs. Every room has its own private guide and 4x4, so each outing runs at your own pace, and the restaurant is for guests only.

The long, low lodge on the steppe at dusk, a flat-topped mountain beyond. — Photo: Beckons / Eduardo Samano, Lucy Laucht, Pedro Carreira

Days 4 to 7 · three nights

Torres del Paine

Four and a half hours south by jet. Walks, riding and Zodiac trips in and around the national park, including a half-day walk to the thrombolites on the shore of Lake Sarmiento, among the rarest living rock formations in the world. On request, a day at Leona Amarga, a conservation ranch at the edge of the park, where two guides read the ground for pumas from first light, or a helicopter over the Southern Patagonian Icefield that lands where no road reaches. Or a half day from dawn at Estancia Cerro Guido with the trackers and puma researchers of the Cerro Guido Foundation, among their camera traps and guanaco monitoring, with breakfast in the field and Casa Pumas, the foundation's interpretation centre, to finish.

Where you stay

Tierra Patagonia

Tierra Patagonia curves along a bluff above Lake Sarmiento, built in local lenga wood and facing the Torres del Paine massif. Its 40 rooms look over the pampas and the peaks, guided excursions and meals are included, and the Uma Spa has a heated indoor infinity pool and an outdoor whirlpool.

The ice front of a glacier above turquoise lake water.

Days 7 to 9 · two nights

El Calafate

A 30-minute hop across the border into Argentina, and a day trekking on the ice of the Perito Moreno Glacier in crampons, 50 minutes from EOLO, which stands on 10,000 acres of its own between El Calafate and Los Glaciares National Park.

Where you stay

EOLO, Patagonia's Spirit

EOLO stands on a 10,000-acre property halfway between El Calafate and Los Glaciares National Park, away from the busier tourist areas. All 17 rooms look out over the open landscape, and the land is used for riding, mountain biking, walking and birdwatching.

Spray rising from a long line of waterfalls in green forest.

Days 9 to 11 · two nights

Iguaçu Falls

Four hours north to Brazil. Hotel das Cataratas gives its guests early and late access to the falls, and a private helicopter flies over them, before the jet to Buenos Aires for the flight home.

Where you stay

Hotel das Cataratas, A Belmond Hotel

Hotel das Cataratas is the only hotel inside Brazil's Iguaçu National Park, 30 minutes by road from Foz do Iguaçu airport, with access to the falls away from the crowds. Its 176 rooms and suites share a heated outdoor pool, a spa, tennis courts, Restaurant Y and the Ipê barbecue.

Arranged on request

Leona Amarga

On a conservation ranch at the edge of Torres del Paine, one guide scouts ahead before sunrise while a second reads prints and markings, on foot and by 4x4, in search of the puma; a sighting is never certain.

A helicopter onto the icefield

Ninety minutes over Torres del Paine and the Southern Patagonian Icefield, landing in places no road reaches, the route set by the day's weather.

The thrombolites of Lake Sarmiento

A half-day walk of 4.5 kilometres to the thrombolites, among the rarest living geological formations in the world.

On the Perito Moreno ice

From EOLO, 50 minutes to the glacier, and a walk on the ice in crampons, short or long.

The falls before and after the crowds

Hotel das Cataratas gives its guests early and late access to the falls.

With the puma researchers

At dawn on Estancia Cerro Guido, one of Patagonia's largest ranches, a half day with the Cerro Guido Foundation's wildlife trackers and puma researchers, among the camera traps, guanaco monitoring and predator tracking, with breakfast in the field.

Subject to availability.

Ways to make it yours

Two nights in Buenos Aires at the end, with a morning at Colón Fábrica, the Teatro Colón's own workshops in La Boca.
A boat across Lago Argentino through the icebergs to the Upsala and Spegazzini glaciers, from Puerto Punta Bandera, 30 minutes from EOLO.
A morning on the walkways of the Argentine side of the falls.

This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.

Made around you

Most travel is bought. This is designed.

Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.

The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.