For first-timers, the big sights are Buenos Aires, Iguazú Falls, and Patagonia’s Moreno Glacier. Since most will arrive in Buenos Aires, this simplifies logistics, but great distances mean that flying to Iguazú and Patagonia is unavoidable.

On the eastern Andean slopes, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares comprises over 750,000 hectares where slowly flowing ice gives birth to clear frigid rivers and vast lakes interspersed with Magellanic forests, along the Chilean border west and north of El Calafate.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it’s famous for the Moreno Glacier, which draws thousands of sedentary visitors for day trips but also pulls in scientists absorbed in glaciology and climate studies.

Where a low Andean pass lets Pacific weather systems cross the cordillera, countless storms have deposited immeasurable meters of snow that, over millennia, have compressed into the Moreno Glacier, the groaning, rasping river of ice that’s one of the continent’s greatest sights and sounds.

Fifteen times during the 20th century, the advancing glacier blocked Lago Argentino’s Brazo Rico (Rico Arm) to form a rising body of water that eventually, when the weight became too great for the natural dam, triggered an eruption of ice and water toward the lake’s main glacial trough.

Even larger than the Moreno Glacier, 50 kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide at its foot, the Upsala glacier is accessible only by crowded catamaran trips from Puerto Bandera via Lago Argentino’s Brazo Norte (North Arm). Impressive for its sheer extent, the sizeable bergs that have calved off it, and their shapes and colors, it’s the trip’s outstanding sight.

In the park’s most northerly sector, the Fitz Roy Range has sheer spires to match Torres del Paine, but even if you’re not a top technical climber, trails from the village of El Chaltén to the base of summits such as Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre make for exhilarating hikes.

It’s even possible to traverse the southern Patagonian ice fields, but visitors seeking a sedate outdoor experience will find a handful of former sheep estancias, onetime Patagonian wool producers that have reinvented themselves as tourist accommodations.

From Lago Viedma’s north shore, south of El Chaltén, the park’s best lake excursion is the Viedma Discovery’s full-day catamaran voyage to the Viedma glacier, which includes an ice-climbing component.

Sailing from Bahía Túnel, the vessel rounds the ironically named Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn) to enter an iceberg-cluttered area before anchoring in a rocky cove. After disembarking, visitors hike to an overlook (the glacier is Argentina’s largest, though its lakeside face is small) with additional views of 2,677-meter Cerro Huemul. Those who want to can strap on crampons and continue onto the glacier for about 2.5 hours (even some sedentary city dwellers do so).

Technically within park boundaries, but also within walking distance of Ushuaia, the Glaciar Martial is the area’s best single hike, offering expansive views of the Beagle Channel and even the jagged peaks of Chile’s Isla Navarino.

Reached by the zigzag Camino al Glaciar (also known as Luis Martial) that climbs northwest out of town, the trailhead begins at the Aerosilla del Glaciar, the ski area’s chairlift, which operates 9 a.m.–7 p.m. daily. The 1.2-kilometer chairlift (US$6 pp) reduces the two-hour climb to the foot of the glacier by half.

For first-time visitors, the key sights are the Atacama Desert and Torres del Paine, but both mean considerable flying time on a relatively short holiday. Except for Santiago to Punta Arenas (about 3 hours, a little more with a stopover) and Easter Island (5 hours) flights are less than 2 hours.

This is usually a summer itinerary—the arid but relatively cool Atacama can be ideal at any season, but most people prefer Patagonia in summer. At any time of year, though, unpredictable Patagonian weather can short-circuit even the best-planned itinerary.

Chile’s underrated capital of Santiago offers fine hotels and restaurants, plus a surrounding landscape where (at some times of the year) it’s possible to ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon. Wine-oriented visitors can almost simultaneously enjoy the port city of Valparaíso (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and its neighboring beach resort Viña del Mar, the ski centers of Portillo and Valle Nevado, and rafting on the Río Maipo.

This ten-day to two-week itinerary combines the extreme south of Chile and Argentina.