Minitrekking With or Without Transfer?

With a car, take the Minitrekking without transfer: you drive 71.1 km from El Calafate to Puerto Bajo las Sombras, pay the park gate on the way and start the walk at 10:00 AM, for US$346 a person (checked November 2026). Without a car, take the 10-hour option with transfer: a bus from your hotel from 8:30 AM, the same walk, and the walkways facing the glacier, for US$412 on the January and March 2027 dates we read. Both are on Hielo y Aventura’s Mini-Trek calendar.

On 25 and 30 November 2026 the option with transfer was not on sale; the calendar gave its next dates as 26 November and 1 December. Check your own date before you plan around it.

Side by side

Prices from the Mini-Trek’s booking calendar for one adult (checked November 2026). Hielo y Aventura’s own transfer, on its site, is an extra ARS 80,000 a person (rates from 1 November 2026).

Driving yourself

From the centre of El Calafate it is 71.1 km by road to the Bajo de las Sombras landing, about 1 h 20 min by car on our routing, west along Lago Argentino on Ruta Provincial 11 (Hielo y Aventura gives 70 km). The park gate is on the way; the general rate is ARS 50,000 a day from 1 June 2026, paid by card or in cash in Argentine pesos, or online beforehand (APN tariffs, read November 2026).

The road has access hours. From 1 September to 30 April you enter between 8:00 and 18:00 and may stay until 20:00; from 1 May to 31 August you enter between 9:00 and 16:00 and may stay until 18:00 (APN, read November 2026). The speed limit in the park is 40 km/h, and in winter the park requires winter tyres or chains on its roads.

After the walk, the walkways are 6.1 km by road from the landing if you want to see the glacier’s front as well.

Taking the pickup

The bus collects you from the front desk of your hotel in El Calafate from 8:30 AM; the round of hotels can take up to 45 minutes, and that time is part of the 10 hours. The pickup runs only to hotels in El Calafate: from a private apartment or outside the route, you are given the nearest meeting point or Hielo y Aventura’s sales office at Avenida del Libertador 935. A guide rides with the group, and after the walk the bus takes you to the walkways before the drive back.

Other sellers’ transfer rules

Other companies sell Minitrekking days with their own transfer rules:

• Patagonia Dreams' day is from US$424 with a hotel pickup; its option without transfer cost more, US$519, on the dates we read, and asks you to collect a boat voucher at its El Calafate office the day before.
• Gray Line Argentina's day without transport asks you to be at the port at a time it gives you the day before, with boarding between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.; its option with transfers and the walkways cost US$555 against US$430 without, on 8 December 2026 and 20 January 2027.
• Tangol's day in the from-price option excludes hotel pickup and drop-off; its 10-hour option with hotel pickup cost US$514 on 8 December 2026 and 20 January 2027.

Prices checked November 2026.

Hielo y Aventura’s own calendar is the simplest of them: one walk, two options, a fixed start at the port.

Check both options for your date