Fly & Drive The Best of Northern Patagonia (4x4)

Nine nights in a loop from Pucon through the Chilean and Argentine Lake District, driven rather than ridden. It is the operator’s first four-wheeled product and exists for the partners, families and companions who want the same route without a motorcycle. The 4×4 hire is included and the price is per person sharing.

Pucon sits below Villarrica, then Villa Pehuenia in Argentina by way of Conguillio National Park, where the monkey puzzle trees are centuries old, and the China Muerta reserve. San Martin de los Andes follows on Lago Lacar below Lanin.

Bariloche comes next on the Seven Lakes Route through Nahuel Huapi, with the Circuito Chico and the historic Llao Llao hotel as an optional loop, then Trevelin and Los Alerces with its ancient fitzroya stands.

Chaiten returns the route to Chile in the Futaleufu whitewater region at the head of the Carretera Austral, with Pumalin National Park, then Hornopiren by way of two ferry crossings through the fjords, and Puerto Varas with the Petrohue falls, Volcano Osorno and the Cochamo valley. Frutillar and Puerto Octay close the loop into Pucon. Prices are quoted in US dollars. Running the same itinerary on four wheels is a sensible piece of product design: a group can travel together with some on bikes and some in the truck, and nobody has to choose between the trip and the company. The pickups carry luggage and passengers comfortably, the ferries take vehicles as readily as bikes, and the route is the same one the operator has been running on two wheels for years, so the hotels and the timings are already proven.