Patagonia Coast to Coast

Eight nights in a loop from Pucon that genuinely crosses Patagonia coast to coast, from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back, entirely on tarmac. The hire is included, with a long upgrade list.

Valdivia comes first on the Pacific, a city largely destroyed by the strongest earthquake ever recorded, a magnitude 9.5 in 1960, and rebuilt since, with a fish market where sea lions wait for scraps and a brewery founded by German settlers.

Bariloche follows on the first Andes crossing through Puyehue National Park, where ash from the 2011 eruption is still visible in the ground, with the Circuito Chico as an optional loop. Tecka comes next on Ruta 40 by way of El Bolson, a town settled by people who arrived in the 1970s and largely stayed.

Puerto Madryn is the Atlantic end, with a rest day for the Valdes peninsula, where southern right whales calve in the bay, orcas hunt sea lions in the shallows and there are penguin colonies on the shore, though nothing can be promised. The return crosses the Rio Negro pampas near Neuquen and takes the second Andes crossing through Lanin National Park, below a 3,728 metre volcano, in Mapuche territory among thousand-year-old araucaria. Prices are quoted in US dollars. Eight nights, all of it paved, and two ocean coasts makes this the most approachable Patagonian trip the operator sells. It is also the one to choose for a rider who wants Patagonia without gravel, since the famous unpaved routes further south are left out entirely and nothing here needs an adventure bike.