The Open Road Travel

A road trip from Bariloche to Ushuaia takes you down the spine of the Patagonia region of South America.

A 2,150 kilometre road trip from Bariloche to Ushuaia will see you travel along the slopes of the Andes, passing through Argentina and Chile, as you cover almost the entire length of Patagonia, en route to the southernmost city in the world.

So, if you want to make this incredible journey or follow as much of the Top Gear Patagonia Special route as you possibly can, I highly recommend reading on.

The best route for a road trip from Bariloche to Ushuaia covers 2,150 kilometres (1,340 miles) and takes around 27 hours to complete. While it won’t exactly follow the Top Gear Patagonia Special route, it will help fans to recreate as much of their journey as realistically possible.

You begin by heading south on RN40 (National Route 40), the longest road in Argentina and one of the longest in the world. Follow it for 1,160 miles, until just past the town of Gobernador Gregores.

When the RN40 turns right, continue heading straight to join RP27 (Provincial Route 27).

RP27 will eventually join with RN288, which you’ll continue following south, until it merges with RN3.

When the two roads separate again, continue south to stay on RN3, which will take you all the way to the Chilean border. The road becomes Ruta 255 as you cross into Chile, which you’ll follow until just past the town of San Gregorio, where you turn left onto Ruta 257.

You will then follow this until you cross back into Argentina in the Tierra Del Fuego province. You enter Argentina on RP1 and take it a short way to its conclusion, where it re-joins RN3 in San Sebastien.

This will then take you the remaining 285 kilometres (175 miles), to your destination in Ushuaia.

With a road trip from Bariloche to Ushuaia covering such a vast distance and taking more than a full day to complete, most people will need to make at least one stop to break the journey up.

The best place to stop on a road trip from Bariloche to Ushuaia is Gobernador Gregores.

Gobernador Gregores is a wonderful little town, located almost exactly halfway along our route, making it the perfect place to break up our journey.

A picturesque destination steeped in culture and history, it is the perfect place to learn a little more about this part of Argentina and Patagonia. Perhaps the most popular attraction is the Ruta De La Huelga De 1921.

A heritage museum dedicated to the Patagonia Rebelde, an infamous workers strike that occurred in Patagonia between 1920 and 1922, it displays artefacts and teaches the history of what happened and why it took place.

This gives you the opportunity to delve into one of the darkest, yet most important events in the history of Patagonia. The town is even the site where one of the rebellion’s leaders, Ramón Outerello, was executed by the Argentine army in 1921.

Beyond the history, Gobernador Gregores has a small collection of bars, shops, and restaurants that are perfect for helping you immerse yourself in the food and culture of the local people of the region.

The Hosteria Lago Cardiel is a quaint hotel, just a few hundred metres from the centre of town. With a combination of both modern and traditional styles, it is a fabulous representation of Gobernador Gregores as a whole.

Each of the rooms boasts a flat screen TV, large work desk, tea and coffee making facilities, and a private bathroom and patio. Luxury ben linens and towels provide maximum comfort, while stunning river views allow you to make the most of your scenic surroundings.

Facilities available at the property include a bar, garden, restaurant, and shared lounge, providing plenty of options for relaxation. Guests will also receive a choice of either a buffet or continental breakfast each morning.

Free sitewide Wi-Fi will keep you connected throughout your stay, while a concierge service, 24-hour front desk, tour desk, currency exchange, and room service ensure you have all of your needs taken care of.

The best time for a road trip from Bariloche to Ushuaia is the months of January and February. While being so close to Antarctica means Patagonia is rarely a warm, sunny location, some periods are definitely more pleasant than others.

As our route lies in the southern hemisphere, the months of January and February are actually the heights of the region’s summer season.

With these months offering the warmest temperatures you will find here all year and being the only ones with virtually no chance it will snow, they provide the best possible conditions to enjoy all the route has to offer, without constantly worrying about staying warm, dry, and safe.

With more than a full day of driving ahead of you, you will need plenty of things to do and see on a road trip from Bariloche to Ushuaia to keep things interesting.

Thankfully, this part of the world is home to some of the most incredible natural attractions you will find anywhere on Earth.

While there is far too much on offer for us to point out each and every possibility, we will now show you some of the absolute best sights and sounds the route has to offer, to guarantee your road trip is exciting and enjoyable from start to finish.

Located on a rural road near Lago Lezana, Cholila Ranch is a small cabin that was the home of legendary wild west bandits Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, during the period from when they fled the United States in 1901 until they went on the run again in 1905.

A small, simple cabin, there is very little here to see for most tourists. However, for fans of the 1969 “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid” film or history buffs interested in its real life protagonists, it is simply an opportunity you won’t want to miss.

It gives you the chance to step back in time and see how the fabled outlaws lived out their last days in relative peace and tranquillity, before their need for one last score doomed them to their eventual fate.

What’s more, access to Cholila Ranch is completely unrestricted, meaning you won’t have to pay a cent and can freely explore to your heart’s content.

Los Alerces National Park is an incredible destination in the Andes, set right on the border between Argentina and Chile.

With its landscape having been formed by historic glaciations, visitors will find a range of unique geological formations, including clear water lakes, glacial cirques, and moraines.

Stunning rivers weave through mountains, alpine meadows, and old growth alerce forests, one of the oldest and rarest types of trees on the planet.

It is considered to be perhaps the best example of a Patagonian forest and is home to countless rare or endangered animals and plants.

Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017, Los Alerces National Park covers 187,379 hectares (724 square miles), and adjoins the Los Alerces National Reserve, which covers a further 71,433 hectares (276 square miles).

This leaves visitors 1,000 square miles of stunning natural landscapes to explore, getting back to nature and truly immersing themselves in the spirit of Patagonia.

Lago General Carerra / Buenos Aires is a picturesque glacial lake, covering 1,850 square kilometres (710 square miles).

Split right down the middle by the Argentina – Chile border, the Chilean side is known as the General Carerra Lake, while the Argentinian side called Lake Buenos Aires.

Despite its inland position in the Andes, it is connected to the Pacific Ocean, more than 170 kilometres (110 miles) away by the Baker River.

Through the years, the flow of glacial water has carved out a stunning network of marble caves, creating opportunities to both explore and witness some truly beautiful natural formations.

Lago General Carerra / Buenos Aires is also filled with wildlife, and is a popular destination for fishing, as well as other outdoor activities, such as boating, swimming, and diving.

Located some 217 metres (712 feet) above sea level, it boasts an incredible maximum depth of 586 metres (1,923 feet) allowing divers to delve down into the depths of the Earth.

Monte León National Park is a beautiful coastal region filled with Patagonia’s distinctive wildlife. Animals including cormorants, guanacos, penguins, pumas, sea lions, and whales provide an experience that is guaranteed to be a nature lovers wildest dream.

The landscape of Monte León National Park is dominated by incredible sandstone cliffs that form iconic arches across the beaches on the park’s coast.

It also boasts a level of biodiversity that is deemed to be incredibly representative of the entire Patagonia coast, as well as some of the highest value paleontological sites in Argentina.

Visitors can spend hours exploring the park and taking in its beauty, while also enjoying the breathtaking panoramic vistas of the South Argentine Sea and the Falkland Islands.

Pali-Aike National Park is a Chilean national park, located directly south of the Argentinian border in the Magallanes region.

Its name translates to “desolate place” and perfectly describes the baron, volcanic landscape of the national park and the Pali-Aike Volcanic Field across the border. Covering 12,429 acres, the park’s landscape was formed over millennia by the Pali-Aike Crater volcanic cone.

Rugged rock formations and numerous caves and craters create an almost other worldly location, which provides a perfect contrast to the natural beauty of the nearby areas.

While little vegetation grows here, Pali-Aike National Park does feature some endemic species that you won’t find anywhere else on Earth, as well as an abundance of the iconic pampas grass.

Wildlife is similarly sparse in the park, yet species including bats, foxes, guanacos, horses, pumas, rodents, and various types of birds do inhabit the area, giving nature lovers something to look out for while they explore the otherwise brutal terrain.

Lago Fagnano is a long, thin lake in the southwest corner of Tierra Del Fuego, which has a surface area of 645 square kilometres (400 square miles) and is almost 100 kilometres (62 miles) in length.

While primarily located in Argentina, the most westerly section of the lake, which makes up around 13% of its total area, is found across the border in Chile and known as Cami Lake.

Situated in a piedmont basin, it is surrounded by picturesque, snow capped mountains on all but its northeast corner.

A popular location for scenic boat tours, Lago Fagnano / Cami Lake is a perfect place to take in the majesty of the Patagonia landscape in a unique and relaxing way.

A road trip from Bariloche to Ushuaia is an incredible journey and perhaps the best possible way to see Patagonia. While the drive may be long, there are plenty of places you can stop along the way to truly appreciate what makes the region special.

From the stunning landscapes to the picturesque towns and villages, this is a journey for those who want to experience all of the best cuisines, cultures, and landscapes that southern South America has to offer.

You should now have everything you need to plan a perfect travel itinerary that matches up to your own wants and needs. That means all that’s left is to go and start getting things booked.

That way, you can look forward to seeing everything on offer and following the Top Gear Patagonia Special route for yourself, as soon as possible.