From the alpine splendour of the Lake District to the ends-of-the-earth austerity of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina’s southern regions are some of Latin America’s most spectacular.

Argentina's Lake District

Verdant forests, glacier-fed lakes and several excellent wineries surround the laid-back town of Bariloche, its picture-postcard location on the shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi a scenic stepping-stone for activities including skiing, fishing, climbing and trekking in the surrounding Lake District. If you’re headed to Chile, the two-day sailing to Puerto Varas is one of the world’s most scenic border crossings.

Glaciers, mountains & national Parks

Move deeper into Patagonia and the towns of El Chalten and El Calafate serve as gateways to the majestic landscapes of the Fitz Roy Massif and the advancing ice of the Perito Moreno Glacier respectively. Or, for wildlife, there’s the chance to see Magellan penguins, elephant seals, pods of dusky dolphins, orcas, southern right whales and more at Peninsula Valdés, a barren but beautiful coastal region that includes the Bahia Bustamante, Argentina’s answer to Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands.

Tierra del Fuego

Continue to the continent’s southernmost tip – the windswept Tierra del Fuego – and you’ll enter a region enormous in both its scale and desolate beauty; a place of fast-running rivers, creaking glaciers and jagged mountain peaks, it’s a land unlike any other. The only way south from here is by ship, with cruises departing from Ushuaia across the iceberg-strewn Drake Passage to the frozen wastes and hardy wildlife of the Antarctic Peninsula.