El Calafate is a small but perfectly formed tourist town which enjoys year-round foreign attention. Situated just ninety minutes away from the impressive Perito Merino Glacier, El Calafate makes the perfect stop for travellers in search of glacial activities. The town itself is effortlessly charming with sleepy roads flanked on either side by cabin-style shops selling souvenirs, home-made chocolates, ice-cream and coffee, as well as a handful of cosy restaurants. El Calafate’s convenient locality to the glacier lends itself to numerous tours, excursions, trips and experiences. Take a boat tour and admire the colossal wall of ice from an electric-blue lake; scarred with various crevices, clefts and peaks, the glacier reaches a height of sixty metres and depths of 110 metres while every so often, great chunks of heavy ice will break off and plummet into the lake below – its thunderous tumble and concluding crash is a somewhat noisy reminder of nature’s formidable power. There are also numerous viewing platforms looking across Perito Merino Glacier consisting of various levels and the ideal location to take a picnic and dine adjacent to the glacier. Follow this with a warming hot mug of coffee from the nearby café-restaurant before heading back to El Calafate for more slabs of thick home-made chocolate.