At Journeys With Purpose, we believe that to design truly meaningful travel experiences, we need to live them ourselves – to walk the trails, taste the food, and feel the pulse of the places we share with our travellers. So earlier this year, we (Katya, Impact Journey Specialist, and Natalia, Head of Marketing) set out on a journey through Argentina and Chile.
These trips are part of how we keep our knowledge fresh and firsthand – exploring our most popular destinations so we can better understand every moment our guests will encounter. What began as a familiarisation trip quickly became something deeper: a reminder of why we do what we do, and how powerful travel can be when it connects you with the world.
Buenos Aires: A Warm-Up for the Soul
Touching down in Buenos Aires, the city greets you like an old friend – vibrant, layered, and unapologetically alive. Before heading south to Patagonia, we gave ourselves a few days to ease in and indulge. In Palermo, time seems to slow. Tree-lined streets hide intimate bookshops that moonlight as jazz bars, like Backroom, and dinners unfold over long, laughter-filled meals at Preferido de Palermo or Don Julio, where every steak feels like a love letter to Argentine heritage.
Our favourite hideaway, Jardín Escondido, with just seven bedrooms felt like home – artful and serene, with Ignacio’s warm hospitality and insider recommendations leading us to the city’s best-kept secrets. On the opposite end of the spectrum the larger Palacio Duhau offers a refined, heritage-rich stay in the heart of Buenos Aires’ elegant Recoleta district, perfectly placed for exploring the city’s grand boulevards, museums, and cafés.
From the colourful chaos of La Boca to the elegance of Recoleta, Buenos Aires is an overture of warmth and rhythm – the perfect introduction to Argentina’s soul.
JWP Favourite Restaurant: Don Julio
El Calafate: Ice, Wind, and Wonder
Landing in El Calafate, Patagonia wastes no time reminding you who’s in charge. The wind howls, the horizon stretches forever, and nature commands every sense. Our journey to the Perito Moreno Glacier was one of those experiences that silences you. Crampons crunching underfoot, we walked across an endless field of blue ice – sculpted, glowing, alive. At the end, whisky poured over freshly chipped glacier ice was the perfect, if surreal, finale. Los Ponchos, based close to El Calafate is a perfect base for families, offering a warm, welcoming atmosp
here and spacious rooms, while Eolo, a Relais Chateaux member, caters to those foodies seeking a more remote, luxurious escape immersed in the Patagonian wilderness. El Calafate left us in awe and reflection. It’s impossible not to feel the urgency of protecting this place as the glacier continues to recede. The guides, with their encyclopedic knowledge and humor, reminded us that connection to place begins with understanding.
JWP Favourite Restaurant: MAKO
Torres del Paine: Majesty and Mischief
Crossing into Chile, the landscape shifted – and with it, our pace. Condors soared above as we drove into Torres del Paine, a land so cinematic it’s hard to believe it’s real. At Explora, right in the heart of the park, we joined a circular hike that felt like a first date with the mountains. The Cuernos and Paine Massif rose like a cathedral of stone, and for once, even we were quiet – cameras down, just breathing it in.
The guides were storytellers in their own right, knowing when to explain and when to let silence do the work. Later, at Tierra Patagonia, we experienced another side of Paine: wide-open views of the massif from a distance, the kind that make you feel small and grateful all at once. From the Blue Laguna trek to meditative water rituals and drumming with Mapuche guides, Patagonia reminded us again and again – the wind isn’t something to fight, it’s something to dance with.
The Singular is a wonderful base for families who prefer to stay closer to Puerto Natales rather than venture straight into the remoteness of Torres del Paine, offering the feeling of stepping into a living chapter of Patagonian history. From here we set out with our guides, Chichen and Andrea, boarding a small boat into the fjords toward Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, passing sea lions, diving cormorants, nesting condors, and dramatic waterfalls and glaciers.
We came ashore at an estancia for a traditional lamb asado before riding into the national park on striking white horses with shaggy manes, learning about merino wool production and gaining a vivid glimpse into the life of the Chilean gaucho, an experience that captured both the grandeur of Patagonia and the soul of its people.
JWP Favourite Experiences: Blue Laguna Trek, Horse Ride at Estancia Lazo, Aonikenk Hike
Rewilding Chile: Conservation in Action
One of the most meaningful parts of our journey was meeting the Rewilding Chile team. Their work is the heart of Patagonia’s conservation story: Creating national parks, restoring native habitats, and protecting species like guanacos, pumas, and condors.
At Cape Froward, soon to be declared a national park, we walked along raw, untouched coastline edged by kelp forests, dolphins following us in the surf. It was a reminder that travel, when done right, can support and sustain the very places we long to explore.
Santiago Wine Country: A Gentle Landing
After weeks of wind, ice, and mountains, Santiago’s wine country was a welcome exhale – warm sun, golden light, and the promise of something slower. At Clos Apalta, surrounded by rolling vineyards, we tasted sublime wines and the best food we’d eaten in Chile. A vineyard ride, a charcuterie masterclass, and a cellar tour made for the perfect finale. It was the kind of place where you pause, reflect, and quietly fall in love with life again.
JWP Favourite Experience: Ride through the vineyards & charcuterie masterclass
Patagonia humbles you. Its scale, its silence, its wind – all conspire to remind you how small we are, and how extraordinary this planet still is. From the ice fields of El
Calafate to the towers of Paine, every step felt like both an adventure and a meditation. For us, this trip wasn’t just research – it was renewal. It reignited our sense of wonder and reminded us why we do what we do: to create journeys that move people, that connect them deeply to nature, and that leave both traveller and place better for the experience.
