Hi
We are looking for tips on HE homes to stay in during a 6 week trip to Chile and Argentina in Nov/Dec 2025
We have thousands of gp’s to use, so prefer to do a gp exchange but are equally happy to swap with our London place opposite `Kew Gardens.
Hello, you should add your listing link if you wish members to contact you.
And how do I add a link please?
Ignore. I’ve done it!
Well done!
We’ve just come back from spending a month in Patagonia, and our experience there is that most secondary residences are dedicated to tourism, and hosts tend to see them as a way to accumulate points to “travel for free,” rather than for the human experience that home exchange implies. As a result, the kitchen equipment is usually extremely basic and often of very poor quality and in bad condition (four plates and four glasses exactly, a frying pan with the Teflon scraped off, and a couple of pots was the typical scenario!), very little household linen, and even less interaction or useful advice from the hosts. Try to choose the few primary residences available — the difference in the treatment and overall experience is huge.
I don’t know if you’ve already planned your route, but our favorite places were: Torres del Paine (there’s no private accommodation here, but the W circuit is beautiful and not difficult, unless you get caught in strong winds), El Chaltén (Manu lends his tiny house and he’s a lovely person; from El Chaltén you can do many hikes of all levels, and the scenery is gorgeous), and Bariloche, surrounded by beautiful lakes and mountains.
For seeing penguins and walking close to them, if you don’t want to go all the way to Punta Tombo, we loved renting a 4x4 in RĂo Gallegos and driving to the penguin colony at Cabo VĂrgenes. It’s not on the usual tourist circuits because it’s far from other points of interest, but for me it was one of the best parts of the trip: you walk alone along paths surrounded by tens of thousands of penguins, and on the 260 km round trip across the Patagonian steppe, mostly along a wide gravel road used only to reach a refinery and the lighthouse, you come across sheep, guanacos, foxes, and an amazing variety of birds.
If you enjoy camping, you can rent equipment and camp next to the Cabo VĂrgenes lighthouse and enter the penguin colony at sunrise. A fantastic experience!
