Can Boats Get Close to the Upsala Glacier?

No. Argentina’s national parks administration restricted commercial navigation in the Upsala arm of Lago Argentino in August 2016 and pushed the limit further south in October 2017, to the mouth of the Onelli channel, because the stretch from the glacier front to Bahia Onelli was unstable and could slide again. We found no later decision lifting it. The cruises that name the Upsala sail up its channel among the icebergs and look at the glacier from a distance; none goes up to the ice.

What the restriction says

The text we can read is the recital of Decree 46/2019, published in Argentina’s Boletin Oficial on 14 January 2019. It records that Resolution 208 of 31 August 2016 restricted commercial navigation in the Upsala arm, and that Resolution 394 of 4 October 2017 extended the restriction to the southern end of the mouth of the Onelli channel, because monitoring showed the Upsala channel from the glacier front to Bahia Onelli was unstable, with the risk of new landslides or mass movements. The same decree authorised a new landing base in another arm of the lake in place of the one planned at Bahia Onelli, which the restriction had cut off.

We did not find the two resolutions online, nor any later decision ending the restriction. Private and recreational boating is banned on the park’s arms anyway, except on Lago Roca (APN Resolution 13/2002), so every boat in the channel is a concession cruise.

What the boats do instead

• Solo Patagonia’s Todo Glaciares sails among the Upsala’s icebergs. On its own explanation there is no fixed distance to any front: the captain decides each day by the glacier’s activity, the floating ice, the wind and the visibility, and in front of the Upsala the ice can be thick enough that the way has to be chosen with care.
• Cruceros Marpatag's Glaciares Gourmet gives a panoramic view of the Upsala and its icebergs from the Upsala channel, and visiting the Upsala and Bertacchi glaciers up close is not permitted.
• SALUM TOUR & TRAVEL's cruise ship day does not guarantee access to or visibility of the Upsala’s front, and offers a full refund if the Upsala channel cannot be visited at all.

If the channel itself is what you want, the icebergs, the scale of the arm and a long day on the water, the boat is the right choice. Solo Patagonia’s cruise is from US$285 a person (checked November 2026) for the entry ticket, with a landing at Base Spegazzini later in the day.

How far away, by reviewers’ accounts

No operator or the park prints a distance in metres. Reviewers give their own estimates, and they vary:

• “5 km or so”, by a reviewer of Cruceros Marpatag's cruise in March 2020.
• More than 10 km, by a reviewer of the same cruise in October 2025, who found the promised panoramic view too far to be one.
• Seen only from very far, by a reviewer of that cruise in November 2026, and by reviewers of Solo Patagonia’s cruise in February and March 2024 and March 2025.
• Closed, or the access blocked, for reviewers of Solo Patagonia’s cruise in February and March 2024, and for a reviewer of SALUM TOUR & TRAVEL's day in February 2026 who had not been told before the trip.

These are travellers’ impressions, not measurements, and the counts are floors: we read the reviews of these three listings, not every review of every boat.

To see it closer

The glacier’s own lookout is on land. From Estancia Cristina, reached by boat from Punta Bandera, a 4x4 climb and a 20-minute walk lead to a viewpoint above the ice, which the estancia calls the only land-based lookout over the Upsala. Estancia Cristina's Mirador del Glaciar Upsala is the day from El Calafate with transfer and lunch, from US$370. Estancia Cristina and the viewpoint has the detail.

Check dates for the Upsala channel cruise