The best hotel amenity in Patagonia, in my humble opinion, is a mud room. Having that space to transition from the wild outdoors to the soothing indoors is the ultimate luxury—especially when trekking the new lodge-to-lodge B Route stretching roughly 231 miles from Bariloche, Argentina, to Puerto Varas, Chile.
At Las Balsas, about 24 miles into my 10-day journey on the B Route trail, I luxuriate in a warm mud room as I peel off wet layers, untie heavy boots, and hang my helmet. I then soak my aching quads in a tub with volcano views and sleep like the dead in a king-size bed, all while my gear airs out—out of sight and out of mind until the next day’s adventure.
What is the Patagonia B Route?
All three properties on the B Route have private docks, and Esencia provides all the gear and equipment.
Courtesy of Esencia Patagonia
The B Route gets its name because it links three B Corp–certified businesses: tour operator Esencia Patagonia, Hotel Awa, and Las Balsas. Certification requires companies to meet strict, independently verified standards for environmental and social performance, such as how they treat employees and engage with their communities.
Hotel Awa is the first B Corp hotel in Chile, and Las Balsas is the first such property from Relais & Châteaux. The third lodge on the route, Oda Patagonia, is a lakefront oasis that’s not B Corp certified but is owned by a local woman who leases it to Esencia Patagonia exclusively. The Esencia team applies its B Corp practices to everything it oversees: bringing in a chef, artisans, supplies, gear, and guides.
Throughout the 10-day journey, guests spend three nights at each of the three hotels. At each property, we occupy the days by hiking, biking, kayaking, paddleboarding, or horseback riding. “If you’re short on time, a six-night itinerary featuring Las Balsas and Hotel Awa lets you experience the highlight: crossing the Andes and arriving at Awa by bike,” says Nahuel Alonso, CEO of Esencia Patagonia.
The lodges are B Corp certified and capital-B Beautiful.
Courtesy of Esencia Patagonia
Esencia embraces the kilometer zero concept, or the point where you start measuring the journey. When it’s time to head to our next accommodation, a driver moves our luggage, but the tour company frowns on vehicle transfers to trailheads for people. “Sunlight, breeze, adrenaline, joy, endorphins—there’s a flow you can’t get into if you’re in a car,” says our guide, Lilo Gari.
The B Route is doable year-round, but it’s best experienced September through April. The cost—which covers meals, alcoholic beverages, transfers, equipment usage, and a 24/7 adventure concierge—starts at $12,800 per person for the full duration. One percent of profits is donated to the environmental nonprofit Transformation Fund of Sociedad Naturalista Andino Patagónica.
The B Route is also a fitting name for a journey through Northern Patagonia. With its iconic peaks, Torres del Paine could be called the A Route. On our trek, we are traversing a lesser-known landscape of temperate rainforest, trout-filled lakes, snow-capped volcanoes, and windswept steppe.
Our excursion begins in Bariloche, where biting wind and rain send us to Casa Frey, the first Patagonia-branded store in Patagonia, to buy more layers. The shop occupies a 1916 home built for conservationist Emilio Frey and doubles as a museum. Gari hooks us up with his resident’s discount, and we decline shopping bags. It’s day one, but we’re already adopting the B Route ethos.
Meet the locals of Patagonia
Patricia Alonso prepares mate and insists we call her by her nickname, “Pachimama,” which means Mother Earth.
Courtesy of Esencia Patagonia
Before hitting the trails, we share a drink of mate. For locals, passing around a carved-out gourd filled with a hot herbal infusion and sipping from the same metal straw is second nature. For us foreigners, it’s an initiation ceremony.
As the community cup makes its way around our circle of 10, most of whom are strangers, an invisible bond is formed. Hours later, when we’re hiking among the most gnarled trees I’ve ever seen, I’m not embarrassed when I tell my new friends I need to take a “bio-break.” Like most caffeinated beverages, mate is a natural diuretic.
On day three—Gari’s favorite for its versatile activities—we cross Lake Nahuel Huapi by stand-up paddleboard, kayak, and private boat (which also carries bikes). Then we walk through a tunnel of sequoias, brought over from California and planted in the 1920s as part of a forestry experiment, on Isla Victoria. Alonso of Esencia Patagonia grew up here and is the son of a Nahuel Huapi National Park ranger. He says the island is about half the size of Manhattan, but its population is about 14.
Forget meeting other travelers or straining to find elusive Andean condors, which circle above us as we meditate in a cave on one hike. The B Route is about meaningful interactions with the people who call Northern Patagonia home.
Alonso’s mom, nicknamed “Pachimama,” teaches us how to prepare mate. Our private chef, Pedro, invites us into his kitchen, revealing the secret to perfectly crimped empanadas. At an asada (grilling cookout) after a horseback ride, ornithologist Lorenzo Sympson pulls up a seat to share insights from his work in condor conservation.
When a 220-cow traffic jam brings me to a standstill while cycling around Lake Llanquihue, I use the break to appreciate the scenery. The herd takes its sweet time crossing the road, dropping land mines I have to pedal around. Most of my B Route cohort, meanwhile, is ascending Casablanca Volcano in the distance. Another person in our group is on a boat in the nearby Reloncaví Estuary, learning about sustainable fishing practices from a local oyster diver.
Sometimes I go in a group with other guests, and sometimes I’m on my own, pedaling 37 miles on my most active day or just 8.3 miles on a relaxed day. At all times, an Esencia guide is on standby—available via WhatsApp—with a vehicle or boat in case you need a lift.
Dress for the weather you get, not the weather you want
Every day, the distance—done on foot, bike, kayak, paddleboard, or horseback—is ultimately up to the individual traveler. Activities are tailored to your interests and ability.
Courtesy of Esencia Patagonia
What guides can’t manipulate, however, are the elements. “You never know in Patagonia,” Gari answers when we ask for the next day’s forecast. “Open the window tomorrow and see.”
Inclement weather cancels our activities only if conditions are deemed unsafe. It’s dumping snow at the mountain border, so we forgo the seven-mile hike up an extinct stratovolcano and cross into Chile by van.
At a lower elevation, where it’s just raining, we hop on e-bikes and ride to our next home base, Hotel Awa. As I pedal through the puddles, I pray our accommodations have mud rooms.
