Bariloche or El Calafate?

Neither town is a beach destination, but Bariloche at least gives you a shore worth using. Playa Bonita, Villa Tacul and the edges of Lago Gutiérrez and Lago Moreno are good for a summer afternoon in the sun, with a short, cold dip in the shallower lakes.

El Calafate has nothing similar. Lago Argentino is icy, and the wind rarely lets you settle on its banks, so a hotel pool is the only real swim.

Both towns roast Patagonian lamb on iron crosses over an open fire, but Bariloche goes further. It adds lake trout, wild boar, venison, smoked meats and fondue, and its Central European chocolate tradition fills Calle Mitre. Its brewpubs along the road to Cerro Catedral make for an easy afternoon.

El Calafate's tables narrow quickly beyond grilled meat, with king crab and the calafate berry as its local touches. Its best meal is usually a lunch out at an estancia rather than anything in town.

Bariloche has a modest but real townscape: the stone-and-timber Centro Cívico by Bustillo and de Estrada, the Museo de la Patagonia on Mapuche and settler history, the cathedral above the lake and the chapel at Llao Llao. It fills a morning.

El Calafate is a young service town with less to show. The Glaciarium is the main draw and works best as preparation for the ice itself. A small museum and the rock paintings of the Walichu caves add an hour or two.

Bariloche has the livelier evenings, though not the kind its reputation suggests. Its big central clubs belong to teenage school-leavers on graduation trips. For adults, the evening means late dinners, brewpubs and a few bars around Calle Mitre and the lakefront.

El Calafate offers a beer or a glass of wine on the main avenue and a small casino. With most visitors leaving early the next morning for the glacier, the town is quiet well before midnight.

Both are exceptional, but they offer very different landscapes. Bariloche gives you more to do over a longer stay. It has forests of coihue and lenga and a chain of lakes, refuge-to-refuge trails above Cerro Catedral, cable cars up Campanario and Otto, kayaking and fly fishing, and South America's biggest ski area in winter.

El Calafate is about one overwhelming spectacle: the calving face of Perito Moreno and the glaciers of Lago Argentino, set in dry, wind-scoured steppe. Its serious trekking around Fitz Roy is a long way north, and its season is shorter.

Bariloche has real places within a day. These include the wooden lakeside village of Villa La Angostura, the curanto and weekend fair at Colonia Suiza, and El Bolsón's craft market and hop farms in a warmer valley to the south.

From El Calafate, the one outing beyond the park is a sheep estancia, sometimes reached by boat, with shearing sheds and a lamb lunch. El Chalten is about three hours away and deserves nights of its own.

Bariloche keeps children busy in either season. It has gentle ski slopes and sledging in winter, lake paddling, easy forest walks and the boat to Isla Victoria in summer, plus chocolate shops and the St Bernards in the Centro Cívico.

El Calafate has one superb outing for children: the falling ice at Perito Moreno, seen from safe walkways. After that, the long rides, cold wind and age limits on glacier treks make a short stay the wiser plan.

Bariloche's difficulty is its length, with lodgings and trailheads strung out over some 25km of Avenida Bustillo. City buses do reach Llao Llao and Cerro Catedral, so you can manage much of a stay without a car.

El Calafate is the reverse: one walkable avenue, and then no local network at all. Every trip to the glacier or the boat port means a tour, a scheduled coach or a hire car on gravel roads in strong wind.

Bariloche has the better street for it. Calle Mitre has chocolatiers, Patagonian wool, leather and smoked trout, and the crafts at the Centro Cívico fair and the Colonia Suiza market add woodwork and Mapuche-style textiles.

El Calafate's avenue is mainly for a forgotten fleece, with sheepskin, mate gourds and calafate jam as gifts.

Both are among Argentina's more expensive stops, and neither is cheap. The costs fall differently, though. In Bariloche they peak in the July winter break and January, and ski passes are the big extra. Free hiking, city buses, cabins in the side valleys and the cheaper months of spring and autumn give you room to cut back.

In El Calafate the weight falls on the excursions themselves: park entry, glacier treks and lake cruises. Since those are the reason to go, there is less room to save.

Bariloche has an unexpected classical connection. The Camerata Bariloche chamber orchestra carries the town's name, and the yearly Semana Musical Llao Llao brings chamber concerts to the lakeside hotel. A small municipal theatre fills some other evenings.

El Calafate has nothing to plan around beyond a folk guitarist at an estancia dinner.

Neither town has thermal springs or a bathing tradition. Bariloche does have the grand Llao Llao and other lakeside lodges with pools, saunas and treatments, and a base in the wooded valleys gives you slow days of lake views and fires.

El Calafate is quiet enough, with a handful of lodge spas. But its early starts and long bus rides to the ice keep a stay busy rather than restful.