Fly overnight to Buenos Aires.

Arrive in the morning and travel to the centrally located, locally rated 4-star Intersur Hotel for a two-night stay. Only seven blocks from the Museum of Fine Arts and a short walk from the world’s most opulent cemetery, Recoleta, it is the perfect place from which to explore Buenos Aires and its many sites. The hotel’s facilities include a restaurant, bar, fitness centre and a spa (extra charge).

Flourishing on the shores of the world’s widest river, Rio de la Plata, the city is an intoxicating cocktail of colonial grandeur, Latin effervescence and modernist brutalism which shimmies in unison to the sensuous cadence of Creole tango.

Meals included: D

Today a guided sightseeing tour threads you into the warp and weft of the streets of Buenos Aires. Begin your tour at Plaza de Mayo, the focal point of Argentine politics and a stage for Porteños’ collective voice, both angry and celebratory. Each Thursday a solemn procession of women circles the central obelisk of the park carrying photographs of ‘the disappeared’. Continue to the barrio of San Telmo, the oldest neighbourhood of the city, where the cobbled streets reverberate to the sound of tango and the creative community of Bueno Aires spend long hot nights drinking, dancing and talking politics in the many music parlours. A short drive away discover La Boca and Calle Caminito, where artists display their works in front of gaily painted colonial buildings – the area was the inspiration for the famous tango ‘Caminito’.

Later, stroll through the dockside of Puerto Madero, whose redbrick warehouses have been transformed into swanky restaurants and are dwarfed by modern towers of glass and steel. End your tour as many of the rich and famous of Argentina have, in the cemetery of Recoleta; arguably the world’s most ostentatious cemetery, you will be bowled over by the lavish mausoleums of this city of the dead in the heart of the living. This evening perhaps join an optional excursion to a Tango show - the dance of the ‘Portenos.

Meals included: B,L

optional excursions: Tango show (Evening)

Check out of your Buenos Aires hotel and fly south to Ushuaia. Check into locally rated 4-star Los Acebos Hotel for a two-night stay. Set in a deciduous forest of Ñires, beech and sour cherry this contemporary hotel of 61 rooms offers staggering views of the Beagle Channel and Andes mountains from a vantage point above the city. It is your portal to Tierra del Fuego’s unlimited paradise of adventurous trekking, historical sites and wonderful wildlife.

Meals included: B

Today embark on a half-day cruise on the Beagle Channel, named after Charles Darwin’s ship that carried him on a five-year voyage around the tip of Southern America. Sailing in HMS Beagle’s wake, marvel at the peaks of Mount Olivia and Mount Escarpado and get up close to colonies of South American sea lion and chaotic rookeries of Imperial cormorant.

You will also pass the Beagle Channel´s ‘Lighthouse at the End of the World’: The most photographed landmark of the archipelago, it was opened in 1930 and to this day sends out a beam of light every 10 seconds that is visible to mariners for seven nautical miles. The archipelago was named by settlers for the huge bonfires set by the local peoples, who had inhabited this inhospitable extreme since 8,000 BC. Tragically these ancient tribes were wiped out in the 19th century Selk'nam Genocide, perpetrated by gold prospectors and ranchers.

You will also join an included tour to Tierra del Fuego National Park, where around 70,000 hectares of Patagonian forests are preserved.

Meals included: B

Check out of your hotel and fly to El Calafate for a two-night stay at the locally rated 4-star Posada Los Alamos Hotel. Tucked away in the charming village of El Calafate, a stone’s throw from Argentina’s third largest lake, the hotel is perfectly located to access the wildlife-rich Laguna Nimez reserve and a 10-minute walk to Anfiteatro Del Bosque and Argentinian Museum of Toys. The town’s tree-lined streets and manicured gardens provide an oasis of civility in the wilderness of Patagonia and it is said that if you eat the berry that El Calafate is named after you’re guaranteed to return. Perhaps your hotel’s golf course, indoor pool, fitness centre and two cafés and restaurants will also prove a draw.

Meals included: B,D

Today you join a full-day excursion to the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, travelling through the Patagonia steppe and Andean forests before disembarking at the start of Perito Moreno glacier’s raised walkways. Theses paths gives you incredible access to this majestic ice flow, allowing you to gaze into fathomless cravasses, marvel at the three kilometres head wall and perhaps glimpse a heart-stopping ice fall. Later travel by bus to Bajo de las Sombras bay and join an hour-long cruise across Lake Rico. Here you slip between icebergs that have slabbed off Perito Moreno and drift past its 180 foot cornflower blue head wall at a safe distance. Return to the hotel to eat, relax and contemplate your marvellous day.

Meals included: B,L

After breakfast check out of your hotel and transfer to Cerro Castillo where you change vehicle and continue to Torres del Paine for an all-inclusive three-night stay at the locally rated 4-star Rio Serrano Hotel. The location of this 99-room hotel and the incredible views of the sheer granite needles of Torres del Paine it provides will make your stay unforgettable. On the doorstep of the national park, the hotel has a catalogue of excursions to choose from, including treks of varying difficulty, bike and horseback rides and boat expeditions. Torres del Paine National Park has been part of UNESCO's Biosphere Reserve system since 1978, with 1810 square kilometres of vivid glacial lakes, thundering rivers, arid steppes and the granite heights to explore. Enjoy an afternoon at leisure feasting on the splendour of your surroundings and local specialities for dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Meals included: B,L,D

For the next two days you can choose from the catalogue of included half and full-day excursions tailored to suit all levels of fitness and experience. These include a full-day coach tour of the National Park with easy treks to key sites; a demanding trek ascending to the frontal moraine of the Torres Glacier; a half-day Patagonia-style horseback trek to the Nutria River and a cruise of Lake Grey to see The Grey Glacier. Your all-inclusive package at Rio Serrano also includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, entrance to the Torres del Paine National Park, an open bar (except premium drinks) and access to the hotel’s spa and heated pool.

Meals included: B,L,D

After an early breakfast check out of your hotel and transfer to Puerto Natales and the locally rated 4-star Costaustralis Hotel for a two-night stay. This light and airy chateau-style hotel of 112 rooms rests on the shores of the Fjord of Last Hope and boasts panoramic views of the Patagonian Andes. The town of Puerto Natales was once a sleepy fishing village but now its corrugated iron bungalows and brightly coloured clapboard dwellings host a rash of outdoor shops and trendy rustic restaurants that cater to the army of adventurers setting off for Torres del Paine and the Patagonian fjords. Explore the town on an afternoon at leisure.

Meals included: B

Embark on a full-day cruise to Balmaceda and Serrano Glaciers inside Bernardo O’Higgins National Park. Sailing northwest from Puerto Natales your 31-mile voyage takes you through the Última Esperanza fjord, so named as it was the last hope of Spanish explorer Juan Ladrillero to find the Strait of Magellan in 1557. This is a area of outstanding natural beauty that few have ever visited. You have the opportunity of seeing colonies of seals, Imperial cormorants and pods of whales before you come face to face with the Balmaceda Glacier beyond the gunwales of your ship. Maybe even access Serrano Glacier via a 20-minute trek along the shores of a freezing lake of glacial runoff (subject to weather conditions).

Meals included: B,L

After a buffet breakfast transfer to the airport and fly to Buenos Aires and the Intersur Hotel. The afternoon is at leisure and in the evening perhaps search out a typical Argentine parrilla for a traditional steak dinner.

Meals included: B

Travel to the airport for your overnight return flight to the UK.

Meals included: B

Arrive back in the UK and to your door-to-door travel service home.