To add another (practical) perspective to J_neveryes’ recent review: we also visited Cueva de las Manos in March 2025, but from the Northwest. 

We had some trouble fitting in Cueva de las Manos in our Chile and Argentina trip and in the end the best solution was to fly from Santiago to Balmaceda (in Chile, on the border with Argentina) and drive to Cueva de las Manos by rental car. The flight to Balmaceda landed in the morning, but taking into account some potential uncertainties (time needed to cross the border?, would the flight be on time?, …) we decided to drive to the Perito Moreno area on day 1 and visit Cueva de las Manos on day 2.

The border crossing was fairly quick (the Chilean and Argentine officials are in the same building), but once in Argentina there is about 100 km of average road (40-60 km/u) to be driven before a tarmac road is reached. We stayed in the beautifully located but more expensive than average Posta de Los Toldos (approx. 45 minutes south of Perito Moreno), where we also had a good dinner. On day 2 we took the road from Posta de Los Toldos to Cueva de las Manos (route 1 on the map following the link in Els’ review). Coming from the north / Perito Moreno, this is probably the shortest and fastest option, and it’s also a decent gravel road which can be driven in a standard car (e.g. there was a Fiat Panda at the parking). However, note that this road ends at the ‘wrong’ side of the valley so it’s a couple of kilometres walk (approx. 45 minutes to 1 hour) down into the valley and up again to Cueva de las Manos.

We joined the 11 am tour which is both in Spanish and English, and which lasted about 1.5 hours. As mentioned by J_neveryes, the ticket price is now kARS 36 which can be paid by credit card, letting you benefit from the MEP rate so in our case the cost was approx. EUR 30 per person.

Other practicalities to note if you decide to follow the same route: (i) there are fuel stations in Perito Moreno and Lago Blanco, (ii) there is a decent size supermarket in Perito Moreno (La Anónima) where you can buy food, drinks, … if needed, (iii) Chilean car rental companies will charge an additional fee for taking the car to Argentina, and (iv) our car and luggage was checked quite thoroughly when entering Chile again (we had to part ways with two bananas).