The holiday plunges into the Patagonia of Chile and Argentina, an area of outstanding natural beauty which still has a remote wilderness feel. Fly south to the ice caps, glaciated jagged mountains and lakes at the tip of the Andes. Visit the minty blue, cathedral-high Perito Moreno glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina, and the ice-clad towers of Torres del Paine National Park, Chile’s large and well-established reserve. The south has just a few rough roads cutting through a frost-bitten landscape of glaciers, luminous lagoons, snow-tipped pinnacles and wind-strafed steppe, but it is nevertheless readily accessible to visitors.

Travel north to explore the indigo lakes, ancient woodland and snow-capped volcanoes of the lake district in northern Patagonia where, amidst its lakeside resorts and summer visitors, is a land of fairyland forests and lonely roads carving their way through a virgin landscape.