🇦🇷 Argentina · Patagonia
The Ruta de los Siete Lagos is one of the most beautiful roads in Argentina and an unmissable classic of Andean Patagonia. It covers some 110 kilometers of Ruta Nacional 40, between Villa La Angostura and San Martín de los Andes, crossing forests of coihue, lenga and ñire and skirting a string of clear-water lakes framed by mountains. It's a scenic drive to be enjoyed as much for the journey itself as for the stops it invites you to make.
The seven lakes that give the route its name are Espejo, Correntoso, Escondido, Villarino, Falkner, Machónico and Lácar. Take a few detours and you can add other bodies of water such as Meliquina, Hermoso, Traful and Espejo Chico. The whole run passes through Nahuel Huapi and Lanín national parks, which guarantees protected landscapes, signposted viewpoints, campgrounds and trails.
You can do it by car, motorbike, bicycle or on an organized excursion, in either direction. The asphalt, for years an unfinished business, now makes for a comfortable trip. The best approach is not to rush: stop at the viewpoints, walk down to the lake beaches, take a trail and let yourself be carried along by the shifting postcard of forests, waterfalls and mountains. A real journey through the heart of the lake district.
The Ruta de los Siete Lagos isn't a town but a scenic road linking Villa La Angostura with San Martín de los Andes through Nahuel Huapi and Lanín national parks, in Neuquén. Its history is tied to the development of the national parks in Patagonia. The creation of Nahuel Huapi National Park (1934) and Lanín National Park (1937), together with the road-building policy driven by Vialidad Nacional and the parks administration — in which Exequiel Bustillo played a leading role — led to opening and improving roads that connected the region's main attractions. The route skirting this string of Andean lakes took shape over the 20th century as a tourist drive, and in time became popularly known as the 'Camino de los Siete Lagos' or 'Ruta de los Siete Lagos', after the seven large lakes visible from the main road: Espejo, Correntoso, Escondido, Villarino, Falkner, Machónico and Lácar. For decades much of the road was gravel, which gave it an adventurous edge; its full paving, completed in recent years, turned it into one of the most comfortable and most visited scenic drives in the country. In recent years it has even been proposed to widen the concept by adding other lakes reachable from the route (such as Meliquina or Lolog), giving rise to names like 'Paseo de los Ocho Lagos'. Names aside, the route remains, above all, an invitation to travel slowly through one of the most famous landscapes in Patagonia. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The province of volcanoes, lakes and the araucaria: Pehuenche and Mapuche land in northern Patagonia, world capital of the giant dinosaurs, heart of the Vaca Muerta shale and gateway to the Route of the Seven Lakes.
Read the history of Neuquén →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Before it was a tourist route, the corridor that today links Villa La Angostura with San Martín de los Andes was — and still is — a landscape shaped by glaciers over thousands of years. The great lakes strung along the drive (Espejo, Correntoso, Villarino, Falkner, Lácar, among others) fill basins carved out by ice during the glaciations, ringed by Andean-Patagonian forest of coihue, lenga and ñire and, further north, araucaria.
This territory of forests, lakes and mountains was inhabited for centuries by indigenous peoples who moved through the region using the mountain passes and the resources of the forest and the water. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, as part of the process of araucanización, Mapuche communities settled all along this strip of the Neuquén Andes, mixing with the earlier populations.
The mark of that indigenous presence is written into the local place names: names such as Lácar, Meliquina, Machónico or Traful come from that root. The lakes and roads travelers follow today were, long before, routes for passage, hunting and communication used by peoples who knew every corner of this landscape.
The history of the Ruta de los Siete Lagos as a tourist drive is closely tied to the development of the national parks in Patagonia. The creation of Nahuel Huapi National Park in 1934 and Lanín National Park in 1937 put a vast territory of forests, lakes and mountains under protection and, at the same time, drove the building of infrastructure to make it accessible.
Under the parks administration — in which Exequiel Bustillo played a leading role — and with the involvement of Vialidad Nacional, roads were laid out and improved to connect the main attractions of the lake district. Among them, the road that skirts this string of Andean lakes, joining Villa La Angostura to San Martín de los Andes through both parks.
Over the 20th century that route took hold as a scenic itinerary that more and more people drove. The succession of lakes visible from the road eventually gave it its popular name: 'Camino de los Siete Lagos' or 'Ruta de los Siete Lagos', after the seven large lakes you can see from the main line — Espejo, Correntoso, Escondido, Villarino, Falkner, Machónico and Lácar — today part of Ruta Nacional 40.
For much of the 20th century, a large part of the Camino de los Siete Lagos was gravel. That character of a dirt road, winding and at times demanding, gave it an adventurous air that was part of its charm and of its legend among travelers, backpackers and cycle tourists who dared to take it on.
The paving of the main stretch of Ruta Nacional 40 between Villa La Angostura and San Martín de los Andes, completed in recent years, transformed the experience: the drive became more comfortable, safer and accessible to all kinds of vehicles, and established itself as one of the most visited scenic routes in Argentina. Today it's a compulsory postcard of any trip to the lake district.
In recent years, moreover, various initiatives have proposed widening the concept by adding other lakes reachable from the road — such as Meliquina or Lolog — which gave rise to names like 'Paseo de los Ocho Lagos' or even 'Paseo de los Nueve Lagos'. Whatever it's called, the spirit of the road is intact: drive slowly, stop at the viewpoints and let yourself be amazed by one of the most beautiful successions of lakes and forests in Patagonia.
The two ends of the route began as frontier and settlement towns in the first half of the 20th century, tied to the national parks. San Martín de los Andes was founded on 4 February 1898, during the process of shoring up Argentine sovereignty in the Neuquén Andes, in the context of the border dispute with Chile. Set on the shore of Lago Lácar, inside what would later become Lanín National Park (created in 1937), the town developed over the years a mountain architecture in wood and stone, regulated to preserve its look, which made it one of the most carefully kept towns in Patagonia.
Villa La Angostura, at the southern end, grew from the 1930s onwards around the isthmus (the 'angostura', or narrows) that joins the Quetrihué peninsula to the mainland, inside Nahuel Huapi National Park. That's where Los Arrayanes National Park lies, with its famous forest of centuries-old arrayán trees on the peninsula. Known as 'the Garden of Patagonia', the town grew as a mountain tourist destination and established itself as the southern gateway to the Camino de los Siete Lagos.
Today both towns hold the services — hotels, restaurants, agencies, fuel — that make it possible to drive the route in comfort, and they are destinations in themselves, with their beaches, ski hills (Chapelco and Bayo), boat trips and a strong streak of Patagonian cooking.
With the paving complete and tourism promotion growing, the Ruta de los Siete Lagos has become one of the busiest scenic corridors in Argentina, especially in the summer season, when thousands of travelers drive, ride, cycle and tour it. That success now poses the challenge of reconciling mass tourism with conserving a setting protected by two national parks.
The national parks administration and the municipalities at either end work on managing the viewpoints, the campgrounds, the rubbish and road safety on a mountain road with heavy seasonal traffic. The lakes, the forests of coihue, lenga and araucaria and the native wildlife coexist with tourist pressure that grows year on year, which has led to stronger signposting, better services and environmental care campaigns.
Beyond the arguments over how many lakes the drive 'counts' or how to promote it, the Ruta de los Siete Lagos remains, above all, an invitation to travel slowly through one of the most famous landscapes in Patagonia: a succession of lakes, forests and mountains that packs the best of the lake district into little more than a hundred kilometers.