who’s been to Chile? Quite fancy a trip in March. In particular to the south – Puerto Natales etc, around some of the national parks and that. Also penguins.

How long will we need? Is it worth it if we’re only moderate hikers (or at least, my good wife is)? What about the desert in the North? A lot of extra bother to get there – anyone done it?

Never been there, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the Atacama desert while it’s still reasonably unspoilt.

Yes. Loads to do if outdoorsy.

How long you going for?

We did Santiago, easter island, Torres del Paine circuit, chiloe island, and a bit of the lake district, and pucon volcano. We had a month.

I’ll dig out some pics links, feel free to email or post some more questions.

general pics

torres del paine

Easter island

Edit, better answer your questions.

Yes OK if moderate hikers. My wife was also only a moderate hiker but managed the full tdp circuit with pack. Although with only a few tears each day. She was flying by the final (tenth) day though!

We didn’t go to the north so don’t know much about that area.

We saw Humboldt penguins in chiloe (I think) but didn’t think much of the rest of chiloe.

Cochama valley was awesome. We rode horses to a remote Shepherds hut and stayed night with farmer and family. This was a trail that Butch and Sundance used to drive cattle over and was the gnarliest horse riding ever.

Easter island was amazing and well worth the flight. Pucon is good for organized adventure activities and quite touristy.

Internal flights are a must if time limited. You can get a ferry south but it’s four days and not known for being comfortable.

Amazing country although depending how long you have I’d be tempted to focus on an area. I travelled up the country and felt afterwards that I’d spent a long time on buses rather than exploring. The desert area is excellent but I preferred the south.

Soak the kidney beans overnight.

Wash your hands before touching your tip after handling Chile.

Went over Christmas a few years ago. Flew into Santiago then on down to Punta Arenas.
From Punta Arenas, we flew over to Tierra del Fuego, which was a bit of a mistake. Where we went was basically a brothel town, not very interesting. We had no vehicle and were a bit trapped. Once we were off and back to P.A. we got back on track, hired a pickup and drove up to Torres Del Paine park. Few days there camping and staying hotels, before crossing the border into Argentina staying in El Califate to go see the Perito Moreno glacier. Drive back over the border and back down to P.A.
Due to timings we only had two weeks which was perhaps a little tight.The return journey to the U.K. consisted of five flights, arriving home at 02.00 and then into school at 07.00. It was a bit knackering!
We had a great time, lovely people, who away from the towns are bit unused and unsure of tourists but to see the Torres Del Paine mountains was dream come true. When we went many of the roads were gravel, but i think there’s now more tarmac which will make driving easier.
Oh and we did see penguins, there’s loads about.

thanks for the tips all!

time over there is my main worry – I reckon we can stretch to about 17 days all in. So about 15 days once you take out international flights.

Thinking of doing Santiago, Valparaiso, Peurto Natales and perhaps Punta Arenas (will likely fly into there and possibly out of again).

@yosemitepaul – how much did you need a vehicle in the south? How was it to drive around? (the area, not the vehicle!) Looks like you need a 4×4 at least, but then that boosts the cost a bit…

I didn’t realise that there wasn’t a road along the length of the country and if traveling by land you had to go in and out of Argentina…

Depending on what you want to see there is a glacier just up the way near El Calafate in Argentina…

I’m off there over Xmass, anyone any idea if I can hire a mountain bike in El Calafate and El Chalten. ?

Doris5000. For us 7 years ago, a 4×4 was a must. Punta Arenas has proper roads but once out of town you on gravel tracks all the way up to Torres del Paine. Without the 4×4 then though we would have made it, it would have been slower and a bit more troublesome. Having said that, I’m fairly certain that some or all of the road is now tarmac. You may need to check.
Mind wherever you are, as soon as you’re off any main drag you’ll need the extra height and drive. We went to a penguin colony and it was a bumpy ride!
Trimix. El Calafate is quite a cosmopolitan town, has a feeling of small town USA. I don’t know about bike hire but it wouldn’t surprise me that it weren’t available.

Aye Perito Moreno glacier is flippin ace. I could’ve stared at it forever (waiting for lumps to fall off). Can’t honestly remember what’s Chile and what’s Argentina around there.

Despite having not a lot, El Chalten had a micro brewery in 2003.

La Leona on the way to/from El Chalten for lemon meringue pie.

Easter Island for the ultimate Chile excursion.

Bernardo O Higgins made me laugh but is a fascinating character, sorry can’t help the OP as I went North from Santiago.

Learn as much Spanish as you can.

who’s been to Chile? Quite fancy a trip in March. In particular to the south – Puerto Natales etc, around some of the national parks and that. Also penguins.

We flew from Santiago to Punta Arenas, spent a few days there, saw the Magellan penguins, then up to Puerto Natales for the W trek round Torres Del Paine. Took a bus over to El Calafate and El Chalten for the Perito Morino (which we saw calving into the lake), visited an Estancia and some day hikes.

The walking is stunning, but be aware that it gets very cold at night so you will need to take or hire decent kit. I saw a tent fly into a glacial lake, and I got blown over, so you can assume it’s a touch windy. The walking itself is not especially difficult though.

I thought Santiago was by far the least intersting of all the south American cities we visited so personally I wouldn’t spend much time there. Oh, and learn some Spanish, though even if you are reasonably competent you may find the Argentinian accent (assuming you cross over) difficult to handle.