Chile - anyone been?

[garlictwist]

DH and I considering going to Chile over Christmas. Has anyone ever been? Whereabouts did you go? Any recommendations or stuff to avoid? I'd like to see the Atacama Desert but also Patagonia and realise they are very far from each other.

Yes. It’s a huge country and we spent 10 days there. Santiago and Patagonia. To see the most we had to take several internal flights. Loved it though, beautiful country.

Yes - we went to both areas. Domestic flights are cheap and plentiful but it’s a hub and spoke model so you can fly to Calama for the Atacama but have to fly back to Santiago to go onto Patagonia instead of going directly. Definitely do a stargazing tour in the Atacama and go to the salt flats.

For Patagonia we flew to Puerto Natales and went to Torres del Paine - just stunning. We hired a car and did day hikes rather than a through hike, and visited the glaciers. Reddit has a lot of good advice on Patagonia.

We also went to Rapa Nui but it’s a 5 hour flight from Santiago so depends how long your trip is. Santiago is nice with a lot of parks and hipster areas but avoid the estacion central area.

@ampel - thanks for the info. Did you find it easy to get about Torres del Paine? Was it easy to find day hikes to do? If you have any more info on what you did that would be great.

@garlictwist it's easy to get about as long as you have a car (and are careful with your petrol use). There is a bus that runs from Puerto Natales to a couple of spots in the park but it’s not that frequent for getting around so think you'd then be a bit stuck once you’d got to the park - it’s more aimed at dropping off through hikers. Alternatively some of the hotels run shuttles but the hotels are all really expensive - we stayed in a cabin I booked through booking.com and even then it wasn’t cheap!

There are quite a few day hikes you can do, including some parts of the W trek you can do as a day rather than through hike. The website has a map with the main trails torresdelpaine.com/en/torres-del-paine-2/maps-for-download/ and the rangers can give tips especially around what’s feasible in the weather (often windy/cloudy even in summer). We did do the base of the towers and it was worth it but the way back was a bit of a slog! I’d also really recommend the boat to Grey glacier which was amazing. We also did a boat trip to the Serrano glacier which was fun but not as impressive as Grey.

@ampel - thanks, that's so helpful! Did you stay in Puerto Natales and just go out each day from there? I've looked at accommodation for when we want to go and there is barely anything and the stuff there is is wildly expensive. I guess we have left it quite late.

We went for three weeks and loved it. It’s a brilliant place to go. We used internal flights plus a coach journey. The Atacama desert was amazing as was Patagonia. The lakes region was fab and Santiagom was fab. Basically it was all good.

I travelled with Journey Latin America and combined it with Argentina.
If you don't mind joining a small group, there might still be availability and they do all the donkey work.

@garlictwist we stayed in the Rio Serrano area. It’s over an hour’s drive from Puerto Natales to the park so you’d lose a lot of time driving in every day. I don’t know what your dates are but this is the place where we stayed - pretty basic but comfortable and gorgeous views of los Cuernos and even the back of the towers on a clear day. From there it was about 10-15 mins drive to the Serrano ranger station and about an hour to the Amarga ranger station (for the base of the towers hike).

We visited Chile whilst travelling around South America for three months.

We worked our way up from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, the southern most city in the world, then weaved our way up between Chile and Argentina. We spent time walking and horse riding in the Torres del Paine National Park, seeing the glaciers and truly stunning scenery. We then went via San Diego to the Atacama Desert with its colourful lakes with flamingos and Salar de Atacama with its huge cacti islands.

All these places were amazing, but I have seen similar scenery to the mountains and glaciers of Southern Chile in Europe (maybe not quite as dramatic, but close), whereas the Atacama was really unique, so if you’re short of time I’d be more tempted to concentrate on that area.

We did the first part as a tour, it was our first stop of the trip and we wanted to ease our way in before heading off on our own, but once there we realised it would have been very easy to do on our own with a bit of planning.

https://palaciodesal.com.bo/en/

We stayed here for a night whilst travelling from Chile to Bolivia, it's actually in Bolivia, but a great base to see the salt flats.

I went to Easter Islands. Highly recommend 👌🏻

Thanks everyone, some great tips. Time to do some googling and booking I think!

Many years ago I did a 4 month Overland trip from Santiago down to Patagonia and then loop up the east coast and down the Amazon and onwards to Ecuador. Torres del Paine is stunning, lovely walking but Perito Moreno glacier was also a fab experience. It's in Argentina, but only a few hours from the national park and you shouldn't miss it if making the effort to go to Torres del Paine.

Chile is on my list and I’m really interested. The two ‘ends’ are very far from each other but it sounds like it’s worth it.

All that flying though…

Hi everyone that posted replies. I'm the OP - I've come back to ask if anyone who went to Chile got a rabies vaccine? I've had Hep A, typhoid and MMR but the GP thinks I should get that. It's not on the NHS though so very expensive and I'm not sure. Thoughts welcome.

I never get rabies, even in pretty dodgy places. The rules are, be VERY careful around dogs (and learn the local rules - I even know hey dog in Mongolian!, never sleep anywhere with bats EVER. If you find you did, assume you have been bitten and get shots then.

Are you going to be going to farms, camping in places with bats?

Be careful around cats as well. They can and do transmit rabies.

Can you tell I'm a dog person? Cats never occured to me!

It wasn’t reported in the press but I know from a colleague someone died on a ward in uk after returning from abroad with a bite from a street cat.

Was Rapa Nui worth it? I had intended to take OH in 2021 for his 50th but the world had other ideas so looking at 2027 and my 50th! Im trying to balance what essentially is 2 days out of the holiday just getting there and back...

But then again, no where on Earth like it.

That's scary.

Someone I know died in Torres del Paine last week 🙁 Take very careful heed of the weather.

Oh dear, the young woman who was in the press. So sad.

I did the Atacama desert, Patagonia and Rapu Nui from Santiago. It's very doable - if long flights.

I still remember the phrase, "mis pies eh muy grandes" as I got terrible water retention from the altitude/flights and spent several nights sleeping with my legs up the wall! Wear compression socks and drink lots of water!

There is a reason there is an observatory in Angofasta - the night sky is STUNNING!

I don't remember being bothered by stray cats or dogs.

Yes she was very nice. I urge anyone going hiking to read this article and just be aware https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/26/australian-hikers-chilean-mountain-blizzard-survival-stories