Torres del Paine & Puerto Natales
SOUTH AMERICA · SIESTA SIDE
Granite towers, hanging glaciers and guanacos, with a small corrugated-iron port town as basecamp. The scenery does the talking; the wind does the rest.
The plan
Base de las Torres hike
The classic day walk, around eight hours return, up the Ascencio valley to a milky lake beneath the three granite towers. Steep and exposed.
📍 Map & photos · €€
The W trek
Three to five days and roughly 80 km linking the towers, French Valley and Grey Glacier, sleeping in refugios that must be booked ahead.
📍 Map & photos · €€€ · Website ↗
Grey Glacier boat trip
Sail out among the icebergs to the face of a glacier flowing off the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The easiest way to get close to it.
📍 Map & photos · €€€
Salto Grande and Cuernos
A short flat walk from Pudeto to a thundering waterfall with the Cuernos del Paine directly behind. Best views per step in the park.
📍 Map & photos · €
Cueva del Milodon
The cave 24 km from Puerto Natales where the skin and bones of a giant ground sloth were found in 1895. A reliable bad-weather stop.
📍 Map & photos · €
Getting there
Fly to Punta Arenas (PUQ)
The main southern airport, with daily flights from Santiago. Buses meet arrivals for the 247 km, three-hour run to Puerto Natales.
Fly to Puerto Natales (PNT)
Sky Airline flies direct to Teniente Julio Gallardo airport three times a week in season. Far simpler, but it sells out early.
Bus into the park
Puerto Natales to the park entrances takes about two hours. Buy your entry pass online at pasesparques.cl and book refugios first.
When to go
Best time to go
December-February: longest days, warmest weather and the fiercest wind
Cheapest months
October-November and April: quieter trails, cheaper beds, colder nights
Priciest & busiest
January-February, when refugios and hotels book out months ahead
If you've got one day
Morning
Early bus out of Puerto Natales with your park pass already on your phone, reaching Laguna Amarga entrance around 8am.
Late morning
Start up the Ascencio valley towards the towers, or take the flat Lago Grey shoreline walk if the legs say otherwise.
Lunch
Packed lunch on the moraine. There is nowhere to buy food once you are on the trail, so carry everything.
Afternoon
The final boulder scramble up to the Base de las Torres lookout, then back down the same way before the light goes.
Evening
Bus back to Puerto Natales for a pisco sour and Patagonian lamb at a waterfront restaurant.
Nearby & day trips
Serrano Glacier and the fjords
A full-day boat trip from Puerto Natales up into Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile's largest national park, to a glacier front.
Navimag ferry
Puerto Natales is the southern end of the multi-day passenger ferry through the fjords from Puerto Montt. A journey in its own right.
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