Santiago & Torres Del Paine National Park - Chile (April 2026)

Our trip to Patagonia was a much anticipated one, but the experience was quite different from our previous trips. We were expecting it to be quite different from our other trips as the region we planned to go is more rugged and more remote, spanning regions in Chile and Argentina with tall peaks of jagged mountains almost at the edge of the world. We looked forward to hikes in those arid regions surrounded by mountains, glaciers and glacial lakes. The videos we saw before the trip had upped our expectations and eagerness that we needed to tamper our expectations owing to the unpredictable wild weather patterns and frequent winds with up to 60kmph in that portion of Patagonia.

We started with the ~11hr flight from JFK, landed in Santiago, Chile and had some time to spend there before heading south. The City Express by Marriott did let us check in early for a fee that helped us relax a bit before we took a 4-hr shuttle of the city tour by Ollagua Travels, arranged by the hotel front-desk. As there was no one else who signed up for this shuttle, it became like a private tour for us by the super friendly guide, Jorge. As it was a weekend, the city was bustling with both locals and tourists in all the popular spots. It is to be noted that on a weekend, even the bank ATMs were closed! So, we had to manage with US dollars and credit card wherever we went. Our first stop was at Cerro San Cristobal Hill where we took a funicular to the top and a descended via a cable car later. From atop, the view covered most of the Santiago city with Andes in the background. The hill was crested with an iconic statue of Virgin Mary overlooking the city. It was a clear and warm day, a welcome change from cold Northeast. The other highlight of the tour was the Cathedral at the Plaza de Armas in the City center. The neoclassical buildings of the area portrayed the time from Spanish era. The enormous Cathedral was brimming with people attending a mass. The central nave of the cathedral was quite extravagant. Not far from here is the presidential palace which was not occupied by previous presidents but the current president has made a change by occupying it to send a message that he is different! 

Next day, early morning, we took the ~3hr flight from Santiago to Puerto Natales. The early morning flight in the darkness slowly opened up right before we approached the ragged peaks of Fitz Roy. From that point onwards, the views kept us glued to the windows as we watched several glaciers. From atop, the view clearly showed the glacier movement to the edge of the foot hills of those mountains into the waterbodies. The sharp peaks of Torres del Paine and Fitz Roy were distinctly visible from the plane exemplifying the fact that Andes mountain range is youngest when compared to either Rockies or Appalachians and data seems to support that Andes is actively growing! The plane landed on the single runaway in the outskirts of the town of Puerto Natales. The small airport had a serene atmosphere with probably only one plane landing and taking off at a time. There was one baggage carousel and a couple of make shift car rentals. It was pretty laid back and took an hour to get the car even though we were no.3 in the line. 

Puerto Natales & Torres del Paine National Park –

From the airport, we drove towards Torres del Paine National Park. Our hotel was couple of hours away in the village of Rio Serrano just outside the entrance to the park. As we approached the park, soon the paved road started becoming gravel road. With the rough path, naturally we had to slow down the car.

By the time we checked into our hotel, Morrena Lodge, it was late afternoon. Based on their suggestion, we headed to Alveoli Bakery to grab some lunch. It was an amazing place with wide glass windows to view the Torres (towers) of the Torres del Paine in the distance. We were the only people there and every order was made apparently. After filling our tummies, we headed to the park, bought our tickets and drove towards Mirador Lago Grey. We hiked a bit from to get a view of the glacier, but as the glacier had retreated to far back and we didn’t have much time before sunset, we cut short our hike and headed back to the Hotel Lago Grey from where there were some vista points from the shore of the lake. From here, the glacier was faintly visible, but the blue skies and excellent weather without the wild winds of Patagonia was a gift. We spent some strolling along the lakeshore and headed back to the Lodge Morrena in time for our dinner reservation. 

Nicolas at the front desk gave some good suggestions on drive around given the great weather expected for next couple of days. We set our alarms to head towards the Explora Lodge for sunrise and went to bed. Our phone alarms went off at US EST which was later than the local time by an hour. So, we decided to head to the nearby uphill that we came past the previous day. That spot had unhindered views of the Torres with the village of Rio Serrano covered in early morning mist in the foreground. This created a perfect scenery for the few photographers assembled there. We silently witnessed the waking up of the mountains by the first light. As they woke up with reflections of different colors, we got convinced that this was an excellent spot as well for the sunrise that we didn’t miss! 

Then, we headed towards the Explora Hotel boardwalk on the continuing gravel road. Many spots had too many pot holes making the drive even slower. Along the way, we came across a bridge, Puente Weber, over the Laguna Toro and just before the bridge, there was an off-ramp that took us to the shore of the lake with the Torres del Paine in the background. With no one around, we were in awe to swallow that serene atmosphere.

When we reached the Explora Lodge parking lot, we easily got a parking spot and headed to the boardwalk. Compared to the number of people we encountered till now this place seemed crowded even though there were only handful of people. All along the boardwalk, the unobstructed views of the Torres in different angles under the blue sky of the day was very satisfying. The reflections in the still waters of the lake from the boating dock was an added bonus. 

We spent ample time there to our heart’s content before heading on to our next destination of Salto Grande. Along the way, the view point between the trail head to Mirador Condor and the Hosteria Pehoe along the Lake Pehoe is something not to be missed. It was easily accessible from the roadside and provided a beautiful post-card worth scene. We felt so lucky to have had such a beautiful weather without much wind.

When we reached the trail head to Salto Grande, we were not sure whether we will have time to go all the way to the Mirador Cuernos. After reaching the Mirador Salto Grande waterfalls relatively quickly, we continued further as there were quite a bit of people going still venturing in. The hike was relatively easy with very little elevations along the way. All along the way, the twists and turns provided views of the mountains in different angles and changing directions of the Sun rays captivated us fully. When we reached the Mirador Cuernos viewpoint, the place was brimming with people taking in the views. The glacial lake there and its turquoise color under the blue skies gave a sensation that cannot fully be described in words.  We settled down there for a relaxing lunch and spent enough time there to take in the ambiance as much as possible. On the way back, the sun was shining from a different angle and the mountains were showing off in a different light.

From here, we decided to head east and drive till Laguna Azul and come back before the sun sets especially because of the roads and lack of cell signal out there. This is the route where we saw so many Guanacos. Guanacos have amazing adaptations to those arid regions and high altitudes. We read somewhere that they have 4 times more RBCs than humans to make use of low oxygen levels at higher altitudes. Under the blue skies and vast expanse with no tall trees, it was so interesting to see herds of Guanacos munching on the bushes. We could also see ‘sentry’ Guanaco here and there on the rolling hilltops in many places. All along the way, the weather stayed friendly with minimal winds. When we reached the Laguna Azul, there were handful of people and some unruly, noisy tourists drove away a Guanaco that was peacefully grazing on the lake shore.

On the way back, we took a loop road to join back the Ruta Y-150 by taking the Y-166 and Y-156 to Y-150 instead of Y-160 to Y-150 which we took on the way in. A portion of this route is paved highway that helped to drive faster than the gravel roads till now. This route took us along a river with views of Torres in the background. These views of the mountains were from a different angle showing different features and fall colors in distance. Since we were racing with the sunset, we took only a road-side view of the Cascada Rio Paine waterfalls rather than going in to take a closer look. Continuing further, small ponds along the way had beautiful reflections of the mountains. Lesser wind gave in for less waves in the water and hence perfect reflections. After joining Y-150, we continued and took a quick pit-stop to take in the view of the mountains from across the Hosteria Pehoe hotel. It was getting dark by the time we reached the park entrance. As that Alveoli Bakery was near the entrance, we went there again this time for dinner had a scrumptious meal and called it a day.

Next day, we checked out early in the morning to get to the Explora Hotel for sunrise view of the Torres. After getting past the park entrance and a few kilometers, we felt something was not feeling right – the already bumpy roads felt even more bumpier. That’s when we realized that the front passenger side tire had busted really bad to the extent that the wheel rim was hitting the road. Even though the rental car provided us 24h emergency contact number, we couldn’t reach anyone for another 2-3 hours. About that time, the park officials from the administrative office also came by and provided us a ride to their office where we waited for another couple of hours for our ride back to Puerto Natales. The driver was kind enough to drive us to the hotel, Hostal America to check in before heading to the rental car office. We just spent the day roaming around the town, first grabbing a wonderful hot lunch at La Disqueria. Little did we know that the entire town of Puerto Natales was without electricity that most of the stores and restaurants were closed for business. Somehow, we got lucky getting a hot lunch! Since we still had many more hours of daylight left, we took a stroll along the lake shore that had a few artistic renditions like the Monumento al Viento. At the Lake shore, the wind felt much more vigorous as we were facing it unobstructed from the vast expanse of that lake. We then headed to the town and checked out few stores that were open before relaxing a bit in our room. Then we grabbed our dinner from a take-out Sushi place, Only Rolls and then called it a day as we had an early morning bus to catch.