Wayfare Travels
Torres del Paine, Chile

South America · Wildlife

Torres del Paine, Chile

Granite, wind, and a horizon that keeps moving.

4.9(87 reviews)11 daysNovember to MarchFrom $3,980 per person
Plan your tripSee the route

01Overview

Granite, wind, and a horizon that keeps moving.

Patagonia at the pace it deserves. We build the route around the weather rather than fighting it, which is why our travellers see the towers clear and most day-trippers do not.

HikingWildlifeNature

Key information

Best time
November to March
Trip length
9 to 14 days
Group size
Up to 8 travellers
Walking
12 to 22 km on active days
Fitness
Good. Long days, real weather
Currency
Chilean peso

02Things to experience

What a week in Torres del Paine actually looks like

  • The base of the towers

    Nine hours return, the last of it up a boulder field, and then the view that put this park on every list worth being on.

  • Tracking on the steppe

    Out before dawn with a wildlife guide who worked with the puma research programme. Binoculars provided, patience required.

  • Grey Glacier by water

    A boat across the lake to the glacier face, close enough to hear it work. Layers, and then more layers.

  • Asado at the estancia

    Lamb over an open fire, a long table, Chilean red, and a sheepdog who will sit on your foot until you feed it.

A scene from Torres del Paine
Torres del Paine detail 1
Torres del Paine detail 2

03The route

A suggested itinerary

This is the shape most people travel. Every part of it can be lengthened, swapped or dropped, and private departures run on any date you like.

Adjust this route
  1. Day 1 to 2

    Santiago to Puerto Natales

    Fly south, overnight in town, kit check and a briefing over dinner.

  2. Day 3 to 4

    Into the park

    Settle at the eastern lodge, an easy first walk to find your legs, and the first look at the towers.

  3. Day 5

    Base of the towers

    The big one. Early start, long day, the reason most people come here.

  4. Day 6 to 8

    French Valley and Grey

    The middle of the W route, with a boat crossing and a night close to the glacier.

  5. Day 9 to 11

    Steppe and home

    Two wildlife mornings on the estancia, then back to Santiago via Punta Arenas.

04Where you stay

Three places we book here

Family guesthouses, refuges and restored houses. We have slept in every one of them, and the prices below are what you would pay direct.

Estancia Cerro AzulWorking ranch

Estancia Cerro Azul

Eight rooms on a sheep station on the park boundary. Wood fires, huge breakfasts, horses in the yard.

from $240 per night

Refugio ChilenoMountain refuge

Refugio Chileno

Bunk accommodation in the Ascencio valley. Basic, warm, and the only way to be at the towers for sunrise.

from $95 per night

Lago Grey LodgeGlacier lodge

Lago Grey Lodge

Big windows facing the ice, a drying room that actually works, and a bar that stays open for late walkers.

from $310 per night

An editorial photograph from Torres del Paine

05From the field

“We do not promise you the towers. We promise you the best chance anyone can give you.”

Patagonia has a reputation for being difficult, and it earns it. The wind can take you off your feet. The forecast is a rumour. What we have learned over eleven seasons here is that the trick is flexibility: we hold two possible routes every day and choose at breakfast. That is why our groups tend to be standing under the towers on the one clear morning of the week. Between the walking there are guanaco herds on the steppe, condors riding the thermals above Ascencio, and if you are very lucky, a puma at distance. Our guides count pumas the way other people count birds.

Written by the Wayfare planner who runs this route.

Plan your trip

Let us build your Torres del Paine trip around you

Send us your dates and the kind of days you want. We will come back with a route, a realistic price and an honest view on whether the timing works.

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