CHILE · SOUTH AMERICA
From the driest desert to the end of the world.
The world's longest country, stacked end to end: the Atacama's star fields, Santiago and the wine valleys, the granite towers of Patagonia, and the moai of Rapa Nui far out in the Pacific.
Only in Chile
Three places that exist nowhere else.
Deserts, mountains and coastline turn up on every continent. The clearest night sky on earth, the granite towers at the end of the Andes, and a Pacific island covered in stone giants do not. Build the trip around these three.
The driest desert
Stargazing in the Atacama
The Atacama is the driest place on earth. Almost no cloud, almost no humidity, almost no light, which is exactly why the planet's largest telescopes are built up here. On a night tour you swap the observatory for a portable scope and a guide who reads the southern sky the way most of us read a street map.
- 1 San Pedro de Atacama: Etno-Stargazing Tour with Transfer
- 2 San Pedro de Atacama: Stargazing Experience
- 3 San Pedro de Atacama: Guided Atacama Desert Stargazing Tour
End of the Andes
The Towers of Paine
Three sheer granite towers rise straight off the Patagonian steppe, and the trail to their base is one of the great walks anywhere. Glaciers, turquoise lakes, grazing guanacos and a wind with its own reputation. Nothing else on the planet is shaped quite like this.
- 1 Puerto Natales: Base of the Towers Day Hike
- 2 From El Calafate: Torres del Paine Full Day Tour
- 3 Torres del Paine: 3-Hour Scenic Boat Tour to Grey Glacier
The world's edge
The Moai of Rapa Nui
The most remote inhabited island on earth carved close to nine hundred stone giants and stood them along its shore. Nobody fully agrees how, or why the carving stopped. Five hours by air from the mainland, Rapa Nui is Chilean soil and unlike anywhere you will ever stand.
- 1 From Hanga Roa: Rapa Nui Culture Sightseeing Tour
- 2 From Hanga Roa: Easter Island Highlights 2-Day Tour
- 3 From Hanga Roa: Easter Island Sightseeing Full Day Tour
The one everyone books
Start where most trips begin.
Most Chile trips open in Santiago, with a first day out into the Andes foothills or over the hills to the coast. This is the single most-booked tour in the country.
The classics
Chile's Most Popular Tours
Cajón del Maipo, the Valparaíso coast, the Atacama's geysers, the towers of Paine. The days travellers come to Chile for.
Plan the trip
Chile is a long country. Plan it by time.
Over four thousand kilometres from the driest desert to Patagonian ice. You can't do it all in one trip, so most people pick two or three regions. Here is how the days usually fall.
When to go
The season picks the trip.
Chile runs from the tropics almost to Antarctica, so the calendar matters more than the map. Ski the Andes in July, walk Patagonia in January, catch the wine harvest in March, and read the desert sky on any clear night.
By region
Pick a stretch of Chile.
Each region is its own trip. The Atacama for the desert and the stars. Paine for the towers and the ice. Valparaíso for the colour and the coast. Rapa Nui for the moai, alone in the Pacific.
By experience
Or pick the kind of day you want.
Stars if you want the desert sky. Vineyards if you want the central valleys. Trails and towers if you want Patagonia. Plus skiing, hot springs, city walks, boat trips and the rest.
The central valleys
Chile's wine country.
Casablanca for the crisp whites, Maipo and Colchagua for the reds, and Carmenère that grows almost nowhere else on earth. Our three favourite days among the vines.
An hour from the capital
Into the Andes from Santiago.
The Cajón del Maipo road climbs out of the city to a turquoise reservoir and glaciers in a single morning. Three day trips we would put on any Santiago itinerary.
The far south
Penguins, glaciers and the Strait of Magellan.
Magellanic penguin colonies, calving glaciers and the channels Magellan first sailed in 1520. If you make it to the bottom of the continent, these are the three boats to book.
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