Six weeks in Chile. Mostly on the road. Glaciers, volcanoes, penguins, even a submarine. It was epic. Jump right in! Or read explainer below. Note: pages still under construction.
- Start here
- Northmost part
- Middle part
- Southmost part
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- Practical stuff
- Gallery view (just pics, no text)
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- Santiago & Cajón del Maipo
- Viña del Mar, Valparaíso
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- Pucón, Valdivia, Osorno
- Chiloé Island
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- Carretera Austral/Patagonia, Part 1
- Carretera Austral/Patagonia, Part 2
- Return through Argentina
Good to know: this is not a tourist guide, more of a personal travel log with impressions and a focus on nature trails. Among Chile’s most popular tourism destinations are the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, the Atacama desert to the north, and the Rapa Nui (Easter Island). We didn’t visit any of the three. But we saw many of the places in between. Still breathtaking.
It was our first time in South America and our first serious roadtrip (longer than a week). Just two people and a rental car. We managed to make it more of a loop even in this famously vertical country by returning south-to-north through Argentina.
Itinerary
Have a look on the map above. We spent a total of two weeks in the Santiago and Valparaíso areas, including a summery New Year’s Eve on the Pacific coast. Going south from Santiago to Temuco, we first drove slowly on the Chilean side (Valdivia, Puerto Montt, Chiloé Island, Puyuhuapi, Coyhaique), reaching our southmost point: General Carrera Lake, the largest in Chile and shared with Argentina. We spent three weeks on that leg of the journey.
Driving eastward to Argentina, on the southern coast of the General Carrera Lake, we crossed the border at Río Jeinemeni Pass (blue checkmark, south). We continued northward to Esquel and San Carlos de Bariloche, finally entering back in Chile through the impressive Tromen Ó Mamuil Malal Pass (blue checkmark, north). We spent only two days on that leg of the journey—truly a speed run and not much else but driving, with one important detour at a certain pudú statue. Border-crossing can be a bit of a hassle, but in the end this semi-loop was actually efficient and allowed us to appreciate the contrast on the other side of the Andes.
We returned to Santiago and spent the final three days there, resting a bit and getting ready for the flight back. When we returned the car, we had clocked a total of 6134 km on the road.