Patagonia, Chile and Argentina

What a dream!

This is a trip I have been dreaming of for many years and in fact, looking back, it still feels like a dream – I cannot believe it actually happened. We spent two weeks in Patagonia in late February 2025.

The first thing to note is that Patagonia is not a singular place. Patagonia encompasses the entire bottom half of Argentina and Chile, and while there are a few iconic places, the diversity of the region cannot be understated. You can find fjords in Chile and immediately to the East a desert in Argentina. For our trip we focused on Torres del Paine, Perito Moreno Glacier, and Fitz Roy. The next trip to the region may involve a fjord cruise, Tierra del Fuego and Ushuaia, but this trip did not allow for that much time.

We flew from the States to Santiago, Chile and spent a day sightseeing in the hot summer sun. The highlight here, besides the cable car to the top of a mountain overlooking the city, was Jake got to try his first cachapa (famous corn pancakes from Venezuela) and I think he died and went to heaven. It was so delicious. They seem to have grown drastically in size since the last time I ate them because instead of being the size of a large street taco they were as big as dinner plates. While this added to Jake’s love, it made the walk back to the hotel painful but much needed.

The next day we flew to Puerto Natales and what would have been an otherwise uneventful flight became one of the worst I’ve ever experienced. The turbulence landing at Puerto Natales was unreal. The plane was turning on all axes (pitch, roll and yaw) due to the high wind speeds and I had no idea that this is partly what you sign up for when going to Patagonia. On the taxi ride to town the driver told us that he thought the pilots who were willing to land at this airport must be retired Air Force pilots because it requires that amount of skill and adrenaline.

In town we ate our first empanadas and then spent the evening relaxing as we had a big day ahead of us. The next morning we took a 6 AM bus ride to Torres del Paine National Park.

Visiting Torres del Paine is an endeavor but less so if you simply opt to do the most popular hike – Mirador Base las Torres. We, however, opted to hike the O Trek, which requires ample pre-planning. There are two major routes, the W Trek or the O Trek, with the W being the shorter of the two. Both treks require camping reservations as free camping is not allowed. Take note because those reservations book out 6 months in advance! We booked our O Trek reservations in October 2024 for our trip in February 2025 and even then we had slim pickings on camping spots. Each site has 3 types of camping reservations: a flat piece of ground where you can pitch your own tent, a provided tent, and raised above-ground tents. There aren’t unlimited ground camping spots. In fact, those get booked the fastest because they’re the cheapest and once they’re gone, there’s no more ground camping allowed, which means you’ll be forced to buy the more expensive options even if you’re planning to pack your own tent.

There are two different companies (Vertice Patagonia and Las Torres Patagonia) that manage these campgrounds and the reservations must be booked sequentially. Some people during our hike were unable to book the sites sequentially and it forced them to walk to the next campsite (which they had booked) essentially doubling their mileage that day. I did not realize how dire it was to ensure bookings were sequential (the campsites were very strict), but luckily for us we were safe from unnecessarily long days.

Since it is difficult to book each night one by one, there are a few services that help you book sequentially depending on the route you’d like to do. We chose the longer, 7 night, O Trek and I had luck booking reservations with torreshike.com. The price difference between the camp grounds managed by Vertice and Las Torres is stark, but that’s also because the terrain of some of these campgrounds makes it very difficult to simply pitch a tent. Booking early would allow you to save hundreds of dollars because again, if you’re unable to get the ground sites ($22 a night), you’ll be forced to book the raised tents ($260). That’s exactly what happened to us at some of the sites.

The total cost of camping was $947 with a mix of staying in our own tent and in their provided ones. It is also possible to stay entirely in their provided gear (tent, sleeping bags, pads), which would mean you could hike with a lot less weight but the cost would be a couple thousand dollars, which feels outrageous for a hiking experience. Alas, this is one of those “it is what it is” situations and it does mean that it makes the hike more accessible to those that do not wish to carry 30 lbs. packs.

Food can also be provided (breakfast, sack lunch, and dinner), which costs roughly $100 a day per person. We opted for Mountain House meals the whole time but we treated ourselves to an after-hike beer each day at the camp sites, which was surprisingly nice. The campgrounds have snacks, drinks and basic essentials available for purchase, as well as WiFi available for purchase. There is zero cell coverage in Torres del Paine, which makes for a lovely experience in nature and an opportunity to get to know other hikers because you’re all stopping at the same campgrounds. You’ll likely be with the same cohort for 7 days!

The hiking itself was rather easy but for one gruesome day. Here’s the breakdown by day:

Day 1 – Hike from Central to The Towers (most iconic hike) – 13.3 miles, 3,970 ft, 6 hours
Day 2 – Central to Seron – 8.6 miles, 1,100 ft, 3.5 hours
Day 3 – Seron to Dickson – 11.3 miles, 1,660 ft, 4.5 hours
Day 4 – Dickson to Los Perros – 7.75 miles, 1,650 ft, 3.25 hours
Day 5 – Los Perros to Gray – 10.3 miles, 3,300 ft, 6.5 hours
Day 6 – Gray to Paine Grande – 7 miles, 1,370 ft, 3.5 hours
Day 7 – Paine Grande to Frances – 5.5 miles, 1,700 ft, 2.25 hours
Day 8 – Frances to Central – 10.2 miles, 1,940 ft, 4.5 hours

There were days where we were utterly exhausted and others when we could have hiked on to the next campground but because the reservations are so rigid, we had to stay. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and we got incredibly lucky with the weather, only suffering through rain for about 1 hour on our very last day!

Most people start Day 1 hiking from Central to Seron and end the O Trek with The Towers. We opted to do The Towers first (this caused a tiny bit of backtracking) and it was a day I will never forget as we saw the towers in their full glory. By planning to do it on the first day, it could give someone a second chance to see The Towers (upon completing the O Trek) if the first day has poor weather. Poor weather, sadly, is very common in Torres del Paine. We started the hike at 9 AM so we we arrived to the lookout in broad daylight but for those that want a unique experience, there’s a campground nearby that allows for a very early start to see them at sunrise.

The only gruesome day we had was day 5, hiking between Los Perros and Gray. The elevation wasn’t bad and again, we were incredibly fortunate with the weather, but it was the descent that killed us. The trail is quite poor. In some spots it could function better as a slide than a trail, and the stair stepping that’s required really hurts the knees. This is the only day that I wished we had hiking poles and it would be wise to bring them, if only for this day alone.

Outside of those two days, the rest of the hike is quite relaxing with ever changing scenery. Glaciers, plains, towering mountains and meadows – the O hike is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. I highly recommend the O Trek if you enjoy hiking and have the time to dedicate to it (60+ miles over 8 days). The W, however, covers a lot of the same ground and is more family friendly. We saw kids as young as 4 to adults in their 70s. The W can be done in 3 days but we ran into a group of hikers that were doing it in 5 so that they could go slower and enjoy the campsites more. The inverse is true for the O, as we met some friends that did the O in 5 days, skipping some of the shorter hiking days. Overall, the O is the complete package and offers true solitude, which is unique for a place that’s as popular as Torres del Paine.

Upon completing the hike, buses take tourists back to Puerto Natales where we immediately scarfed down an asado. 7 days of Mountain House dehydrated food is good in a pinch, but beef and wine is better.