Chile Tours

Chile is 4,300 kilometres long and about 180 wide. That single proportion decides every itinerary here, and it is why most Chile tours are really two trips with a flight in the middle.

The four Chiles, and what each one needs

The Atacama, in the north, is the driest desert on earth. San Pedro sits at 2,407 m and the excursions climb to 4,320 m, so the order of the days matters more than the list of them. Four nights is the honest minimum if you want the geysers on a day when your body is ready for them. Our Atacama desert map puts the thirteen places around San Pedro on one page, with the altitude and the road distance of each.

Patagonia, in the south, is Torres del Paine — and it is five and a half hours from its nearest airport. Four nights, of which the first is in Puerto Natales whether anyone admits it or not. Argentina’s half of Patagonia, the Perito Moreno glacier and Fitz Roy, is next door but joined only by road: there is no flight across. Our Chile and Argentina tours cross it in 8, 10 or 13 days.

The Lake District, in the middle, is volcanoes and German timber towns around Puerto Varas. Three nights, and it is the natural place to break the country in half.

Santiago and the coast is a day or two: Valparaíso’s funiculars and the Casablanca vineyards are ninety minutes west.

The eleven places we send travellers to, with how to reach each from Santiago, are in our guide to the best places to visit in Chile.

The two connections that do not exist

This is the part worth knowing before you compare anyone’s itinerary.

There is no flight between Calama and Punta Arenas. Every trip that includes both the Atacama and Patagonia passes back through Santiago. We show that night on the page. Itineraries that do not show it are connecting you with no margin, through an airport whose domestic and international terminals are separate buildings.

Torres del Paine is 343 km from Punta Arenas airport. The flight lands late afternoon, so the night in Puerto Natales is compulsory. Anyone putting you in a park lodge on the day you fly south has either chartered a plane or not checked.

When to come, and what each month costs you

We run Chile from October to April. Two things nobody else will tell you:

November is sold as ideal and is statistically the windiest month of the year in Patagonia, at an average of 17.9 mph in Punta Arenas.

January and February are peak in the park and the worst documented months in the Atacama. The altiplanic winter brings thunderstorms, hail and road closures up there; San Pedro flooded in January 2026.

The only window when both ends of the country are genuinely good at once is late March, April and October — and April is the best of them.