I spent just three days and four nights in Patagonia and I packed a lot in – a day tour of Torres Del Paine National Park; eating, drinking and exploring in Puerto Natales; Staying at a ranch and riding a horse through the empty plains in Puerto Bories; hiking to the Serrano & Balmaceda Glaciers, a boat ride up the Last Hope Sound, a visit and delicious lamb asado lunch at an authentic estancia, and a night in Punta Arenas with a trip to see penguins in a true penguin-only paradise with the magical sounding name Isla Magdalena.
My goal for this trip was to maximize a short amount of time with a fairly limited budget and a focus on immersive experiences and adventure. My suggestion would of course be to spend more time in Patagonia. I spent a few days in Santiago on the way down but could have hung out much longer and visited more of the surrounding mountains and coast. At the top of my list was a visit to see the street art in Valparaiso but unfortunately wildfires caused a full evacuation of the city on the day I was supposed to go.
Guide to Puerto Natales & Torres Del Paine National Park
I spent just one week total in Chile, the curse of having a full time job and limited vacation days. People at home as well as travelers I met on the road at the bottom of the world were confused about why I would travel so far with such little time. “Why don’t you wait until you have more time?” My answer was, what if I don’t have more time? I’d rather squeeze in snapshots of a dream destination than go to other places out of convenience.
Getting there
I flew on Sky Airlines from Santiago to Punta Arenas, which is the southernmost airport in Chile. It took two flights each about 90 minutes to get there I arrived at the desolate airport and crossed my fingers that the bus would show up. It finally did, almost on time! The bus company is Bus Sur and it runs between Punta Arenas airport and Puerto Natales. You can book ahead online using Paypal and you can also book through hostels and tour companies you’re using for other activities. I ended up booking it through the tour company who did my day trip to Torres Del Paine (more on that below). I know not everyone loves riding buses (fun fact: I [usually] do) but the scenery on the 3-or-so-hour bus ride is really striking and otherworldly.
Where to Eat and Drink in Puerto Natales
Puerto Natales is a sleepy mountain town with gear shops, offices of small tour companies, and a quiet main square. The main drag feels ghostly by 10PM, because so many people in town are travelers planning to get an early start on active adventures including multi-day hikes in Torres del Paine National Park. It has sort of a Stowe, Vermont-meets-Antarctica feel.
The reason most people come to this part of the world is the draw of the incredible Torres Del Paine National Park (more on that below). For that reason, Puerto Natales feels sort of transient. People often only stay there for a night on either side of their hike to rest and then recover. It’s not in and of itself an obvious travel destination. But that doesn’t take away from its charm… in fact, that’s one reason it appealed to me so much. And it has a lot of character, and I actually really fell in love with the place.
There are a handful of restaurants and bars in Puerto Natales – some geared toward tourists and others that seem very local but the two groups seemed to blend together harmoniously. I ate some great food there and I really recommend a restaurant called Afrigonia where I had a really nice pisco sour (the official drink of Chile!) and some interesting modern food with elegant plating. It’s no secret that they’re probably the best food in town. They also claim to be the only Afro-Chilean fusion restaurant in the world. The atmosphere is upscale and surprisingly chic compared to the mountain-rustic vibes of Puerto Natales.
Across the main square from Afrigonia is a restaurant called El Asador Patagonico. The food here is heavy on the smoky meats…probably not a great bet for vegetarians because you won’t have a lot of options. But the atmosphere is cool and authentic – it feels like they’ve been there for a hundred years. If you ARE a vegetarian, you should head to El Living, next door-ish to El Asador. I sank into a very comfy sofa there with book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other and did some reading and people watching through the big picture window that looks out onto the main square. I went back on my last day for breakfast and it was delicious.
If pisco sour isn’t your thing, or if you just happen to like beer like I do, there’s also a little brewery across the square (see, everything is around the square) called Baguales that is cozy, very family friendly, not a bunch of bros but just local people and tourists co-mingling and drinking beer. It felt like a ski lodge during bustling apres ski time. They had pizzas and other casual bites too.
Where to Stay in Chilean Patagonia
I stayed in Puerto Natales at a place called Wild Hostel. It was really beautiful and not at all like the many dumpy hostels you’ll find in Europe or Asia. Wild Hostel has private rooms in addition to the rooms with bunk beds, it’s open and airy, and small. Wild Hostel was, without a doubt, the best hostel I have ever stayed in. The breakfast is delicious and beautifully laid out, you can opt in for dinner, they have a little lounge area with a guitar for whenever the mood strikes guests or visitors to play a little music, and the beds are comfy. Wild Hostel was built in 2014 and when I was there it felt very new and extremely CLEAN for a hostel.
The owners are a husband and wife team, and they gutted the place and designed it themselves down to tiny, artful details. Yuri is Finnish, and his wife is Chilean, and they have a fabulous story about meeting on a boat and they are so sweet. He even seemed protective when Manuel, one of the staff from the boat I rode up the Last Hope Sound, showed up to take me out for a beer!
In terms of other lodging, if I went back with a higher budget though I might stay at Hotel Indigo Patagonia. I didn’t go inside but it looked very stylish and had incredible views of sunset over the harbor.
Day Trip to Torres Del Paine National Park
Torres del Paine is 700 square miles of utter beauty, named for the three “torres” or towers, aka granite peaks that are just breathtaking. If you’re lucky enough to see them, which isn’t predictable because of the weather (spoiler: I didn’t see them). You can opt to do a multi-day trek where you stay in lodges in the park or carry your own tent and camp out. Or, if you aren’t feeling up to that much physical activity but still want to see glaciers, and waterfalls, and do short hikes out onto black rock beaches, and feel the wind whip your hair around with fury – then you can do what I did and take a day trip.
I did a full day tour of Torres del Paine with a company called Patagonia Adventure. It was a small group, five or six of us, in a small van, and we saw so much of the park, some from inside the van, sometimes we got out and walked or hiked a short distance.
I love that there was a little bit of hiking (probably 3 separate 30 min hikes in the park to different places) and then we got back inside the warm car. Because, as mentioned, the weather in the park is CRAZY. We ate a hot meal for lunch in a beautiful lodge inside the park (the chicken was slightly undercooked, that was my only complaint from the whole day) which was included in the price of the trip. And we had a knowledgeable guide who talked about the effects of climate change on the weather and the glaciers in the park. I couldn’t have been happier with the tour operator I chose for this one day trip into Torres del Paine.
Exploring Puerto Bories & The Last Hope Sound
I spent one night in Puerto Bories (a 10 min taxi ride from Puerto Natales) and stayed at an adorable family owned horse ranch called Bories House Hotel. It had a quieter atmosphere and the owners were helpful and nice (English wife and Chilean husband), but kept to themselves more than Yuri. The room I stayed in was beautiful (Bories House was a leap in price from Wild Hostel and very much worth it to mix up my experience).
It’s on the same stretch of land as The Singular Hotel, considered by many as Chilean Patagonia’s best luxury hotel, and right next to the Last Hope Sound. Honestly I loved the quiet and small feel of Bories House….but one night was enough. As a solo traveler, I would have felt a little lonely if I had stayed longer than that.
Also it was from that place that I heard about and had two of my best experiences from the whole trip…. a half day horseback ride out in the open country, guided by the wife/owner of Bories House, who is an expert rider. It was just the two of us out there, and I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so much land around me and so few people.
The owners of Bories House also recommended and set me up with the boat trip with a little nautical tour operator called Turismo 21 de Mayo…the boat left from the harbor literally down the bluff from the house/ranch. I just got up at sunrise and ran down to the boat, sandwich in hand. The boat goes up the Last Hope Sound and you see all kinds of amazing wildlife like seals and birds and there are rainbows and you see the Serrano and Balmaceda glaciers. There’s an easy 30 min hike to one of the glaciers and then they serve you whiskey back on the boat. After that it docks at an estancia and there’s this big amazing lunch.
The water gets rough at times and if you’re moving around on the decks you’re grabbing on and getting waves crashing over you and slipping around. This could be nerve-wracking, especially if you have kids. But there are seats inside so you can avoid the deck if you want. But I loved that we could move around freely and get knocked around the decks.
It was such a cool experience. I have a separate post dedicated to the day on the boat seeing sea lions, rainbows, glaciers, and exotic birds.
If you’re on more of a budget you could stay the entire time at Wild Hostel and go horseback riding and do the boat trip without staying at Bories House. It’s only about a 10 minute taxi ride.
Where to Eat, Stay and Explore in Punta Arenas
I stayed in Punta Arenas for one night, mostly because my international flight left at noon and I didn’t think I could get from Puerto Natales to the airport in time. In Punta Arenas I stayed at the Hotel Ilaia which I thought was really magical and I am pretty sure – after reading a bunch before I went and then after staying there – that it’s the cheeriest spot in Punta Arenas, which was generally pretty gloomy. Ilaia was modern and funky, with quotes scrawled across the walls, a beautiful rooftop living room with floor to ceiling windows, and the breakfast of my dreams.
I had one dinner in Punta Arenas and it was at La Marmita and it was awesome. The food was good and the restaurant is warm, funky and bohemian. I wish I could say it was a little gem I discovered on my own but similar to Afrigonia, if you ask anyone what the best restaurant is in Punta Arenas they are likely to say La Marmita.
Since I was there for about 24 hours I decided to go on a boat trip to the Isla Magdalena to see the penguins. This is a pretty touristy activity but I decided it would be worth it – I wanted to see penguins in the wild and I wanted bragging rights of a nautical adventurer exploring the Strait of Magellan. The day trip is pricey, but I justified it by asking myself when else will I have the chance to go to an island where just penguins live on the Strait of Magellan? And it was really cool, although the ferry ride did seem long (2 hours each way).
