Best places to see in chile: Torres del Paine National Park and the Atacama Desert

Chile, the longest, narrowest country in the World, stretching along the Western coast of South-America and the Andes Mountains. The country has a 4300 kms long coastal line, a mineral-rich northern desert and ice fields in the remote and snowy Patagonia, in its Southern tip. It is also the home of the most volcanoes in the World. Chile is a paradise for eco-tourism, where visitors can see some rare animals which are unique to this part of the World, such as penguins, flamingoes, alpacas, vicuñas. Chile is my favorite country, because of its variety in nature and I believe that anyone who loves colorful landscapes, mountains, sanddunes, deserts, volcanoes, waterfalls will quickly fall in love with the country.

Blue Massif in Torres de Paine in Chile

The fascinating thing about Chile is that it has many different climates. The north is a dry desert, while in the middle, the coastal plains are wide and it allowed the establishment of cities. This part of the country is the most populated. Here you can find the capital, Santiago de Chile. The southern part of the country is cold all year long and humid. It s the place where there are stunning National Parks with beautiful landscapes and mountains. My two favorite destinations in Chile are the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia and the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile.

Torres del Paine National Park

The Torres del Paine National Park is located in the Southern tip of Chile, in Patagonia. It is the most beautiful national park I have ever seen around the World. It has mountains, rivers, lakes, glaciers, waterfalls. The Cordillera Paine is a small mountain group that lies in the center piece of the national park. The park is located about 2 hours away from the town, Puerto Natales. The best time to visit the park is between November and April, which is the Summer season in this part of the World. However, don’t come here and expect warm temperatures.

Lago Grey Torres de Paine

When I visited in December it was snowing and it was around 0C.  The entrance fee is 6000CLP for locals and 21000CLP for foreigners. Many adventurous tourists hike the W trail, which takes about 5-6 days to complete and these people carry their own food and equipment and hike about 8 hours a day. They see most of the best sites of the park during those 5 days walking from west to east across the park. The most adventurous tourists will discover the park hiking the big circuit.  The big circuit is usually not open until November and allows the visitors to explore the park only during the Summer season. Less adventurous tourists can take a day trip from Punta Arenas or Puerto Natales and discover the highlights of the park in a day. This tour will take you to the Blue Massif, which is an enormous turquoise lake with beautiful mountains in the background.  You will also explore another colorful lake, the Lago Pehoe, and the Salto Grande waterfalls.

Along the road, there are many fascinating animals, which are unique to the region, such as the guanacos, ñandus and condors. Afterwards, the tour will take you to the Lago Grey, an enormous blue glacier, where the guide serves some whiskey with pieces of ice from the glacier. The last stop of the tour is at the Milodon Cave. The cave used to be a glacier until about a 1000 years ago, but after the ice melted, only an enormous cave remained. About a 100 years ago, they found remains of the pre-historic animal, the milodon here. I was glad I discovered the entire park in a day, because it was snowing all day and it was really cold during December, despite of being Summer. However, I loved every minute of the visit. The scenery was absolutely stunning. I suggest you to check the weather forecast before you set out to do the W or the big circuit trail, to avoid finding yourself hiking in the snow.

Milodon cave

Atacama Desert

My other favorite part of Chile is the Atacama Desert in the North. Here the climate and the scenery is very different from the scenery of the southern part.  The temperature is very high during the day, to the extent that it is recommended to stay inside between 12-3pm, but the temperature drops at night to below 0. It is the driest desert in the World. The soil of Atacama is red and it is often compared to the Mars. It has served as a scenery for many movies such as Space Odyssey.

Flamingos at Atacama 

Languna in Atacama Desert

Most tourists arrive to San Pedro de Atacama by bus or by plane from Santiago de Chile or from Salta in Northern Argentina. The small town has turned into a tourist paradise with many travel agencies and hotels, hostels offering services to tourists. It is a vibrant town in the middle of the desert with many hippies and fun parties. From here, people take excursions to see the nature nearby.

I took a trip to the Red Rocks, which was a wonderful tour. First we visited various lagoons of different colors and then we had breakfast under the sky as the sun was rising. The colors were breath-taking. We saw some colorful lagoons, the Antiplanic Lagoons, Lagoon Miscanti and Lagoon Miniques. From there, we went to see the red rocks and the salt flats. The ground was white and red as far as the eyes could see. The scenery was stunning. We also visited the flamingo reserve and saw the flamingoes living in their natural habitat in the salt flats.

Red rocks Atacama

Some more red rocks :)

Another spectacular excursion was a visit to the Moon Valley, which is the largest sand dune in the World. The reason why it is called the Moon Valley is because the ground looks like the surface of the moon.

At the moon valley, Atacama

Near San Pedro de Atacama, tourists can also visit the Tatio Geyser, which is the third largest geyser in the World. The tours set out very early at around 4:30 am from San Pedro to reach the Geyser before sunrise. There are about 50 geysers to explore. Some are smaller, while others are larger. Some geysers are like springs shooting out of the ground.  We even had a chance to soak up in the geyser pool in the end of the tour. After the tour, we stopped by the nearby village and tasted the lama meat. It was a special delicacy of the region, so I had to try it. I spent only a few days in the Atacama Desert, but I was blown away by it.

Tatio geyser

Chile is a natural miracle. It is a spectacular part of the World with all its natural beauty. If you love nature, you will love Chile, so just set out and explore it!

About the author:
This is a guest-post by Barbara, a London based luxury travel and lifestyle blogger of Jet-Settera. She left her country when she was 17 to conquer the World as a model. Ever since she has lived in seven countries and visited 68. She blogs about exclusive destinations and the some of the most prestigious events around the World such as Venice, Cannes, San Sebastian Film Festivals, Oscar Parties in LA, Fashion Weeks in Milan or Paris, yacht parties in St-Tropez as well as Prince Albert’s wedding in Monaco. She also writes about adventure travel across Asia, South-America and Europe. Read about her latest adventures to Indonesia on her blog.

Find her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

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