2 Week Patagonia Itinerary
We spent 2 weeks in Patagonia travelling by car and it was the perfect trip! If you did not know, Patagonia is a mountain region and it lies in both Chile and Argentina. We went to both sides of Patagonia, so road tripped through 2 countries!
When to go:
December to March for the best weather. Their summer is opposite North America
Food
There are not many restaurants in Torres del Paine, so most of the hotels are all inclusive. If you do decide to camp or you find a budget option than try to bring in your food and meals. The small markets in the park are very expensive. We brought a lot of snack from home and chose all inclusive stays.
Our 1 Week Itinerary at a Glance
✈️ We flew into Punta Arenas and spent the night in Puerto Natales (which is right near Torres Del Paine)
1 Day Puerto Natales
4 days in Torres Del Paine
boardwalk hike, Salto Chorillo waterfall
Mirador condor hike
Base Towers hike
French Valley hike
Glacier Grey
1 Days in Punta Arenas
Last day Penguin Tour!
CAR RENTAL
Fly into Punta Arenas and rent a car for week.
Crossing the border from Chile to Argentina
Full Detailed Itinerary
Day 1
Fly into Punta Arenas pick up your rental car and drive to the town of Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales is the biggest town close to Torres Del Paine national park and a great place to base yourself. If you don’t drive or are not going to rent a car you can easily bus here from Punta Arenas. Most of the day trip tours to the park and the shuttle all leave from here.
If You Don’t Rent A Car – The Bus Sur booking website here gives you a list of the daily departures. You can use this bus schedule for daily tours to the park, as well as getting between all the towns. You can easily bus between Puerto Natales – EL Calafate – and El Chalten. There are also some great full day tours from Puerto Natales like this one.
Your average park road conditions and Gunacos off the side of the road
Whichever you choose spend the night in town go out for dinner and stock up on snacks and groceries for your hiking days.
Day 2 – 4
Hiking Torres Del Paine Park
We recommend staying closer to the park to minimize your drive time. We stayed at the Rio Serrano hotel in the area of the same name. This is one of the closest places you can stay by the south gate to the park, meaning you can get in and out for sunrise and sunset. This allows you to miss the crowds and see as much as possible. Full disclosure Rio Serrano was pretty swanky and definitely on the pricey side we liked it so much we wrote a whole blog about it. If that’s not your style there are plenty of other places to stay that are far more affordable. Surprisingly if you are not doing the W trek and electing for day hikes like us the costs can be less but your hotels are faaaaaar nicer in the Serrano area. I think the park eco fees are quite exspensive for the resorts within the park.
This is a good budget option in the Serrano area. There is also a glamping stay if you are looking to stretch those dollars.
We are going to list the highlight hikes for us to fill your days and we suggest picking your favorites and prioritizing them for the good weather days. Patagonia is wild by nature and when you get a good weather window make sure you take advantage of it!
Favourite Hikes (more detail in guide)
Laguna Toro
Mirador Cuernos
Mirador Condor
Base Towers
Mirador Lago Grey
Day 4-6
Staying in Torres Del Paine Park + Base Towers Hike
Today you are going to change accommodation and stay in the park for two nights We found the Eco Camp to be a great location for hiking and your best value for a stay. They include all meals wine and trekking snacks. This makes it a perfect spot to get up early and do your sunrise hike. We ended up having to change our itinerary and did this in the middle of Rio Serrano days solely for a weather window. So be prepared to change your itinerary around.
The Eco Camp was pretty swanky for a backpacking stopover
There is another way you can do this that works quite well also. You can pack the car leave Rio Serrano super early do the hike and then check into the Eco Camp after your done and just relax all day. We we left for our hike at 7 am and were back around 1 leaving plenty of time to enjoy the Eco Camp.
Wake up early and do the Base Towers hike. The base towers are the hike everyone thinks of when they book a trip to Patagonia. This is not overhyped, it is 100% as beautiful as it looks, do not skip. We met many people who did this hike 2+ times to get a view because it was so important to them and they were glad they re did it. Do not let any people you meet try and talk you out of it.
Day 6-7 Punta Arenas + Penguin Tour + Fly out
Today you are going to start the drive back to Punta Arenas late afternoon. We stayed in the Central Hostal Boutique Puerta Roja. Nothing to fancy but a comfortable stay in town good walking distance from everything. There is not a ton you have to see here but there are some cute cafes a couple museums and some great restaurants. What makes Punta Arenas special is the Penguin Tours. The penguin tours all leave in the morning so you will do this on your last day. You can either fly out that evening after the tour or the next morning. I would check the return timing of the tours to make sure it works with your flight. If you have a late arrival in Arenas you could always do your tour first.
Penguin Tours Punta Arenas
There are two tour options you can choose from. We picked the one day Magdalena island boat tour from Punta Arenas. They pick you up early in the am at their downtown Punta Arenas locations and shuttle you 30 minutes to the boat launch. From here you take an enclosed boat to Magdalena island and get to walk around with the Magellanic penguins. Magellanic Penguins are the little cute black and white ones. Officially you have to stay within the walking path but it doesn’t matter at all because the penguins are EVERYWHERE. They are running around yelling crossing the path. Certified good time. After this you go to another island for whale watching and spotting Lion seals.
Your other option is to see the bigger more colorful King penguins. This option looked amazing but it was a very long day. I believe the tour was 14 hours and we were just not feeling that long in a car after our big drive from El Chalten the previous day. But if King Penguins is on your bucket list this is a great ethical way to go see them .
