Santiago to Torres del Paine: Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales, 4 Nights

You are met at the airport and driven to your hotel. After checking in, a guide collects you for a panoramic tour of the city, taking in the Plaza de Armas, the bohemian streets of Bellavista, the smart Providencia district and the Metropolitan Park, where San Cristóbal hill gives the classic view of the city against the Andes. With only one night here, it is an efficient introduction; rest well before an early start.

A driver collects you after breakfast for the airport and the long flight south, more than three hours, with views of the Andes and the southern ice fields when the sky is clear. Punta Arenas stands on the Strait of Magellan; you are met and taken to your hotel. Walk up to the Cerro de la Cruz viewpoint over the coloured roofs and the strait, and visit the square with the statue of Magellan.

A boat crosses the Strait of Magellan to Magdalena Island, where tens of thousands of Magellanic penguins nest in burrows during the breeding season. A marked path of about an hour leads among them to the lighthouse, with dolphins and seabirds often seen on the crossing. Back on the mainland, the onward journey is by coach (confirmed with your quote), around three hours north across open steppe to Puerto Natales, a small town on a fjord with mountains all around.

A long guided day into the park. The first stop is the Milodón Cave, a vast rock shelter where remains of a giant ground sloth were found, then a short break at the old ranch village of Cerro Castillo. Entering Torres del Paine, the road passes turquoise lakes including Nordenskjöld and Pehoé, with the jagged Cuernos and granite towers above. A walk of about half an hour leads to the Salto Grande waterfall. Watch for guanacos and rheas along the way.

Breakfast, then the transfer for your flight north to Santiago and your connection home. Puerto Natales has a small airport whose flights tend to run mainly in the summer season, and runway works are planned for early 2027; when Puerto Natales has no suitable flight, the transfer is the longer drive back to Punta Arenas airport, quoted with your flights.