Chile Family Travel Guide

Everything goes through Santiago. Santiago to Calama for the Atacama is two hours. Santiago to Punta Arenas for Patagonia is three and a half. Doing both means four internal flights and a day and a half in the air. There are no useful north to south connections that skip the capital.

Choose one end and commit. North for desert, salt flats, altiplano lagoons and the clearest night sky on the planet. South for glaciers, fjords, granite towers and wind. They have nothing in common and both are worth a whole trip.

The middle is the easy add. Santiago, Valparaiso and the Casablanca and Colchagua wine valleys sit within two hours of each other and of the airport. Three or four nights there attaches to either end without another flight.

The stargazing is the thing. Zero humidity, no light pollution, and observatory tours that put a family on a real telescope. This is the single best night sky most people will ever see and children remember it for years.

The days are geology. The Valle de la Luna at sunset, the Tatio geysers at dawn, salt flats with flamingos, and altiplano lagoons at four thousand meters. That last number matters. Acclimatise in San Pedro for two days before any high altitude excursion.

Thirty degrees by day and near freezing at night. Every single time. Layers, and a proper coat that people find ridiculous to pack for a desert until the first evening.

It is dry. Nosebleeds, cracked lips and headaches are normal. Drink more than feels sensible and bring lip balm and moisturiser you would not normally think about.

Torres del Paine is a park you stay inside. Puerto Natales is the gateway town, two hours away. Staying in the park costs more and saves you four hours of driving a day, and with children that is the right trade. The W trek is five days. The day walks give families most of the same views.

The wind is a real planning factor. Sixty and seventy mile an hour gusts are ordinary in summer. It knocks people over. Windproof outer layers, hats that fasten, and low expectations for exposed ridges with small children.

The fjords are the underrated version. The ferry through the Chilean fjords from Puerto Montt, or the Carretera Austral by car, gives you glaciers and rainforest and almost nobody else. It takes longer and costs less than the Torres del Paine circuit.

It pairs with Argentina, easily. Puerto Natales to El Calafate is a five hour bus and a straightforward border. Almost every serious Patagonia trip does both countries and it would be strange not to.

Santiago is orderly, safe and slightly dull, and that is useful. A clean metro, good restaurants, Providencia and Lastarria to stay in, and the Andes visible at the end of the street. Two nights, not five. The Museum of Memory and Human Rights is superb and heavy, and worth it with teenagers.

Ski in the morning, sea in the afternoon. In July and August the resorts above Santiago are an hour from the airport. Valle Nevado and Portillo are proper mountains. Very few capital cities can offer this.

Valparaiso is ninety minutes away and completely different. Chaotic, painted, steep, scruffy, and the best hours in central Chile. Ride the ascensores, walk Cerro Alegre and Concepcion, eat lunch on a terrace. Vina del Mar next door is the beach resort version and much duller.

The wine valleys are a day trip. Casablanca for white, Colchagua for red, both easy with a driver. Chilean wineries are enormous and organized, and most have gardens and food that work for a family lunch.

LATAM and Sky, always through Santiago. Book internal flights with the international ones so a delay is somebody else’s problem. Baggage rules on the low cost fares are strict and enforced.

Chile is the easiest South American country to drive in. Good roads, clear signs, sober driving culture, and reliable rental. The lake district, the wine valleys and the Carretera Austral are all better with a car.

The long distance buses are excellent and slow. Salon cama seats, reliable timetables, and journeys measured in the high teens of hours. Fine for adults, hard with children.

Pesos, and Chile is not cheap. It is the most expensive country in South America and roughly comparable to southern Europe. Cards work everywhere including small towns. Patagonia and the Atacama carry a remoteness premium on everything.

Tap water is safe. In Santiago and most of the country. In the Atacama it is very high in minerals and locals drink bottled, so do the same there.

No visa for most Western passports. Ninety days on arrival. Chile is strict on agricultural imports, so declare food honestly at the airport. The fines are real and they check.

Earthquakes are normal. Chile is one of the most seismically active countries on earth and its buildings are engineered for it. A tremor during your stay is likely and almost always nothing. Read the tsunami evacuation signs on the coast once and then forget about it.

December to February for Patagonia. The only reliable window. Long days, everything open, and it is peak and expensive and windy. Book Torres del Paine lodging six to nine months ahead.

March to May and September to November for everywhere else. Santiago and the wine country at their best, the lake district green, and the Atacama fine all year because it is a desert.

June to August for skiing. And for a cheap Santiago. Patagonia is largely shut, the south is wet, and the Atacama is cold at night and beautiful.

Book it if landscape is the point. Hikers, photographers, stargazers, families with teenagers who want the trip to be about being outside. Chile has the most dramatic scenery on the continent and the best infrastructure to reach it.

Skip it if you want culture and history. There is very little pre Columbian architecture and no colonial set piece to rival Cartagena or Cusco. Chile is nature and it does not pretend otherwise.

Skip it if the budget is the constraint. You will get twice the trip in Peru, Colombia or Ecuador for the same money. That is not a criticism of Chile, it is arithmetic.

How it compares to its neighbors. Argentina is the same mountains from the other side, warmer in the cities and cheaper. Peru has everything Chile lacks in history. Ecuador does volcanoes and altitude for a third of the price. Chile wins on organization, safety and sheer scenery, and loses on cost and on soul.

How European it feels. Orderly lines, functioning bureaucracy, German bakeries in the south, and a general sense that things work. People arrive expecting Latin America and find something closer to New Zealand with better wine.

Chilean Spanish is the hardest in the region. Fast, clipped, full of local slang and dropped consonants. If you learned Spanish anywhere else you will struggle for a week. It is a running joke in the rest of South America.

The Pacific is freezing. The Humboldt current runs the length of the country. Even in January the sea at Vina del Mar is bracing. Chile has beaches and it is not a beach trip.

There are street dogs everywhere and they are looked after. Whole neighborhoods feed and name them, and many wear coats in winter. It is one of the more endearing things about the country.