2 min summary Best time to visit The 'W' trek

Torres del Paine National Park travel guide

Whether you’re coming for the world-class hiking or the stupendous views, Torres del Paine National Park deserves its reputation as the jewel in Patagonia’s already well-bedecked crown. Here towering pinnacles of rock overshadow turquoise glaciers, open grassy steppe, picturesque waterfalls and deep blue lakes. The hiking is second-to-none, with multi-day hikes between refugios as popular as gentle strolls to mountain viewpoints. Read more in our Torres del Paine National Park travel guide.

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Torres del Paine National Park
travel guide

Jagged rocky fingers, reaching into the Patagonian sky, glow blood-red in the early morning sunshine; at sunrise, Torres del Paine’s iconic ‘towers’ are a beacon calling all visitors to Patagonia to their flanks. And for good reason. This vast UNESCO-listed national park protects vast hanging valleys, enormous glaciers calving into turquoise lakes, all overshadowed by dramatic granite peaks. All the while, haughty guanaco graze languidly on the open steppe and Andean condors soar overhead.

While most people come here for the spectacular hiking, Torres del Paine is also surprisingly kind to visitors who’d prefer not to trek for days-on-end

It all adds up to some of Patagonia’s most glorious walking country – with the iconic four to five-day ‘W’ trek a popular way to combine the park’s most scenic spots on foot. Alternatively, strenuous, scrambling day walks will take you to the base of the ‘Torres’ themselves. If you’re not quite so foot-sure then the park’s road network lends itself to self-drive exploration, with panoramic views of mountains and waterfalls from lovely miradores accessible by boat, or at the end of a gentle lakeside stroll.

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Torres del Paine is...

a hiker’s paradise of wild wind-blown steppe, jagged peaks, turquoise glaciers and breathtaking valleys.

Torres del Paine isn’t...

untouched. This is one of Patagonia’s most-visited national parks so don’t expect to have its popular trails to yourself.

Things to do in Torres del Paine National Park

It doesn’t have to be the strenuous five-day ‘W’ trek or the even longer ‘O’ circuit, but you’ll need to do some walking to really appreciate the power of Torres del Paine. The park’s most spectacular sights – the Valle Francés or the base of the Torres themselves, for example, are only accessible on foot. But there are easy to moderate day walks a-plenty, as well as more challenging treks. Well-marked paths make self-guided walking easy, and even small group tours often include a free day or two in the park. A network of hikers’ hostels (refugios) dot Torres del Paine National Park offering basic yet clean and comfortable overnight accommodation along its myriad of trails. Many small group tours and bespoke itineraries offering a few days of walking in Torres del Paine will make use of the refugios but don’t be put off by the dorm accommodation – they tend to be sociable and friendly places to stay, in spectacular settings. Torres del Paine protects 26 species of mammal, including pumas and the endangered Chilean huemul deer and over 100 species of birds which rely on its unique plant-life, so make sure you stick to the trails. With visitor numbers ever increasing the threat of erosion around the park’s marked trails is ever-present. And once destroyed, Torres’ fragile flora takes years to grow back, hampered by the harsh climate.

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Things not to do in Torres del Paine National Park

Don’t think you can see everything here in just one day. While Puerto Natales is only an hour and a half’s drive away from the park’s entrance, unless you want to spend most of your traveling around you’re going to need to stay for a night or two in the park. There are plenty of accommodation options – from hotels directly on the park’s road and ferry network to more basic refugios only accessible on foot. Don’t dismiss Torres del Paine National Park if a gentle stroll is more up your street than a hardcore hike. The walk from the Salto Grande waterfall – for example – to Mirador Los Cuernos and back takes just two hours over gentle terrain, while the regular catamarans crossing the turquoise Lago Pehoé and glacier-backed Lago Grey offer a relaxing way to enjoy some of the park’s most spectacular panoramic views. Patagonia has been beset by an influx of foreign investment – often multi-millionaires buying up tracts of land for cattle and sheep ranches, and more recently interest from Chinese agricultural firms. Only by generating income from untouched land – including Torres del Paine – will the unregulated sale of parcels of Patagonia be less appealing to the government. So, don’t begrudge the entrance fee. In 2011 an illegal campfire set over 40,000 acres of Torres del Paine National Park ablaze in a fire that took weeks to contain. The forests and fauna razed will take years to recover fully. There are now strict laws against lighting fires in the park, so don’t be tempted to flout them.

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Written by Sarah Faith

Torres del Paine National Park travel guide