Chile Travel Guide

Use this Chile travel guide to plan your trip to this adventure packed sliver of South America.

With an almost comical geographical shape and virtually every climate imaginable, this beautiful, memorable corner of the world is a place of extremes and contradictions. Few countries have quite such a split geographical personality. Here, you can often glimpse the snows of the high Andes from the Pacific Ocean, ski in the mountains in the morning and be drinking pisco sours on the beach come sundown.

Our Chile travel guide covers this country in all its contrasts. To the south, the country is hemmed in by thick temperate rainforest, fast-flowing rivers, icefields and glaciers, while to the north is the memorable Atacama Desert, with its endless space and pristine skies, and where some places have not seen a raindrop for centuries. The desert's geoglyphs bear testament to the ingenuity of some of prehistoric America's most complex civilizations, while an intermingling of the old world with the new has led to some of the most enduring aspects of ancient and modern Chilean culture, such as the legend of the Inca princess La Tirana, which spawned the country's biggest religious fiesta.

Chile Travel Guide Highlights
Altiplano national parks Shy vicuñas set against a backdrop of snow-capped volcanoes.	Pucón Gateway to the Lake District with volcanoes, fishing and whitewater rafting all nearby.
San Pedro de Atacama A desert town surrounded by geysers, salt flats and millennia of history.	Parque Pumalín Native temperate rainforest preserved for posterity.
Pan de Azúcar Where sea lions and penguins hang out on beautiful beaches and the desert blooms in spring.	Chiloé A magical island of fishing, forests and mythical creatures.
Valparaíso A UNESCO World Heritage Site waiting to be explored.	Carretera Austral Cycle, hike or hitch your way through spectacular scenery between Puerto Montt and Village O'Higgins.
Ski resorts The best skiing and snowboarding in South America, within easy reach of Santiago.	Torres del Paine Quite simply one of the world's greatest national parks.
Wine routes Chile's finest vintages come from the Central Valley.	Rapa Nui (Easter Island) A remote dot in the Pacific with a fascinating cultural heritage.