Luxury Private Tours in CHILE
The longest country on earth. The driest desert. The end of the world and everything in between.
Our tailor-made private tours combine expert local guides, handpicked boutique stays and curated experiences, from hiking the granite towers of Patagonia and stargazing in the world's clearest skies above the Atacama to the ancient Moai of Easter Island, horseback riding through the Patagonian steppe, an active adventure in the lake district of Pucón and an expedition voyage to Antarctica.
WHY VISIT CHILE?
Chile is the most geographically extreme country on earth, a ribbon of land four thousand three hundred kilometres long and nowhere wider than three hundred and fifty kilometres, stretching from the driest desert in the world in the north to the sub-Antarctic archipelago of Patagonia in the south and containing within that extraordinary length every climate zone on the planet. The Atacama Desert, where some weather stations have never recorded rainfall and where the altitude and the absence of light pollution produce the clearest night skies on earth, is entirely unlike the Torres del Paine, where the granite towers of the Paine Massif rise three thousand metres from the Patagonian steppe in a landscape of lakes, glaciers and wind-sculpted pampas that is unlike anything else in the Americas. Easter Island, the most remote inhabited island in the world, sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean three thousand seven hundred kilometres from the Chilean coast and belongs to the same country as both.
What makes Chile exceptional for the private traveller is the combination of extraordinary natural environments and the quality of the infrastructure that now exists for experiencing them. Patagonia has some of the finest small luxury lodges in the world, positioned specifically for the finest views of the park and the finest access to its trails. The Atacama has extraordinary boutique properties whose specific positioning allows stargazing of a quality unavailable anywhere else on earth. Easter Island has a small, extraordinary community whose relationship with the Moai and the oral history they carry rewards those who arrive with genuine curiosity and a guide who has genuine relationships with the island's Rapa Nui people.
Many travellers combine Chile with Argentina for a broader Patagonia journey crossing between the two countries, or with Peru and Bolivia for those designing a comprehensive South America circuit.
Explore our full Latin America hub for more inspiring destinations.
Best Time to Visit CHILE
October to April is the summer season in the southern hemisphere and the main window for visiting Patagonia and Torres del Paine. The park trails are open, the weather is at its most manageable and the extraordinarily long days of the southern summer allow hiking from dawn to well past eight in the evening. November and March are our most recommended months within this window, before the peak season crowds of December and January and after the unpredictable conditions of October.
May to September is winter in Patagonia and the time when the park is at its quietest and most atmospheric, with snow on the towers and the lakes frozen at their edges. The hiking is more demanding but the light on the granite in winter conditions is extraordinary. The Lake District around Pucón is at its most dramatic in winter with the volcano snow-capped and the ski season in full operation.
Year-round for the Atacama, which sits at high altitude in the driest desert on earth and maintains remarkably consistent conditions throughout the year. The nights are always cold and the days are always clear, which is precisely the combination that produces the finest stargazing available anywhere on the planet. The full moon periods reduce the darkness and are worth avoiding for astronomical purposes.
Easter Island is best visited between September and April, when the weather is warmest and the sea is calm enough for snorkelling and diving in the extraordinary clear waters around the island. The Tapati Rapa Nui festival in February is the finest cultural event on the island and worth timing a visit around for those drawn by the living culture of the Rapa Nui people.
DISCOVER CHILE’s REGIONS
From the granite towers and glaciers of Torres del Paine and the lunar landscapes and clearest skies on earth in the Atacama to the ancient Moai of Easter Island, the volcanic lake district of Pucón, the wine valleys of the Central Valley and the cosmopolitan energy of Santiago, each region of Chile offers a completely distinct private journey.
TORRES DEL PAINE: THE END OF THE WORLD
Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia is one of the most extraordinary landscapes on earth, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve where the granite towers of the Paine Massif rise three thousand metres above lakes of extraordinary turquoise and glaciers that calve directly into the water. A private experience moves beyond the main W-Trek circuit into the less-visited valleys and viewpoints that require a specialist guide and the right conditions to reach, with the freedom to respond to the light and the weather rather than a fixed trail schedule.
THE ATACAMA DESERT: THE CLEAREST SKIES ON EARTH
The Atacama is the driest non-polar desert on earth and the location of the world's most powerful astronomical observatories, drawn here by the extraordinary clarity of a sky that receives almost no moisture and almost no light pollution. The lunar landscapes of the Valle de la Luna, the salt flats of the Salar de Atacama, the extraordinary geysers of El Tatio at dawn and the flamingo colonies of the high-altitude lagoons combine into a landscape of genuinely otherworldly beauty that is entirely distinct from any other desert environment in the world.
CHILEAN WINE COUNTRY: THE CENTRAL VALLEY AND BEYOND
Chile's wine regions, stretching through the Central Valley from the Maipo near Santiago south through Colchagua, Maule and Bío-Bío, produce wines of international standing in a landscape of extraordinary agricultural beauty between the Andes and the Pacific. The Carménère grape, which was thought extinct in its native Bordeaux until it was rediscovered in Chilean vineyards in the 1990s, is now the signature variety of the country. A private wine journey through the Central Valley, combined with the extraordinary coastal vineyards of Casablanca and the bohemian port city of Valparaíso, is one of the finest food and wine experiences available in South America.
EASTER ISLAND: THE MOST REMOTE PLACE ON EARTH
Easter Island sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean three thousand seven hundred kilometres from the Chilean coast, the most remote inhabited island in the world and the home of the Moai, the extraordinary monolithic stone figures carved by the Rapa Nui people between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The island carries the weight of one of the great archaeological mysteries of the world, how the Moai were carved, transported and erected, and the oral history of the Rapa Nui people, preserved across generations in the absence of any outside contact, adds a human depth to the landscape that the archaeology alone cannot provide.
THE CHILEAN LAKE DISTRICT: VOLCANOES, LAKES AND PUCÓN
The Chilean Lake District in the south of the country is one of the most beautiful and most varied landscapes in South America, a region of snow-capped volcanoes, deep glacial lakes, ancient Araucaria forests and the extraordinary outdoor culture of Pucón, the small town on the shore of Lake Villarrica whose position beneath an active volcano and beside a lake of extraordinary beauty makes it the finest base for adventure travel in Chile. Kayaking, mountain biking, white-water rafting, horse riding and the ascent of the Villarrica volcano itself are all available within a single day of the town.
SANTIAGO DE CHILE: THE GATEWAY AND THE CITY
Santiago is one of the most underrated capitals in South America, a city of extraordinary cultural vitality, a food and wine scene of genuine international ambition and the specific energy of a metropolis that has reinvented itself economically and culturally over the past thirty years in ways that most international visitors have not yet caught up with. The Lastarria and Bellavista neighbourhoods, the Central Market with its extraordinary fresh seafood, the extraordinary views of the snow-capped Andes from the hilltops of the city and the day trip to the bohemian port city of Valparaíso make Santiago a destination worth spending real time in rather than simply a transit point for the south.
Signature Experiences in CHILE
Chile rewards those who go beyond the standard Patagonia itinerary and allow a private guide to reveal the full extraordinary range of a country that stretches from the driest desert on earth to the sub-Antarctic ice fields. From hiking the granite towers of Torres del Paine and stargazing above the Atacama to riding through the Patagonian steppe and sailing toward Antarctica, these are the moments we build every Chile journey around.
HIKING IN TORRES DEL PAINE
The granite towers of Torres del Paine at dawn, reached on foot from the valley floor in the specific silence of the Patagonian morning before any other hiker has arrived at the mirador, is one of the most extraordinary natural experiences available in South America. Planning it well requires knowing the specific conditions of the park on any given day, which viewpoints offer the finest light at which hour and how to structure the days around the extraordinary unpredictability of Patagonian weather.
STARGAZING IN THE ATACAMA
The Atacama produces the finest stargazing available anywhere on earth, the combination of altitude, aridity and the absence of light pollution creating a night sky of extraordinary clarity and depth. A private stargazing experience with an astronomer guide who can use a professional telescope to show the specific objects visible from this latitude, explaining the specific mythology and the specific science of what you are seeing as the Milky Way fills the entire sky above you, is one of the most genuinely overwhelming natural experiences Chile offers.
VALPARAÍSO
Valparaíso, the extraordinary bohemian port city on the Pacific coast an hour from Santiago, is one of the most visually distinctive cities in South America, a hillside labyrinth of coloured houses, street art, funicular railways and the specific energy of a port city that has been at the crossroads of Pacific trade since the sixteenth century. A private day combining the hill neighbourhoods of Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción with the Central Market fish restaurants and the wine bars of the creative quarter reveals a city of genuine depth and genuine character.
RAPA NUI MOAI
The Moai of Easter Island experienced privately, moving between the extraordinary ceremonial platforms at dawn before any other visitor has arrived and understanding the specific mythology and the specific engineering achievement of each group with a Rapa Nui guide whose community has been the custodian of this landscape for centuries, gives the most mysterious archaeological site in the Pacific the gravity and the human depth it deserves.
ACTIVE ADVENTURE IN PUCÓN
Pucón beneath the active Villarrica volcano offers the finest concentration of adventure experiences in Chile within a single day of a luxury lodge on the lake. The ascent of Villarrica at dawn, climbing on crampons through the snowfield to the crater rim above the active lava lake, is the defining Pucón experience. The kayaking on the Class IV rapids of the Trancura River, the mountain biking through the Araucaria forest and the thermal pools of the surrounding valleys complete a destination of extraordinary active variety.
MOON VALLEY AND THE ATACAMA LANDSCAPES
The Valle de la Luna, the extraordinary erosion landscape of salt, clay and volcanic rock in the Atacama whose formations have given it the name Moon Valley, is best experienced at sunset when the light transforms the colours of the landscape through orange and red and gold in the space of thirty minutes. A private experience that combines the Valle de la Luna at dusk with the El Tatio geysers at dawn and the salt flats and flamingo lagoons of the Salar de Atacama in between gives the Atacama landscape its full extraordinary range within a single day.
HORSEBACK RIDING IN PATAGONIA
The Patagonian steppe, the vast wind-sculpted grassland that surrounds the peaks of Torres del Paine on its eastern and southern flanks, is the landscape in which the gaucho tradition of southern Chile has been riding since the first cattle were brought here in the nineteenth century. A private horseback ride through the steppe, moving across a landscape of extraordinary scale and emptiness with the towers visible in every direction and the Andean condors overhead, is one of the most specifically Patagonian experiences available and one that the hiking trails of the park cannot replicate.
ANTARCTICA
An expedition voyage from Punta Arenas or Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula is the most extraordinary journey available from Chile and one of the most significant travel experiences available anywhere on earth. The specific combination of the Drake Passage crossing, the first sight of the Antarctic continent, the zodiac landings among penguin colonies of extraordinary density and the specific quality of the Antarctic light, reflected between ice of extraordinary blue and the surface of the Southern Ocean, produces an experience that consistently and permanently changes the way visitors think about the natural world.
Frequently Asked Questions About Traveling to CHILE
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Chile's extraordinary length means the best time varies dramatically by region. October to April is the main season for Patagonia and Torres del Paine. The Atacama is excellent year-round. Easter Island is best from September to April. The Lake District and Pucón are superb in summer for outdoor activities and in winter for skiing. We recommend the season based on which regions you are prioritising.
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Chile's length makes it impossible to cover comprehensively in a single trip. We recommend a minimum of ten days for a focused Patagonia and Atacama journey. Those wanting to add Easter Island, the Lake District and Santiago should plan for fourteen to sixteen days. An Antarctica extension adds a minimum of eight days. Chile consistently rewards those who commit to fewer regions with more time rather than attempting to cover the full length of the country.
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The W-Trek is the classic hiking route through Torres del Paine National Park, covering approximately eighty kilometres over four to five days and visiting the three most iconic landscapes of the park: the base of the Torres, the French Valley and the Grey Glacier. A private version of the W-Trek, staying in the finest lodge accommodation at each stage rather than the crowded refugios and moving with a specialist guide who knows the specific conditions of each day, is the finest way to experience one of the great long-distance walks in the world.
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Easter Island is served by direct flights from Santiago, a five-hour journey, and occasionally from Tahiti. The island has a small number of boutique properties and a very limited daily visitor quota for the most significant archaeological sites, which means advance planning and genuine local connections are essential for a private experience of the quality the island deserves.
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US and UK passport holders do not require a visa for stays of up to 90 days in Chile. We always confirm the latest entry requirements for your specific passport before travel.
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Chile pairs naturally with Argentina for a complete Patagonia journey combining Torres del Paine with the Argentine side of the ice fields and the extraordinary wine country of Mendoza. It also combines well with Peru and Bolivia for those designing a comprehensive South America circuit. We design all multi-destination itineraries as fully private and tailor-made.
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Chilean cuisine is built on the extraordinary produce of the Pacific coast, one of the richest fisheries in the world, combined with the specific agricultural traditions of the Central Valley and the indigenous food cultures of the Mapuche people of the south. The empanadas, the humitas, the cazuela and the extraordinary fresh seafood of the Central Market in Santiago and the coastal cities are all essential. The wine, produced in the Central Valley from varieties including Carménère, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc, is among the finest value in South America.
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Chile's greatest experiences require local knowledge that is genuinely impossible to replicate independently. The guide who knows the specific conditions of Torres del Paine on any given morning and can position you at the base of the towers at exactly the right hour. The astronomer in the Atacama who can point a professional telescope at the objects visible only from this latitude. The Rapa Nui guide on Easter Island whose family has been the custodian of the Moai for generations. Chile gives its greatest depth to those who arrive with the right person beside them.
Plan Your CHILE Journey
Chile is a country of extraordinary geographical variety and the journey we design for you will reflect exactly which version of it calls to you most. Tell us whether you are drawn by Patagonia, the Atacama, Easter Island or the Antarctic, and we will build your Chile journey from the first conversation.