At a glance
The short version
- Guide type
- Real Life Locations
- Read time
- 8 min read
- Last updated
- Nov 12, 2026
Quick answer
Summer brings about 17 hours of daylight, the W Trek is open, and the steppe turns green with wildflowers.
Guide details
| Item | What to know |
|---|---|
Where | Torres del Paine National Park, Magallanes region, Chilean Patagonia, about 112 km north of Puerto Natales |
Best time | December to February; December days run about 17 hours, with highs near 11°C |
How long | Two days for the plan below; four to five days for the full W Trek, if you booked beds months ahead |
Difficulty | Hard day hike (about 20 km, 8–10 hours); the driving loop is easy |
Tickets | Foreign adult CLP 32,400 for one day, CLP 48,500 for 2–10 days. Buy online at least 24 hours ahead; no sales at the gate. Tickets for the 2027 period go on sale in December 2026 — check the portal first |
Nearest town / airport | Puerto Natales (about 2 hours by bus); seasonal flights from Santiago, November to March |
Prices checked | 12 November 2026 |
Why it looks like this
The towers are granite, pushed up about 12 million years ago and then carved by glaciers into the three sharp peaks that give the park its name. The central tower rises to about 2,800 metres, and Paine Grande, the highest peak in the park, reaches 3,050 metres. Next to the towers stand the Cuernos, the "horns", and they are easy to tell apart: pale granite below, a dark cap of sedimentary rock on top, so the peaks look banded black and white.
The lakes get their colour from the same glaciers. Meltwater carries rock flour, ground so fine it stays suspended, and the water scatters the light back as turquoise. Lago Pehoe, Lago Grey and Laguna Azul all show it, and the colour changes with the light: pale green in the morning, deep blue by midday. Grey Glacier feeds the western end of the park, flowing off the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the largest temperate ice field in the southern hemisphere, and dropping blue icebergs into Lago Grey.
The wind shapes everything else. It keeps the trees low on the steppe, and it is the reason the park feels so exposed: sustained winds near 32 km/h, with gusts of 60 to 100 km/h in open places. Guanacos graze the steppe in plain sight, condors ride the thermals over the massif, and pumas live in the park too, though they are rarely seen. Do not plan the trip around spotting one; the guanacos and the condors are the animals you will actually see.
What order to see it in
Two days, no W Trek beds needed. Day one is the hike; day two is the drive, and the light is best in the morning and the late afternoon.
Day one — the Base Torres day hike. Catch an early bus from Puerto Natales to Laguna Amarga, then the shuttle to the Welcome Center, where the trail starts. The round trip is about 20 km and takes 8 to 10 hours, with about 900 metres of climbing. The first stretch is flat meadow, then forest, then the last kilometre: a steep scramble up a moraine of loose boulders that takes about 45 minutes. At the top sits a turquoise glacial lake at the foot of the three towers. Rangers set an afternoon cut-off for the final climb, so start at dawn, and be back for the last shuttle around 7 PM and the last bus to Puerto Natales around 8:15 PM.
Day two, morning — Salto Grande and Lago Pehoe. Take the bus to Pudeto. A ten-minute walk from the road brings you to Salto Grande, a waterfall pouring turquoise water between two lakes, with Paine Grande behind it. From the same stop, the viewpoint over Lago Pehoe looks across the lake to the Cuernos, and in the late light the peaks turn pink.
Day two, midday — the catamaran to Paine Grande. The boat crosses Lago Pehoe in about 25 to 30 minutes (CLP 28,000 one way, about US$30, book online ahead). From Paine Grande, the trail to the Grey Glacier viewpoint runs along Lago Grey, where icebergs drift in the water. If you would rather stay on the road, the drive to the Lago Grey area gives you the same icebergs from the shore.
Day two, afternoon — Laguna Azul, on the quiet east side. The towers stand across the lake here, the steppe is full of guanacos, and in summer the shore is lined with purple lupins. It is the calmest viewpoint in the park, and a good place to end the day.
The W Trek, if you do it right. The full trek runs about 75 km over four to five days, linking Base Torres, the French Valley and Grey Glacier. Book in this order: beds first, park ticket second, transport last. Beds split between two operators, Las Torres Patagonia and Vertice Patagonia, and December to February sells out three to six months ahead. Dorm beds run about US$200–230 a night at Las Torres sites, with full board adding roughly US$140, or US$46–66 at Vertice sites; campsites cost US$11–13 a night at Vertice and US$40–50 at Las Torres. The CONAF free campsites are closed, rangers check bookings along the trail, and wild camping is not allowed.
The two-day plan above needs none of that: a day ticket, a bus seat, and an early start.
Best time to go, and what not to do
December to February is the best season, and December has the longest days: sunrise around 5 AM, sunset after 10 PM. All refugios and campsites are open, the lupins are out, and the steppe is green. But December is also the wettest month of the year in Puerto Natales — 155 mm of rain and 16 rain days — and the windiest. Pack for four seasons in one day: sun, rain and wind can all arrive before lunch.
October, November, March and April are the shoulder months: fewer people, easier beds, shorter days and colder nights. In winter, from May to September, the park stays open, but CONAF requires an accredited guide on the Base Torres trail and the W Trek (in 2026 the rule ran from 27 April to 15 September).
Do not plan a December W Trek in November. Beds for the peak months sell out three to six months ahead, and the booking window opens in April or May. Check for cancellations if you like, but build the trip around the day hike and the driving loop instead.
Do not count on buying a ticket at the gate. Buy online at pasesparques.cl at least 24 hours ahead, and check whether tickets for the 2027 period have gone on sale: CONAF paused those sales in November 2026 while it adjusted prices, with sales resuming in December
2026. A park ticket does not include a bed, a bus or the catamaran — those are all booked separately.
Do not trust your phone. Signal is unreliable at the gates and inside the park, so save the ticket QR code and all bookings offline before you leave Puerto Natales. Carry Chilean pesos in cash: the catamaran and the internal shuttle take cash only.
Do not walk in winter without a guide. From late April to mid-September, CONAF requires an accredited guide on Base Torres and the W, and the trails can hold snow and ice well into spring.
Do not expect a puma. They live in the park, but sightings are rare and never guaranteed. The animals you will actually see are guanacos on the steppe and condors over the ridges.
Practical information
Fly from Santiago to Puerto Natales on the seasonal service, November to March, or fly to Punta Arenas and drive about three hours north. Note that runway works at Puerto Natales airport limit departures in January to March 2027, so check schedules before you book. Buses leave the Puerto Natales terminal five or more times a day in high season, starting around 6:45 AM; the ride to Laguna Amarga takes about two hours and costs about US$15–17 one way. The shuttle from Laguna Amarga to the Welcome Center costs about US$10 return.
The park is open from 07:00 to 21:00 in the summer season, October to April. The ticket is dated and non-refundable, and the daily quota can sell out, so buy it as soon as your dates are fixed. An overnight booking inside the park guarantees your entry ticket, which is one more reason to book beds early if you do the W.
Bring layers and a windproof shell, trekking poles (CONAF recommends them, and microspikes in winter conditions), and sun protection: the sun is strong even when the air feels cold. Carry water and food — there are no shops on the trails — and download offline maps before you enter the park.
Gear to bring
December is the wettest month and the wind rarely stops, so a packable waterproof shell is the one item you will use every day in Torres del Paine: on the Base Torres climb, on the boat to Paine Grande, and standing at the viewpoints. It needs to block wind as well as rain, and it needs to pack small enough to live in your day pack when the sun comes out.
Bottom line: Torres del Paine in December is the towers at their best and the weather at its worst, often on the same day. Two days, a day ticket and an early start get you the lake at the foot of the towers, the Cuernos at sunset and icebergs on Lago Grey, without a single W Trek bed. Book the beds six months ahead if you want the full trek; if you are reading this in November, do the two-day plan instead.