Exploring Patagonia in Winter

If Patagonia isn’t on your bucket list you may want to add it. It is absolutely stunning and you get the feeling that you are in another world. One that is relatively untouched by development. And if it seems like you are at the end of the world, that’s because if you look at a map, you can see that you are. I’ve been thinking about going to Patagonia for years and in early 2024 I decided this is the year I’m going to do it. I planned to go in the low season (June- August) for several reasons: 1) It is much less expensive, 2) there are far fewer tourists, 3) you have a better chance of seeing wildlife, and 4) it’s winter and I love winter.

Planning a trip to Patagonia

Patagonia spans 2 countries, Chile and Argentina. I focused on the Chilean side. Originally I thought I would join a group doing the “W” or “O” treks. These are 2 popular multi-day treks where you hike each day and usually stay in “refugios” or mountain huts or hostels along the way. There are numerous tour groups that offer these types of trips. But when I really thought about this, I started thinking maybe this isn’t for me. Maybe at my age I don’t feel like sharing a room and bathroom with a number of strangers. So I started looking for other options.

I did some research and it turns out there are other types of accommodations. These include luxury lodges, glamping, hotels, established camp sites, and estancias (or ranches).  Swoop Patagonia provides a summary of each type. When I found that Swoop Patagonia had a trip called “Explore Torres del Paine in winter from a luxury lodge” the search was over. This was exactly what I was looking for. The trip includes 5 days based at the Explora Torres del Paine Lodge. From there you can choose from a long list of activities every day.

I had never heard of Swoop Patagonia but the reviews were good. Swoop is based in England but Swoop Patagonia relies on their network of Patagonian specialists. After a series of contacts with Lauren, one of their specialists who patiently answered all my questions (and even sent me pictures from her own trip!) I signed up. 

Once this was done I decided to also spend 2 days in Santiago to make it a one week trip. I did my Santiago visit before going on to Patagonia. If I were to do this again I might do a little differently. But more on that later.

Logistics

Once I booked the Patagonia portion, there were other parts of the trip to work out including the international flight, internal flight, and a hotel in Santiago.

• International flights: Warning, this is a long trip. To fly to Santiago I had options connecting through Miami or Atlanta and then an 8-9 hour overnight flight. I didn’t see any daytime flying options. I have missed or nearly missed connections in both airports in the past but opted for Atlanta. I don’t usually do this but I sprung for premium economy which I highly recommend if you can afford it. Business class unfortunately was crazy expensive.
• Internal flights: To get to Patagonia you have the option of flying to either Puerto Natales, which is about a 2 hour car ride from the lodge, or Punta Arenas which is a 5 hour drive. In high season there are some cool trips from Punta Arenas including to see penguins. Since these weren’t available in winter I chose to go to Puerto Natales. You can fly on Sky or Latam airlines. I ended up using Sky. I believe there are direct flights in high season but during low season there was one stop though no plane change. In low season, both airlines only fly a few times a week so your choice of airline may depend on your schedule.
• Hotels in Santiago: After deciding to spend 2 days in Santiago, I debated between staying downtown (which would be more interesting) or near the airport (which would be more convenient.) In the end I went with convenience. I chose the Hilton Garden Inn Santiago Airport, about a 10 minute ride from the airport. It was an excellent choice. The staff were really friendly and helpful, the room was very nice, there was a free shuttle to/from the airport, and a full service restaurant.

Santiago

Santiago is supposed to be a very pretty city (I say supposed to be because in the end I didn’t go into the city). Common things to do include tours of the city and visits to nearby vineyards. Knowing I’d be tired from the overnight flight I decided I didn’t want to explore churches and museums. Instead I looked for something more active. Plus, I found there are snowshoe trips about 2 hours from Santiago. Given how much I love snowshoeing I could not resist the possibility of snowshoeing in the Andes. If you prefer downhill skiing you can find that too.

I contacted a number of companies about activities in Santiago and in the end I booked with Ecordua. Joaquin (who owns the company) was very responsive. I really appreciated how he listened to what I was looking for and then made suggestions for what he thought would work best for me. I opted for an afternoon hike to help me stay awake on my first day. For my second day I selected the full day snowshoe trip. There was no one else signed up for these trips on the dates I was in Santiago so I ended up opting for private tours.

In the early afternoon on my first day, Joaquin picked me up for the afternoon hike. Even though it was winter the day was beautiful, sunny and in the 60s. We went a little outside the city and then hiked for a few hours climbing a hill which led to beautiful views of the city and the surrounding mountains. After the hike we had a snack of fruit, cheese, and wine—what a perfect way to wind up a hike!

The next day I went with Joaquin and his wife Camilla from Santiago to Cajon del Maipo to go snowshoeing. This was about a 2 hour drive. Another beautiful day. I’m used to snowshoeing in forests, but this involved a long mountain climb. Plus we were at I believe over 7000 feet in elevation. Definitely more difficult than I’m used to but Joaquin kept us to a slow pace. It was a perfect day (sunny and not too cold) and the views of the Andes were beautiful.

Patagonia

The flight to Puerto Natales may be the most beautiful flight I’ve ever been on. I had read it’s best to sit on the left side of the plane and fortunately that’s where I was. As you get close to Puerto Natales the views are just gorgeous (and a big thank you to the man in the window seat who offered to switch seats with me!). After arriving in Puerto Natales it was a 2-hour drive to the lodge. Explora sent a van for the pick-up. The drive was incredible with views of the river, the Torres del Paine peaks, and lots and lots of condors.

Explora Lodge at Torres del Paine

Activities

There were multiple options every day for activities. Possibilities included half day and full day hikes, horseback riding, and overland excursions (i.e. driving around by car). There was also a spa that unbelievably I never visited because I was so busy with other activities. In the end I opted for 2 half day hikes every day. The nice thing about this is you have a morning hike, come back and have a nice lunch at the lodge and rest a bit before going out again for an afternoon hike. Most people I met did at least one horseback riding trip and everyone seemed to like them. I like horses but am not a big rider so I kept to the hikes.

The guides for the hikes were wonderful. I was amazed by how much they knew about fauna, flora, geology, history, and other topics. Each hike I did seemed different in terms of terrain and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. I visited several lakes, and saw the Grey Glacier from a distance. The color of the water in the glacier-filled lakes and river was a beautiful blue- green.

There were also lots of animals. We saw loads of Guanaco (related to the llama) and at one point a whole group came very close to us. On one hike we saw 2 puma- they were really far away, and just lazing in the sun. I also saw a very cute armadillo crossing the road. And a lot of birds including condors, woodpeckers, etc.

There were so few people around that any time I came across anyone not in my group I was taken aback. I did several hikes without seeing anyone aside from my group. And the group sizes were generally very small. Once it was just me and a guide. I don’t think you get that in the high season.

Some helpful hints

• Extra night for early arrival: I only found overnight options flying from the U.S. This meant an early arrival (7am if my flight landed on time, 8:15 am in reality). Knowing I would be tired I contacted a few hotels asking about an early check-in time. I only found one that did it and it was very expensive. In the end I found a deal for the Hilton Garden Inn for a 3 night stay so I ended up booking the night before I arrived so I could have a room as soon as I arrived. I contacted the hotel before arrival to make sure they were aware of this and also so that they knew my arrival information for the shuttle.
• Stopping in Santiago before and after Patagonia: You may want to consider doing this on both sides of the trip. While I stopped in Santiago on the way to Patagonia, I decided to fly home in one shot. If everything was on time I would end up with a 3-hour layover in Santiago between my Puerto Natales flight and my flight on Delta to Atlanta. I knew it was a risk but I booked it anyway. Long story short, I made the flight but with a lot of drama and stress throughout the day. The flight to Puerto Natales was delayed by nearly 2 hours (weather-related). In the end and after a gold-medal winning performance racing from the domestic to the international terminal I boarded my flight 15 minutes before they closed the door. If I were to do this again I would structure my Santiago days differently and not fly directly back to the US. (In high season there may be more flight options back to Santiago but when I was there I only saw the choice of 1 flight a day).
• Using an agency vs. booking directly through Explora: After I contacted Swoop Patagonia I realized I could book a similar trip directly through Explora. But it turned out there was not a price difference for using Swoop and I liked that they were so responsive in terms of answering all my questions and providing me with all the information I needed. There was a point the day before my flight to Patagonia that I got an email from Explora that I thought indicated a potential issue (in the end there was no issue and everything was fine). I messaged my 2 contacts at Swoop and both responded very quickly- they looked into things and found out that everything was in order. It was comforting to know that there was someone looking out for me and that I could turn to when/ if I needed help. So given this I feel it’s worth it to book through Swoop.
• Travel in the low season: There are a lot of advantages to traveling to Patagonia in the low season. Travel there is very expensive, even if you stay in the refugios. Prices are much lower in southern winter (June -August). I traveled in August and the weather was really nice- many people at the lodge couldn’t stop talking about how clear it was during my stay- often the peaks aren’t visible. June and July may have more wintry weather. Also I just loved how uncrowded it was.

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