Puerto Natales Patagonia, Chile

Puerto Natales

An Introduction

This is the closest village to Torres del Paine. From here it is only a 1hr drive to Torres del Paine entering from the west or a 2hr drive entering from the east. As far as settlements go Puerto Natales is a small, almost quaint village sitting beside the “Canal Senoret” and facing the Sound (or Fiord) of Last Hope (“Seno de Ultima Esperanza”).

The village is located 250km north of Punta Arenas, and 120km south of the Laguna Amarga entrance to Torres del Paine National Park (by road). However, it is only 70km by road from TDP if entering from the west, passing by the entrance to the Milodon cave. This route leads to the Serrano entrance of Torres del Paine.

Therefore, you can stay at Puerto Natales, usually for less cost than staying within Torres del Paine, but also enjoy everything the Park has to offer.

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Puerto Natales

We Offer

Many of our itineraries include a night or more in Puerto Natales.

This is an ideal place to break the road trip between Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine (TDP). At the same time, you can relax and enjoy the tranquility of the natural fiord (see below) beside which is the village. There are also a couple of high-end, “World Class” hotels that merit a few nights stay to enjoy what they have.

Another option we offer is to create an itinerary based in Puerto Natales and venture out on a daily basis to Torres del Paine. For example, you can either to do the W trek or to see the sights. Therefore, staying in Natales will enable you to have a single, comfortable base from which to explore the area and return back to at the end of each day.

Night in Puerto Natales

We suggest a night in Natales upon arrival and the next day either a fast-speed zodiac into Torres del Paine, a road transfer into TDP, or just a day to rest. For example a typical itinerary would be 1 night Natales, 4 nights TDP, 1 night Natales or over to El Calafate, however, if you have more time more nights would be even better.

If you would like us to arrange a custom-itinerary for you, please send us an enquiry.

Send Your Enquiry to here: request@experiencechile.org

Arriving to Puerto Natales

How to Get to Puerto Natales

For most of the year all arrivals to Puerto Natales are direct from Santiago (2.5hrs), by road from Punta Arenas or El Calafate, which is over the border in Argentina.

The flight to Punta Arenas from Santiago is usually 4hrs, but longer if the flight stops off at Puerto Montt. From Punta Arenas the drive time to Puerto Natales is 3hrs.

From El Calafate the drive time, with border-crossing paperwork either side included, is around 6hrs.

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Puerto Natales: The Main Places of Interest

The principal place of interest near to Puerto Natales is, of course, Torres del Paine National Park. However, over the border at El Calafate is the Perito Moreno Glacier.

Also, very close to Puerto Natales village is the prehistoric Milodon Cave, named so when bone fragments of a prehistoric creature called the Milodon were discovered in the cave. The cave itself is a very large cavern created by wave motion into conglomerate rock, and is worth a visit if you have time. There are also some interesting treks around and over the vast conglomerate rock formation, but best to go with a guide as some areas are potentially dangerous if you are not familiar with the territory.

Puerto Natales village, at its centre, has a plaza, as do all Chilean settlements, but with a decent church too.

If you can walk down to the shore and look to your right, you will get a magnificent view of the fiord (or sound) and glaciated mountains at the end.

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Getting to Puerto Natales

Driving from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales

A good, paved road connects Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas and takes about 3hrs to drive. The road to Torres del Paine is paved as far as the border village Cerro Castillo, which takes about 50min to drive to and then a further 1hr 10min to drive the partly-paved road to Laguna Amarga in Torres del Paine.

However, there is also another route from Puerto Natales to the Villa Serrano end of Torres del Paine is unpaved and takes just over one hour to drive and leads to the western entrance into Torres del Paine and the central CONAF Administration centre. Moreover, this route also passes by the interesting and impressive “Milodon Cave” – a large, high ceiling cave dating back to prehistoric times.

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Puerto Natales Accommodation

Places to Stay in Puerto Natales

Frankly, Puerto Natales can be considered as being “part of the Greater Torres del Paine National Park”. Why? Because to get into the park from Puerto Natales takes as much time as it does to get from one end of Torres del Pane to the other – within the actual park. Therefore, staying in Puerto Natales is a very sensible option to staying overnight in, mostly, overpriced hotels inside Torres del Paine.

Here, below, is only a selection of the many options offering accommodation in Puerto Natales.

Send Your Enquiry to here: request@experiencechile.org