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Chile Tours on horseback
Hiking through Patagonia's lakes and landscapes
Hiking through the snowcapped peaks of Patagonia's Torres del Paine
The exclusive Patagonia Explora hotel, Chile
Guests relaxing in Chile Tierra Patagonia's Chill Out Zone
Vira Vira Lodge is ideal for Chile tours
Hiking through forests and mountain foothills is integral to Chile tours
Chile's The Singular Hotel, Southern Patagonia
Chile's The Singular Hotel, Southern Patagonia
Pucon caldera, Chile
A guest swims in the glorious pool at Chile Explora in the Atacama Desert
Chile Explora Hotel Exterior, Atacama Desert
Flamingoes soaring above the Atacama Desert
Guests at Chile Explora explore the Atacama Desert by bicycle
Moonrise over the Atacama Desert
A 4x4 parks near the salt pans of the Atacama Desert
Tourists at Chile Explora take a break on a clifftop after exploring the Atacama Desert by bicycle
Chile Tierra Patagonia Pool

Chile

Fire & Ice

Chile Tours: A Journey Through Fire & Ice

Discovering Chile | In Summary

  • Chile is the world’s longest country at roughly 4,270 kilometres from tip to toe, a shape so extreme that it spans six climatic zones simultaneously — from the hyper-arid Atacama in the north, where some weather stations have recorded zero rainfall for decades, to the sub-Antarctic channels and ice fields of the far south.
  • The Atacama Desert is not only the driest non-polar desert on earth but also one of the finest stargazing destinations on the planet: its high altitude, low humidity and near-total absence of light pollution support more than a dozen major international observatories, and several lodges — including Explora Atacama — offer dedicated astronomy programmes with professional-grade telescopes.
  • Chile’s wine industry punches well above its geographic weight: the country is the world’s fourth-largest wine exporter by volume, and its isolation by the Andes, Pacific Ocean, Atacama Desert and Antarctic winds has kept phylloxera largely at bay, allowing some of the world’s only surviving pre-phylloxera root stock to persist in valleys such as Maule and Itata.

Stretched out longitudinally along the Pacific coast, Chile is packed with phenomenal scenery, niche biospheres and geological idiosyncrasies. The best Chile tours are bespoke, tailormade to you, and could focus on the grandeur of nature to incorporate the world’s highest volcano, the driest desert, rainforests and hanging glaciers. These have all created striking landscapes, each inspiring unforgettable adventures.

For active adventurers, Luxury holidays in Chile with Classic Safari Company could involve taking a four-wheel drive over the lunar landscape and glistening salt flats to discover with flamingo-filled lakes in the Atacama Desert. Or you might trek through vast ice fields and watch the Andes disappear into the great Southern Ocean in Patagonia, tackle white water rapids or gently float on quiet lagoons, soak in hot springs amidst ancient volcanoes, marvel at the mysticism of Easter Island, or trot on horseback though the rolling vineyards Chile’s wine country.

It’s not just about the wilderness, either. Urbanites have plenty to sink their teeth into while on their luxury holidays in Chile thanks to the country’s cosmopolitan capital, Santiago. With the energy of a thriving metropolis and the quaint nostalgia of a colonial town, this exuberant city is a fabulous base for culture vultures to delve into Chile’s art, history and food scenes.
For the ultimate South American adventure, you could dovetail one of our bespoke Chile tours with an expeditionary cruise into Antarctica. The southernmost tip of Patagonia is an ideal launching pad for a truly spectacular cruise holiday into the world’s coldest, windiest and wildest continent, which teems with wildlife and is truly the world’s ultimate travel frontier.

With The Classic Safari Company, luxury holidays in Chile showcase the very best of wildlife, wilderness and authentic South American culture.

You Will Love

  • The dramatic Atacama Desert
  • Mystical Easter Island
  • Trekking in remote Torres del Paine
  • Sipping Chilean wine in a vineyard
  • Hiking, climbing & white water rafting
  • Cosmopolitan city life in Santiago

Let us design your perfect itinerary.

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Chile’s diverse regions from
deserts to ice fields

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Unforgettable experiences for tailormade Chile tours

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Places to stay for luxury holidays in Chile

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A collection of journeys to weave into our Chile tours

Chile: Frequently Asked Questions

Chile’s extreme length means timing depends entirely on which region you are visiting. Patagonia and Torres del Paine are best experienced between October and April, when longer days, milder temperatures and more stable trail conditions make trekking and outdoor activities optimal. The Atacama Desert is accessible year-round, though the austral summer months of December and January bring intense midday heat; shoulder months of April–May and September–October offer more comfortable temperatures for desert exploration. Easter Island enjoys a relatively stable subtropical climate throughout the year, with March–May considered particularly pleasant. For wine country and Santiago, spring (September–November) and autumn (March–May) are ideal.

There are no direct flights from Australia to Chile. The most common routing is via Auckland or Los Angeles to Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport. Flight times from Sydney via Auckland typically total around 16–18 hours. Australian passport holders do not require a visa to enter Chile for tourism purposes and may stay for up to 90 days. Chile’s currency is the Chilean peso; credit cards are widely accepted in Santiago, tourist lodges and most hotels, though cash remains useful in smaller towns and rural areas.

Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chilean Patagonia is among the most scenically dramatic protected areas on earth, with a landscape shaped by glacial action, Andean uplift and the relentless Patagonian winds. Its signature towers — three granite pillars rising more than 2,500 metres above sea level — are the product of magma that solidified beneath ancient ice sheets and was subsequently exposed by glacial erosion over millions of years. Unlike many wilderness destinations, Torres del Paine offers a spectrum of experiences from the celebrated multi-day W Trek to single-day excursions, helicopter access and private reserve stays, making it accessible to both serious trekkers and those seeking more comfort-forward adventures.

Chile combines naturally with Argentina, particularly in Patagonia where the two countries share the Andes and many classic itineraries cross the border via the famous Lakes Crossing between Puerto Montt and Bariloche. Buenos Aires is a natural bookend for any Chile itinerary, providing a contrast of urban sophistication against wilderness. More adventurous travellers can extend south from Patagonia on an expeditionary cruise to Antarctica, with Punta Arenas and Ushuaia serving as departure points. Peru and the Galápagos can also be combined for a broader South American journey, though the distances involved typically require additional travel days.

Chile’s remarkable geographic range supports an equally diverse array of wildlife. The Atacama Desert hosts three flamingo species — Andean, Chilean and James’s — alongside vicuña, viscacha and Andean fox. Patagonia is home to puma, guanaco, the Andean condor and South Andean deer (huemul), as well as significant populations of Magellanic penguins along the southern coastline. The channels of southern Patagonia support humpback whales, orcas and Peale’s dolphins. Easter Island’s surrounding Pacific waters are rich in marine life including manta rays and sea turtles, while the island itself hosts Polynesian bird species found nowhere else.

Chiloé is a large island in northern Patagonia with a culture distinct from mainland Chile, shaped by centuries of relative isolation and a fusion of indigenous Mapuche-Huilliche and Spanish colonial traditions. The island is celebrated for its distinctive palafito stilt houses, its network of UNESCO World Heritage-listed wooden churches — more than 150 built between the 17th and 19th centuries — and its unique mythology, which includes a rich canon of sea monsters and spirits. Chiloé is also an important ecological zone: it sits on the Pacific Flyway and supports significant seabird populations, while its sheltered bays are farmed for some of Chile’s finest salmon and shellfish.

Chile: A Glossary of Terms

Atacama Desert — The world’s driest non-polar desert, stretching along Chile’s northern Pacific coast and Andean plateau; parts of the desert have recorded no rainfall for several decades, yet support complex ecosystems of flamingos, vicuñas and extremophile microorganisms.

Torres del Paine — A national park in southern Chilean Patagonia, named for three distinctive granite towers (torres) shaped by millions of years of glacial erosion; one of South America’s premier wilderness trekking and expedition destinations.

Carménère — Chile’s signature red wine grape, once thought to be extinct after the 19th-century phylloxera epidemic devastated European vineyards; rediscovered growing in Chilean wine valleys in 1994, where it had survived in isolation for over a century.

Moai — The monolithic stone statues carved by the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island between roughly the 13th and 16th centuries; more than 900 exist across the island, the tallest standing nearly 10 metres high and weighing up to 82 tonnes.

Rapa Nui — The indigenous Polynesian name for Easter Island and its people; a self-governing territory of Chile located approximately 3,700 kilometres off the Chilean coast in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean, making it one of the most remote permanently inhabited places on earth.

Patagonia — A vast, sparsely populated region spanning southern Chile and Argentina, characterised by Andean mountain ranges, glacial lakes, ice fields and steppe grasslands; shared between the two countries, with the Chilean side encompassing Torres del Paine, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and the Strait of Magellan.

El Tatio — One of the highest geyser fields in the world, situated at approximately 4,300 metres above sea level in the Atacama Desert; most active at dawn when the temperature differential between the earth’s heat and the cold high-altitude air creates dramatic plumes of steam.

Altiplano — The high Andean plateau shared by Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina, sitting at elevations typically between 3,500 and 4,500 metres; home to the salt flats, flamingo lagoons and volcanic landscapes that define much of Chile’s north.

W Trek — The most popular multi-day hiking route through Torres del Paine National Park, tracing a W-shaped path past the park’s principal landmarks including the Grey Glacier, the French Valley and the base of the Torres; typically completed over four to five days.

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Take advantage of our highly personalised advice, inspiration and experience when designing your tailormade Chile tour