Getting around Chile
General information
You can travel across Chile using a number of different transport options. Because of the large distances involved between some of our bite-sized trips, domestic flights are inevitable, but there are also routes that can be covered by express bus, boat, private transfer or even self-drive. If you have any specific preferences just let us know. For example if you would prefer to travel as much as possible by plane to save time, or perhaps by bus to experience the surroundings, or hire car for ultimate flexibility, we’ll try to find the best option to match your land arrangements and preferences.
Hire car
Travelling by hire car gives you the freedom to explore Chile at your own pace. Make a stop at volcanic lakes, towering mountains or ice-cold glaciers. The roads in Chile are mostly paved and well sign-posted. The main exception is in Torres del Paine National Park where you’ll be driving on gravel, although you’ll find you’re one of the few cars on the road here!
Domestic flights
As Chile is such a long country, the preferred way to travel between destinations is often by domestic flight. Less time consuming than buses, domestic flights mean you can spend less time travelling and more time enjoying Chile! We know it can be overwhelming when you start to consider the complicated domestic flights and work out an itinerary so the easiest way to book flights is to let us do all the hard work for you. We know all the direct routes as well as which flights only operate on certain days of the week. We know all the airlines, their schedules, the cheapest routes and can book all your air passes for you in advance. To give you an idea of how much to budget, domestic flights average around £160 per person per way.
Private transfers
For some of the shorter distances, for example from the airport to your hotel, we’ll arrange private transfers for you. You’ll be transferred in a comfortable car with driver. Most likely the driver won’t speak any English, so this might be a good opportunity to practice your Spanish! We generally don’t arrange private transfers for the large distances between cities as this would be hugely expensive and take at least or day or two to travel that far.
Bus
Bus services in Chile are excellent and offer a good transport option. Buses have on-board toilets and often a movie will be shown if the journey is over two hours. It might well be in Spanish, but if you’re lucky there’ll be English subtitles. We tend to recommend buses for journeys which are around four hours, or when there is no airport, for example in Valparaiso and Puerto Natales.
