How many days for a road trip in Chile?

Chilean distances rule out the full traverse from the start: 1,600 km separate Santiago from San Pedro de Atacama, 1,000 km from Puerto Montt, the gateway to Patagonia — and south of Puerto Montt the country fragments into fjords and islands where the road regularly gives way to the ferry. Santiago acts as the hub: domestic airlines link the capital daily with Calama for the Atacama (2 h flight), Puerto Montt for the lakes and the Carretera Austral (1 h 45), and Punta Arenas for the deep south (3 h 30).

The winning pattern is thus identical to Argentina's: one car per region, picked up and returned at the same airport, and planes between regions. A single exception is worth anticipating: the Carretera Austral, which lends itself to a one-way Puerto Montt-Coyhaique or Balmaceda rental with drop-off fees to negotiate at booking time — returning along the same track would double an already substantial distance.

The Atacama suits the short format perfectly: you land in Calama, reach San Pedro de Atacama (100 km, about 1 h 15) and fan out from this adobe village perched at 2,400 m. Valle de la Luna at sunset, the Miscanti and Miñiques altiplanic lagoons above 4,100 m, the Atacama salt flat and its flamingos, the El Tatio geysers at dawn (about 90 km, 1 h 30 of track, at 4,320 m): four to five full days cover the essentials, provided you keep the first day light — you sleep higher here than the summit of many Alpine passes, and altitude commands respect.

The gentle alternative is the Lake District: a base in Puerto Varas facing the Osorno volcano, the Petrohué falls and Lake Todos los Santos, then Chiloé Island — a 30-minute ferry, Unesco-listed wooden churches, the coloured palafitos of Castro and an island culture of its own. Allow 600 to 800 km of easy green roads, closer to Bavaria than to the desert: the ideal family format, and the natural gateway to Patagonia for a future trip.

Ten to twelve days allow the great climatic leap the country is famous for: the Atacama and the lakes, the driest desert in the world then the rainforests, with a connection in Santiago. Five days in the north, five to six in the south, one night in Santiago in between: a dense but fluid programme, each region being explored in short loops from a single base — San Pedro on one side, Puerto Varas on the other.

The alternative is to swap one of the two regions for central Chile: Valparaíso and its listed hills (120 km from Santiago), the Casablanca or Colchagua wine valleys, and the Pacific coast. It's the most restful version, with no extra domestic flight, and it leaves time for a real visit of Santiago — a luxury that compressed itineraries systematically sacrifice.

Ruta 7, known as the Carretera Austral, unrolls some 1,240 km between Puerto Montt and Villa O'Higgins, amid fjords, hanging glaciers and primary forest — one of the most spectacular roads on the planet, still largely ripio south of Coyhaique. The highlights line up north to south: Futaleufú and its turquoise water, the hanging glacier of Queulat park, Lake General Carrera and the marble chapels of Puerto Río Tranquilo, the Cochrane valley. Allow two weeks for the full run, ferries included — from day one, the bimodal section via Hornopirén imposes two crossings that must be booked long in advance in January-February.

This Aysén region remains one of the least populated on the continent, and that is precisely its appeal: a study by Fabien Bourlon and Pascal Mao on the forms of scientific tourism in Aysén, published in 2011, describes this Chilean Patagonia as a natural laboratory whose very isolation is its tourism resource (study available on Google Scholar: scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Las+formas+del+turismo+cientifico+en+Aysen+Chile). In practice: services are scarce, fuel stations far apart — fill up at every opportunity south of Coyhaique — and there is no point rushing. Three weeks let you finish in style: return through Argentina via Chile Chico-Los Antiguos, or fly out of Balmaceda and extend to Torres del Paine.

South of Puerto Montt, the road is no longer enough: the Carretera Austral starts with a so-called bimodal section, where two ferries (Hornopirén-Leptepu then Fiordo Largo-Caleta Gonzalo) slot in between stretches of track. These boats sell out weeks in advance in high season, and their booking conditions every subsequent stage: it's the first thing to lock in, before the car itself. The alternative — going around through Argentina — works, but requires the rental company's customs authorisation, to be requested several days before departure.

Then there is the ripio, the loose gravel that still makes up a large share of Ruta 7 south of Coyhaique. A study by Sašo Tajnik and Blaž Luin published in 2022, on the impact of driver, vehicle and environment on rural road crash rates, notes that unpaved roads concentrate a markedly higher risk than comparable paved roads (study available on Google Scholar: scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Tajnik+Luin+Impact+Driver+Vehicle+Environment+Rural+Road+Crash+Rate). The practical rule is that of every southern track: 40 to 60 km/h maximum on gravel, slow down before meeting another vehicle — never after —, and insurance that genuinely covers windscreen and underbody.