Everyone knows that Chile is long and skinny, but how many people know that Chile, which is 5% larger than Texas, is longer from north to south than the distance from Washington, D.C, to San Francisco, California?  Chile boasts the driest desert in the world, a reserve in the extreme south that international conservationists rightfully call “the most beautiful national park in the world”, and the alarming archaeological remains of an impressive but now extinct civilization that shone briefly before literally flaming out on a remote island that lies smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, fully a five-hour jet flight west of the Chilean capital of Santiago.

 

SouthWild has chosen just four locations to offer in this amazingly diverse country, each for a specific, extreme reason. These locations are San Pedro de Atacama in the ridiculously-dry Atacama Desert in the far north, the dramatic peaks and Pumas of Torres del Paine in extreme southern Chile, the stylish, world-class wineries near the capital of Santiago, and the bizarre site of civilizational collapse that is represented by biologically-devastated Easter Island, the remotest location on Earth.

 

Given that it takes more than three hours to fly from Santiago to Punta Arenas, the airport for Torres del Paine National Park, and that Argentina’s Perito Moreno Glacier is only a half-day drive from Torres del Paine, it makes sense to combine the best sites in Argentina with the best sites in Chiles. In other words, if one is going for a Chile trip to Torres del Paine for the scenery and Pumas, you might as well consider including Santiago and Buenos Aires in the same trip, connecting two safe places to travel in South America by crossing the border in southern Patagonia between that huge glacier and Torres del Paine. This combination results in a notably-elegant, “open-jaw” itinerary that never backtracks.

 

The locations in Argentina that we highly recommend are three: Glaciers National Park (which includes Perito Moreno Glacier), wildlife-rich Peninsula Valdés (sic) on the central coast of Argentinian Patagonia, and Iguassu Falls, in the extreme north on the border with Brazil.   Of course, Iguassu Falls also can be part of a Brazilian trip, so it is not necessary to include it on an ambitious trip that already includes Buenos Aires and Santiago along with the best of Patagonia in both Argentina and Chile. Our specialists can work with you to engineer your best possible, customized, comfortable trip that will delight the whole family, in one of the best family vacation spots in South America.