Trekking in the Tantauco national park in southern Chile.

© Raimundo Vargas A/Shutterstock

Parque Tantauco

Chiloé


Created and owned by Chilean business magnate and current president Sebastián Piñera (and run by his foundation, Fundación Futura), this private nature preserve is the only place in Chile outside Torres del Paine that you can traverse a park via a multi-day hut-to-hut hike (there are three-, four- and five-day options; all require advance booking). Encompassing 130km of trails throughout 1180 sq km west of Quellón, the park's biodiversity is astounding. Nature lovers willing to make the effort are justly rewarded.

Visitors will share the Valdivian temperate rainforest with no more than seven other trekkers at any given time, along with native otters, Darwin foxes and pudús (small deer, indigenous to Chile), as well as both the world's largest mammal (blue whales) and its smallest marsupial (monito del monte or 'little mountain monkey'). It's one Chile's most worthwhile off-the-beaten-track destinations for hiking, camping and wildlife-watching.