best treks

The W trek OR The Circuit trek in Torres Del Paine National Park; AND 2 or 3 hikes in the Fitz Roy Region just outside of the town of El Chalten. These are the most well-known and popular hiking areas in Chile.

Oppps, El Chalten is in Argentina, sorry.

cheers, do you know any treks in the lake district or anywhere else between santiago and patagonia??

definitely something in Torres del Paine NP - don't miss the park!

pucón has a number of hiking opportunities ranging from a half day to various days. i remember i travelled with some israelis for a bit in chile and they went on a hike of a few days with a travel agency and a bunch of other israelis they met in pucón (pucón is full of places that cater to israelis). it sounded quite nice. you can do the half-day (full day?) hike up volcán villarrica there as well. there are also some good hot spring places around pucón.

i think there are also some opportunities to hike up other volcanoes, like osorno or valdivia, from those towns.

and i've seen photos of national parks like nahuelbuta and conguillío, which look really nice for hiking. you can also cross over to argentina around the lake district and go to parks around bariloche, which are supposed to be great.

have fun - i'm so jealous!

I know lots of less touristy treks.

For me the best trekking area in Chile is around Talca Curico, and the best trek is the complete ' Circuito de los Condores' (6-8 days) from Vilches to Radal. You can do shorter treks in the area too, like going to the Hot Springs at the baseof Decabezado Grande. Apart from the scenery, this area has a really major asset. Almost constant good weather from November to April. Well it's very different further South, you can believe me.

Second best (more touristy) is the Villarica NP Traverse, from Termas de Palguin to Puesco + the extension in the Lanin sector of this park (4 days in total).

Cerro Castillo (Carretera Austral) also would come near the top.

Please contact me if you want info on other less touristy areas. I trekked 20 different routes (mostly short) in Chile, and about 10 in Argentina.

I would be very interested to hear about the different (free self guided) treks to be done in chile and argentina. we are heading to santiago in nov and are heading south to the tip then north east up through argentina to BA. Any advice would be welcomed