Heading to Chiloe with a 13 yo later this month. Looking for some advice on the following:
How many days/nights to stay in Chiloe? Is 5 nights too long if basing out of Castro?
We're traveling without a car, are there tour guides/companies you can recommend? And a top 2 or 3 things to do?
We're thinking seeing the penguins and going to the national park. Are there any other highlights we should add.
Do we need to reserve bus tickets between Puerto Montt and Castro in advance. If so, how far?

Frequent busses, no booking.
No need to stay more than 1 or 2 nights at Castro.
For the national park, the Northern sector is an alternative.
For something different, you can check out the Parque Tantauco website.

Hi there,
A lot of potential places to visit on Chiloe are described here.
As I described in the diary entry, some of favourites places in Chile were on Chiloe - it really is an amazing place in mnay ways. The people, the food, the architecture, the landcape, even the "feel" of the place.
Places I'd recommend going to: Dalcahue, Isla Quinchao (Curaco de Velez is very pretty and we were lucky enough to chance upon a food festival in Achao). The overnight walk north from Cucao along the coast was magical and utterly deserted. We camped just off a gorgeous beach with the waves pounding the coast. Stunning. I would also highly, highly recommend a visit to Chepu - check out the pre-dawn kayaking described in the entry.. It was a highlight of Chile for us.
We had just over a week on Chiloe and I would gladly have stayed longer. Castro has charm but you'll have seen the sights in a day or so. Getting from Puerto Montt to Chiloe is effortless - although we did have to stand on the bus back to Puerto Montt because we picked a busy time to travel!
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