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Coverage / Chile

Chile

South America

South American nation stretching 4,300 km along the Pacific coast, from the Atacama Desert to Patagonia. Home to some of the world's most celebrated whitewater rivers, world-class skiing, and dramatic Andean landscapes.

13 activities · 16 pairings · 29 verified providers

What you can do in Chile

Horse Riding / Equestrian

Torres del PaineJan Feb Mar Apr Nov DecThe estancias of Ultima Esperanza pioneered long-distance riding under the Paine massif more than 25 years ago, and it remains the real thing: five-to-ten-day traverses from Sierra Baguales through the park to the Grey and Serrano sectors, riding criollo horses alongside working baqueanos, sleeping estancia to estancia. Riders join herd movements on working ranches rather than following a nose-to-tail string, and the days run 30 to 40 kilometers under the most photographed skyline in Patagonia. It pairs glacier scenery with a living horse culture that predates the park itself.

Motorcycle Adventure Touring

Carretera AustralJan Feb Mar Nov DecThe Carretera Austral is on every serious rider's list for reasons no other road replicates: 1,200 kilometers threading fjords, temperate rainforest, and the hanging glacier at Queulat, with two fjord ferries, Hornopiren to Caleta Gonzalo, built into the route, an expedition texture that pavement can never fake. Long gravel sectors reward real riding skill, Puyuhuapi's hot springs reward the end of a wet day, and the route chains into Argentina's Ruta 40 for the full Patagonian loop that National Geographic Traveler once listed among its Tours of a Lifetime, the only motorcycle tour ever named. Guided fleets run current BMW GS bikes with support trucks.

Mountaineering / Summits

Music & Culture Festivals

Easter IslandFebTapati Rapa Nui is the most important cultural festival in eastern Polynesia and a genuine community event rather than a staged show: for two weeks each February the island's clans back rival queen candidates through ancestral competitions, haka pei riders tobogganing volcano slopes on banana trunks at highway speed, the Tau'a Rapa Nui triathlon paddled in reed craft across the Rano Raraku crater lake, body-painting, dance, and song contests judged by the town. The 58th edition runs February 3-14, 2026. You share the island with the festival rather than buying a ticket to it, and the moai watch the whole thing.

Paragliding

IquiqueJan Feb Oct Nov DecPilots cite one statistic about Iquique and it settles the argument: roughly seven non-flyable days per year, the most consistent paragliding site on the planet. The Atacama's coastal desert stacks hyper-reliable thermals on a smooth sea breeze, launches sit on 600-meter dunes at Alto Hospicio, and the landing is the city's beach boulevard. From October to February, ceilings around 1,300 meters open long cross-country runs down the coastal dune ridge, which is why schools from Europe and the Americas fly their students here for intensive courses. If you want to learn, progress, or chase XC distance on a schedule, no site on earth is this dependable.

Photography Expeditions

San Pedro de AtacamaApr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct The Atacama is the driest non-polar desert on earth and sits at the edge of one of the world's most important astronomy zones. The combination produces extraordinary conditions for astrophotography: no light pollution for hundreds of kilometers, negligible atmospheric humidity, altitude between 2,400m and 4,500m, and 300+ clear nights per year. The Milky Way core is visible overhead for much of the year. Beyond night photography, the daytime subjects are equally distinctive: the Valle de la Luna salt formations, the red and white salt flat of Salar de Atacama, the Tatio geysers at dawn, and the flamingo colonies of the high-altitude lagoons. The landscape looks like no other place on the planet.

Rock Climbing

Cochamo ValleyJan Feb Mar DecCochamo holds the biggest granite walls on the continent, up to 1,000 meters, on more than 200 routes from 5.9 multi-pitch to A5 aid, and the valley is roadless: everyone walks in four to five hours behind pack horses, and camping is reservation-capped, so the place cannot crowd. It has been called the Yosemite of South America for the granite, but the wilderness character is the real difference: no shuttle buses, no rangers' loop road, just rainforest, walls, and whatever you carried in. Guided big-wall courses and classic objectives like Cerro Trinidad run all season for climbers ready to step up from sport routes.

Scuba Diving

Easter IslandJan Feb Mar Nov DecThe most isolated inhabited waters on earth are also among the clearest: visibility off Hanga Roa reaches 60 meters, water holds 20 to 27 C year-round, and the volcanic topography of drop-offs, arches, and caverns comes with about 140 species found nowhere else. The island's first dive center opened in 1980, founded by Henri and Michel Garcia of Cousteau expedition lineage, and remains a Cousteau Divers conservation member. The signature photograph, a sunken moai replica resting on the sand off Hanga Roa, belongs on any diver's list, and no other destination pairs a dive week with the archaeology of Rapa Nui above the waterline.

Skiing & Snowsports

PortilloJun Jul Aug SepPortillo runs on a model no other major resort uses: one hotel, booked Saturday to Saturday, which caps the number of skiers on the mountain, so the pistes above Laguna del Inca stay close to empty even in peak August. The US, Austrian, and Norwegian speed teams train here every northern summer for the same reasons visitors come: reliable Andean snow, steep terrain served by the famous va-et-vient slingshot lifts, and couloirs that conventional chairs cannot reach. For a northern skier it is July powder with a lake the color of ink at the bottom of every run.

Surfing

PichilemuMar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep OctPunta de Lobos is South America's most famous left, a point that holds from head-high to genuine big-wave size and carries World Surf League big-wave heritage plus a Save The Waves World Surfing Reserve designation. Long-period southwest swell arrives with metronome regularity, and cold water keeps the crowd a fraction of what a wave this good would draw anywhere warmer. Pichilemu behind it has Chile's most complete surf infrastructure: beachfront schools at the forgiving La Puntilla point, ISA-certified coaching, video analysis, and week-long camps, so the town serves the learner and the hellman on the same swell.

Whitewater Kayaking / Rafting

Wildlife Safaris

Torres del PaineApr May Jun Jul Aug SepTorres del Paine is the one place on earth where photographing wild pumas on foot is a reliable expectation rather than a lottery: the cats around Laguna Amarga and Sarmiento are habituated but wild, and the local trackers, many of them former bagualero horsemen, produce sighting rates no other puma destination approaches. The secret season is winter: June through August the wind dies, the park empties, snow dusts the towers, and sightings peak. February through April adds cubs traveling with mothers. Guanaco, condor, and the granite skyline fill every frame between cats.

Wine / Spirits Education

Best months at a glance

	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Horse Riding
Moto Touring
Mountaineering
Music Festivals
Paragliding
Photography
Rock Climbing
Scuba Diving
Skiing
Surfing
Whitewater / Rafting
Wildlife Safaris
Wine & Spirits