Road Trip! Santiago to the Patagonian Lake District

After 9 months living in and exploring Chile, we finally ventured south. When we found out we were moving to Santiago, one of the places we were most excited to explore was Patagonia. This extremely remote area in the southern tip of South America is considered one of the most naturally beautiful places on earth. Due to it’s proximity to Antarctica, though, the weather can be extreme, so we waited patiently through the South American winter, before finally making our first trip to the Northernmost part of Patagonia, the Lakes District.

There are a million ways you could choose to explore this region, and you could easily spend more than a week zigzagging through the mountain and lake covered terrain that covers the Chile-Argentina border. We set our sights on San Carlos Bariloche, with several other stops along the way, to get a flavor for the region.

Our Itinerary:

Day 1: Santiago to Chillan – 4.5 hours

We left Santiago at the end of the work day on Friday afternoon, heading south on Ruta 5 to Chillan. While Chillan is known for having some great skiing during the winter, this was nothing more than a pit stop to get us closer to our first destination, Pucon. We passed through the Colchagua wine valley, mentally making a note to plan a weekend trip to the vineyards sometime soon, before settling into our hotel for a good night’s sleep.

Day 2: Chillan to Pucon – 4.5 hours

The second leg of our trip took us to Pucon. Because it was a holiday weekend, the trip took us a little longer than expected.  Traffic on the road itself wasn’t bad, but the many toll booths we had to pass quickly became our nemesis.  Not only did they add time to our drive, but at many of the stops our fellow road trippers decided it would be fun to deal with their impatience by BLARING their horns incessantly.  In general, we have found that Chileans are pretty non-confrontational people, but put them behind a car horn and all bets are off. In any event, even with the long toll lines and a quick pit stop to check out the Salto de Laja (a waterfall along the route), we made it to pucon by mid-afternoon.

Many consider Pucon to be a gateway into Patagonia, and it is one of the northernmost towns in the Chilean Lakes District. While we only had one night on our itinerary, even before arriving we had planned to return for a longer trip in the future. Pucon is a popular vacation destination for Chileans in both the Summer and Winter, and is known as a hub for adventure sports. There are a plethora of hiking options in the many surrounding national parks, a large lakefront beach, water sports, climbing, skiing, you name it.

We arrived in the late afternoon, and checked into our apartment at the Monte Verde hotel, about 15 minutes outside of town. Our room offered great views over Lago Villarica from its small patio, and I felt an immediate sense of relaxation as we took in the tranquil beauty of the lake and surrounding mountains. With daylight running short, we decided it was too late for a hike, and instead drove into town to check out the beach and take a walk through the streets. The town itself is very tourist friendly, with lots of shops and restaurants spreading out from the main beach. We took a walk down the beach, did a little window shopping and then grabbed dinner at a delicious little deli called Trawen before heading back to the water to watch the sunset.

With so much to see and do in the surrounding area, it was hard to move on to the next part of our trip, but we took solace in knowing Pucon is only a short flight or a 9 hour drive away.  We will definitely be back in the future for a longer stay!

Day 3: Pucon to San Martin de los Andes – 2:45 hours

We started the day by cooking breakfast in our apartment. Instead of having a breakfast buffet, the hotel staff came by our room in the evening to drop off supplies for a DIY breakfast. This included a basket of fresh eggs, cereal, bread, cheese and some other goodies. We enjoyed our breakfast on the patio, taking in one final view of Lago Villarica before heading out toward Argentina.

The drive between Pucon and San Martin de los Andes is only about 3 hours, plus the time it takes to cross the border, so we planned to stop along the way and do some hiking. There were several trails near the border, and we set our sights on a network of trails that led toward Volcano Lanin. We were lucky to have a bright, sunny day and we had a blast hiking through some diverse landscapes. We started out in the woods, with only occasional glimpses of the surrounding mountains, before making our way uphill and into a clearing that had been formed by Lanin’s last eruption in 2008. We crossed a huge field of volcanic ash before making it to a small lake at the base of the volcano. We stopped here to rest for awhile, taking in the views of the magnificent volcano, before making our way back to head across the the border.

Crossing into Argentina was relatively painless. We first exited Chile, stopping to show our identification and car paperwork, and then drove up the road where we went through a similar process to enter Argentina. Similar to our experience when driving to Mendoza, no one searched our car, and we were through the whole process in less than 20 minutes.

From there, it was relatively smooth sailing along a beautiful (albeit dirt) road that led us toward San Martin de Los Andes. The dirt road only lasted for about 30 minutes, before we returned to pavement and passed through a few small towns, each with magnificent views back toward Volcano Lanin and the national park.

We arrived in San Martin around 6PM, and checked into our hotel, La Posta Del Cazador, which was an old hunting lodge converted into a B&B. From here we had easy access to the lakefront, as well as the small, main street of town, which offered many quaint shops, coffee houses and restaurants. We took a walk to get a sense for the town and grabbed some dinner at Pizza Cala.  After warming up with some incredible onion soup, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next leg of our drive.

Day 4: San Martin de los Andes to San Carlos de Bariloche (Route of the 7 Lakes) – 3 hours

On day 4 we hopped on the iconic Ruta 40, which runs the vertical length of Argentina, from it’s northern border with Bolivia all the way to the south of Patagonia. One well known section of this route connects San Martin de los Andes with San Carlos Bariloche, winding through volcanoes and alongside a series of beautiful lakes. Unfortunately for us, it rained most of the drive, but even despite the bad weather, we were able to see how serene and breathtaking this highway is. Due to the weather, we decided not to do any hiking, but there were plenty of trails along the road if it had been a clear day.

When we arrived in San Carlos Bariloche, we checked in at the Peninsula Petit Hotel where we were greeted with hot cocoa and cookies.  I don’t normally say much about our hotels, but this place was pure magic.  About 30 minutes outside of town, it was set back from the road with incredible views out onto the lake. From the incredible breakfast spread, to the cozy fireplace in the lobby, we loved every minute of our stay here.

After we enjoyed our cocoa, we decided to try our luck on a shorter hike that took us up a smaller hill called Cerro Llao Llao to an overlook with views of Lago Nahuel Huapi. Despite a pretty steady rain as we set out, the storm started to clear just as we reached the top, and as the clouds rolled back we found the surrounding mountains covered in a fresh layer of snow. Despite the wet cold, the views were absolutely breathtaking and well worth the rainy hike.

Days 5-7: San Carlos Bariloche

We spent the bulk of our trip based out of San Carlos Bariloche. Despite quite a bit of rain, Bariloche quickly became one of my favorite places. Everything about the 4 nights we spent there was relaxing and serene. Because we spent so much time here, I dedicated a separate post to this portion of the trip. Head over here to read more.

Day 8: Bariloche to Valdivia – 5 hours

On day 8, we crossed back over the border and into Chile. Similar to our last experience, getting back into Chile was a much more thorough process that entering into Argentina. When we arrived at the border around 1PM, we found ourselves in a huge line of cars, stacked up for nearly a mile. After about an hour of waiting, they let a new group of cars into the customs area, and we just barely made it into this group. We visited 2 different desks where our paperwork was checked, and then had to unload all of our bags for inspection. Finally, about 90 minutes later, we were back through into Chile.

We made a short pit stop at Parque Nacional Puyehue, where we did a short hike through the rain forest and out to a large waterfall. The foliage here was much thicker, and felt very different to anything else we had seen on the trip.

From there, we made our way to our hotel in Valdivia, a University town that is know for it’s German influence and beer brewing. We didn’t have much time to spend here, but have heard good things about the local culture, so we may have to make a return trip. We spent the last night of our trip taking in the sunset over the river, and preparing to make the long drive back to Santiago.

Day 9: Valdivia to Santiago – 8.5 hours

The final day of our trip was simply a drive day, taking us the 8.5 hours back from Valdivia to Santiago. We got an early start, and made it back to Santiago in plenty of time to do some grocery shopping, make dinner, relax and think back on all the beautiful sights we had seen in the last week. We are definitely looking forward to getting back to the south to explore more of the Chilean side of the Lakes District later this summer.