How to get to Patagonia’s Mirador Las Torres hike via Rental Car

Directions to Chile’s most famous hike

We spent the month of December in Chile and Argentina and were overwhelmed by the scenery of the Andes Mountains and its surroundings. The 17 hours of sunlight gave us plenty of options for outdoor activities with little to no time constraints. Out of all of the places we visited during this trip, the hike to Mirador Las Torres was the highlight of them all. If you are a true hiking fanatic, then this is a hike you must add to your list.

Part of the much larger and more popular W Trek (which takes 3 days to complete), the most popular portion of this hike is the northeastern side which takes roughly 7–8 hours to complete. This trail is 12.5 miles long and has a 3300 foot incline. It is rated a Difficulty of Hard on Alltrails, which I can confirm is accurate. There are several steep terrains along the hike but thankfully, there is a pit stop around the middle which has bathrooms and a small cafe in case you need a break.

After staring at enough pictures on the internet, we decided to plan for the hike with the intention of exploring other parts of Torres Del Paine National Park as well. We booked flights plus accommodation and started to realize that a trip to Patagonia is hitting the credit card a little harder than expected.

We found that the cheapest and most suitable option for us was to rent a car in a city called Punta Arenas and drive up to the hike in Torres Del Paine National Park. Purchasing a rental car benefitted us in a few ways:

• Removed the cost of hiring a tour guide
• Had the freedom to spend as much time as we wanted on the trail without the time constraints of a tour or bus schedule
• Provided the flexibility of driving wherever we wanted and to make our own schedule
• Cancel and make new plans as we wish (most tours/busses wouldn’t offer refunds)

Unfortunately, if you decide on this option, you’ll realize that there are very few resources online on how to get to the hike. Plus, the park’s website is geared more towards tours and busses which will cost you some $$$. Here is how you can get to the Mirador Las Torres Hike:

1. Purchase a flight to either Puerto Natales (PNL) or Punta Arenas (PUQ)

In the map above, the yellow star is the start of the hike, the blue square is Puerto Natales and the green flag is Punta Arenas. As you can see, Puerto Natales is roughly 2 hours closer to the hike than Punta Arenas. Although flying to Puerto Natales seems like the only sensible options, there are some advantages of flying to Punta Arenas instead. If you are flying from out of the country, expect to have a layover in Santiago first.

Advantages of Flying to Punta Arenas (PUQ)

• Larger rental car inventory (More SUV’s and cars with auto transmission). NOTE: From our experience, just because you reserved a specific vehicle online, does not guarantee that one will be available to you. Not sure if this was an issue via the rental car company, but we found that online inventory wasn’t consistent with their actual inventory in person.
• More vehicles with auto transmission
• A penguin tour is offered in this city and not available anywhere else in the country (or most of the world)
• Road to Puerto Natales is 100% paved with very few drivers on it
• Flights to this city are half the price of that in Puerto Natales
• More flights are offered to this city versus Puerto Natales (Only 3–4 a day at the time of writing this article)
• Most flights to Punta Arenas are direct whereas most flights to Puerto Natales have a layover in Puerto Montt

We booked a rental SUV months in advance through a company called Europcar and got a similar vehicle to the one shown online. The drive north was very flat with open plains as far as the eye can see. Like driving on a freeway through Montana or Wyoming, but with way less cars. You’ll also encounter hundreds of cows, horses and sheep . Punta Arenas is also one of the windiest cities on Earth, so something worth noting if you do a rental car.

2. Stay the night in Puerto Natales the night before your hike

Puerto Natales is the largest and nearest city to the hike and offers a wide range of options in hotels, Airbnbs, shops and restaurants. We encountered tourists from around the world staying the night in this city. We spent the night in a very nice “container style” Airbnb with 2 bedrooms for under $90 a night. It was a little northwest of the city, but having a car allowed us to go into town the night before and load up on plenty of snacks for the hike and food for the house.

If you decide last minute to take a tour, there are plenty of travel agencies in this city that will take you to the hike and much more. There is also a bus stop in this city that can take you to other Patagonia attractions such as El Chalten, El Calafate, Perito Moreno Glaciers, Mount Fitz Roy and much more.

3. Drive from Puerto Natales to Amarga

You are looking for the entrance to Torres Del Paine National Park and depending on which GPS you are using, the Welcome Center may not be discoverable. Instead, you will see on the map a city called Amarga which isn’t a real city, but rather the entrance to the National Park itself and where you will buy your ticket. This was discoverable for us on Apple Maps and Google Maps.

On this drive, the first 75% of the journey was on a paved road while the last 25% of the drive was dirt. We noticed dozens of trucks working on building a paved road and depending on the time you are reading this article, the road may already be completed.

Your journey will look like the map above and you will see plenty of signs that point in the direction of “Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine”. I still recommend using a GPS for directions because you will encounter forks in the road where they forgot to add signs.

About halfway along this drive, you will see a city called Cerro Castillo which is a great place to stop for food, drinks and a restroom. You will also see busses stopped here letting tourists take a break.

4. Arrive at Amarga and purchase an entrance pass to the National Park

Once you get to Amarga, you will see a long line of tour busses parked on the right side of the road and a couple of buildings on the left. Congratulations! You made it! (sort of) Drive ahead of the busses and you will see some spots on the left for you to park. Before you do so, a worker may stop and tell you where to park and give instructions.

The guard will instruct you to go inside the building and buy a day pass and he will go back to tending to the large tour busses. Right in front of the building, you will see a long line of people waiting to get their tickets scanned, only to return back into their vehicle immediately after. Your ticket is no longer needed after it is scanned and you don’t need to present it at the visitor center. Not really the best system in place for ticketing because in hindsight, you could’ve just gone inside the building to use the restroom, grab a yummy snack, ignored the line and got back into your vehicle to venture towards the welcome center without paying. I don’t condone stealing in this article but just an observation.

5. Drive from Amarga to the Torres Del Paine Welcome Center

There is a fork in the road once you get ready to leave Amarga (see map above). One is to continue on Y-156 southwest which goes towards Cuernos Lookout, Salto Grande and the rest of the National Park. The road that goes north will take you to the welcome center and the start of Mirador Las Torres Hike.

This road is unpaved, but not too bad of a drive. One thing I will say is that driving on this road tends to kick up a bunch of dirt if you are driving behind someone too close. If this impairs your vision, I would recommend creating enough space between you and the driver in front of you.

6. Park at the Welcome Center and Begin your hike towards Mirador Las Torres

At this point, you can plug in your location to the hike on Alltrails and follow along. Once you enter the building, you will see a gift shop and a small cafe where you can buy sandwiches, drinks, beers, etc. The back door of the building will mark the beginning of the trail and you will see a sign pointing to Mirador Las Torres (image below). Follow this trail along passing the hotel on the right and you should be on your way.