If you visit one region on your trip to Patagonia, it will almost certainly be Torres del Paine National Park. Located in southern Chile, Torres del Paine is the crown jewel and hiking hub of Patagonia. Its iconic landscape is a quintessential postcard view, the image you conjure when your mind hears the word ‘Patagonia’: towering granite peaks, neon blue lakes, and guanacos dotting the hills against its moody skies.
Torres del Paine’s beauty is matched only by its remoteness – approximately two hours driving from Puerto Natales, or five hours from Punta Arenas (both of which are a three hour flight from the capital Santiago). Simply put: when you’re there, you’re there, fully immersed. Because of its popularity and its limited capacity, Torres del Paine typically makes for the centrepiece of a Patagonia trip, the perfect hub around which to build the rest of your itinerary. And because of this same popularity and limited capacity, choosing your home base from which to explore and experience Torres del Paine will always be one of the first and most exciting parts of any planning process.
For those travellers looking to embrace all of the adventure of Torres del Paine without compromising on comfort during your stay, there are three luxury lodges to consider. While each has its nuances, all three of these work in more or less the same all-inclusive way: roundtrip airport transfers, accommodations, full board meals (with free flowing wine & spirits!), and of course daily guided excursions in and around Torres del Paine. During my most recent visit to Torres del Paine, I had the opportunity to experience all three of these, with the hope of making it easier to help you decide which is the best fit for you.
Rest assured that you can experience the highlights of Torres del Paine from every one of these, and they all share the same flexible model of conferring with the guides during your stay to select your excursions. This way you are not locked into a fixed itinerary in advance, but instead can see how you are feeling and what the weather is like each day to ensure you’re making the very most of your time in Chile’s most beloved Park.
Explora Torres del Paine
Explora Torres del Paine is the pioneer of luxury adventure in Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. This lodge was the first luxury destination in Torres del Paine and is arguably the best located hotel in all of Patagonia, set in the middle of the park on Lake Pehoe and overlooking the Paine Massif. Want proof? Explora’s view is quite literally the Apple TV screensaver.
With over 50+ explorations to choose from, its central location makes Explora the best choice for experiencing the park’s highlights with minimal transit times; and yet, I can almost guarantee that your best photos will be taken without even leaving the hotel! Please do yourself a favour and set that sunrise alarm. If budget allows, it’s worth springing for the Cordillera Paine or Suite Exploradores room for this morning routine alone: watching those first rays illuminate the Cuernos from my bed while sipping a hot cup of coffee was easily the highlight of my stay.
With its own stables and a private boat for crossing Lake Pehoe, Explora is the ideal spot for riders and, most especially, for trekkers whose priority is covering the W Trek from comfort. While these trails are also available from the other hotels, all others must use the public catamaran, which has larger crowds and fixed transfer times. This means that you can get out on the trails earlier and remain on them longer, with your personal ride waiting for you to drop you off right at the hotel’s private dock. During my stay, I met some guests who weren’t even going out for a hike, they were just enjoying the boat ride each way as an excursion in itself!
Because Explora was Torres del Paine’s first luxury lodge, its exteriors show a few signs of the years and weather, and its facilities aren’t quite as modern as the alternatives. While Explora’s bed was the most comfortable of my trip, the trade-off of its central location on the lake also means higher wind exposure, so if you’re sensitive to noise, it’s best to pack earplugs as the nights can get very loud with the gusts. Adding to the bustling atmosphere, Explora is also the largest of the three lodges with 50 rooms total and the only one to allow children of all ages, making it the perfect option for families but less ideal for guests seeking more seclusion and serenity.
If you’re planning a longer itinerary, ask us about combining Explora Torres del Paine with Explora El Chaltén, Explora Atacama, Explora Patagonia National Park, or Explora Easter Island!
Tierra Patagonia
Located on the eastern periphery of Torres del Paine National Park on the shores of Lake Sarmiento, Tierra Patagonia Hotel & Spa is simply breathtaking. At the risk of being reductive in comparing these two destinations: while Explora boasts easily the best location, Tierra offers the superior hotel experience. Its cuisine is more sophisticated, its wine selection more extensive, its service more personalised, and the design of the building itself is an architectural marvel – a wonder of lenga woodwork seamlessly blending into the surrounding environs.
Particularly noteworthy about the hotel design is that all 40 rooms at Tierra share its same spectacular view over Lake Sarmiento, across from the Paine Massif. As with Explora, the default for Tierra’s all-inclusive stay involves setting off each day in a small guided group to experience the highlights of Torres del Paine. While on the whole Tierra has fewer excursions than Explora, it does however offer the widest variety of activities, with options for hiking, horseback riding, and e-biking, along with the Glacier Grey boat navigation. For an extra fee, it’s also possible to arrange a day of kayaking or fly fishing if booked in advance.
If you’re keen on the Tierra property but would like a fully private experience, this can easily be arranged. Tierra has three suites that operate automatically on a private basis, with your own dedicated driver and guide catering to your specific preferences and priorities throughout your stay. In booking the suite, you guarantee a Torres del Paine adventure that is entirely yours, with the flexibility to wander outside of the set excursions and always at your own pace.
The Tierra experience is elevated in every way, and its sense of polish and peacefulness is felt both in its facilities and its location. There is a reason that ‘Spa’ is in the lodge’s name, as you may be tempted to book an extra night just to enjoy a day relaxing beside the pool, sipping your smoothie or cocktail of the day (be sure to ask for these!), or just recuperating in the sauna and steam room after a yoga class
Of course, being set away from the fray of the national park also has its trade-offs. Do be aware that the transit times will necessarily be longer for excursions from Tierra than they are from Explora; while these drives are beautiful and often park of the adventure themselves, this is an important consideration if you know that your priority is to be as conveniently located as possible.
If you’re planning a longer itinerary, ask us about combining Tierra Torres del Paine with Tierra Atacama or Tierra Chiloe!
Awasi Patagonia
When it comes to luxury in Torres del Paine, Awasi Patagonia sets itself apart as by far the most intimate and most personalised guest experience. Distinguished as part of the Relais & Chateaux collection, Awasi is not a traditional hotel, but rather, a collection of 14 stand-alone villas set against the pampa about an hour outside the national park. The property has only one communal building – home to reception, a lounge, and the dining room. From here, it’s a five to ten minute walk to your villa, each one nestled in such a way that you’ll feel you have the entire vista to yourselves.
Awasi is the place for visitors who place a premium on privacy and exclusivity. In contrast to Explora and Tierra, which both operate on a shared basis exploring with other guests, Awasi provides a fully curated experience, with each villa being allocated its own driver and guide (effectively the Tierra Suite experience, but for all guests). With so few villas, the staff to guest ratio at Awasi far surpasses the other hotels, and they pride themselves on an unparalleled level of attentiveness in their service. Of course, with so few villas, this also means that Awasi usually books out a full year in advance, so if this sounds like the place for you, it’s best to plan ahead.
Perched in a private reserve overlooking the Paine Massif in the distance, it’s clear that Awasi has a certain rarified air that’s remote even by Torres del Paine’s standards. That said, its calm and isolation can cut both ways, and some travellers may find they actually prefer and crave the lively atmospheres of the more traditional hotels, where it’s easier to meet and mingle with other guests and to spend time with a variety of guides over the course of your stay. Likewise, while each Awasi villa does have its own private hot tub that can be warmed for you upon your return each evening, I was personally more inclined towards the facilities at Explora and Tierra, both of which have indoor options (pools, jacuzzis, steam rooms, and saunas) that are most welcome on particularly wet or windy days – by no means a rarity in Patagonia!
As with Tierra, Awasi is located outside the park (considerably further out), so this is certainly a factor; however, there is almost no limit to where you can explore with your private guide, and they’ll always go above and beyond to ensure that you do everything you want to do in Torres del Paine – and some things that you didn’t even know you could do, too!
If you’re planning a longer itinerary, ask us about combining Awasi Torres del Paine with its sister properties Awasi Atacama or Awasi Iguazu Falls.
Which luxury option is for you?
The wonderful thing about the luxury hotels in Torres del Paine is that there simply isn’t a best one – there is only the best one for you. But in my experience, the differences between these lodges are only worth celebrating, as their particular charms are distinctive enough for you to feel confident picking the one that most closely aligns with your priorities.
If location is the most important thing to you, Explora cannot be beaten.
If you’re looking for the most elevated and complete hotel experience, Tierra is a destination in and of itself.
And if privacy and seclusion are what you’re after, Awasi awaits.
And if you still can’t decide, that’s no problem at all: you’ll just have to come back twice more to visit them all!
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