Patagonia 2026

To start the trip, we’ll fly into Santiago and then another short hop to Puerto Montt in Northern Patagonia. We’ll be renting a motorcycle from Moto Patagonia and completing a self-guided ride, largely following their 5 Day Interlagos Tour through the Los Lagos and Los Ríos regions.

The relaxed 600 mile route will take us up through lakes, rivers, and volcanoes in the foothills of the Andes (update: with some fun off-pavement sections sprinkled in). After rest day at the Huilo Huilo eco resort, we’ll loop back to Puerto Montt along the Pacific coast. We’ll do one last day ride out of Puerto Montt before returning the bike and picking up a car to start Part 2.

The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) that connects Puerto Montt in Northern Patagonia to Puerto Natales in the South starts by ferry hopping through the archipelago and fjords of the Pacific Coast south of the city. After making landfall in Chaitén, we’ll continue the drive south and make our way to Puerto Natales via Argentina.

The Carretera Austral is a key segment of the Pan-America Highway and one of the only roads linking Southern Patagonia to the rest of South America. Historically, it has been considered fairly demanding, unpaved route through the mountains, but it’s been mostly paved over the years (update: “mostly” was optimistic, about half the route was unpaved, including some tight mountain switchbacks and narrow mountain tracks). We’ll finish the route on portions of the famous Ruta 40 in Argentina, eventually crossing back into Chile for the last section into Puerto Natales on Ruta 9 (Ruta fin del Mundo).

The approximately 1,000 mile drive should take about a week. In addition to taking in the mountains and wilderness from the road, we’ll make a few stops to explore sites like the Marble Caves in Puerto Río Tranquilo and the Perito Moreno Glacier in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.

Once we arrive in Punta Arenas, we’ll drop off the rental car and switch to full tourist mode, following a pre-arranged itinerary for the last week of the trip. After two weeks of riding and driving, we’re expecting the planned excursions and shuttles to be a welcome change of pace.

Highlights include hiking and exploring the mountains of Torres del Paine National Park, taking a boat excursion to visit the penguin colony on Magdalena Island, and kayaking in the Straight of Magellan. Outside of the planned activities we should have enough flex in our schedule for other excursions like horseback or jeep rides or just relaxing and enjoying the parks from the comforts of the resort spas.