How to get to Torres del Paine from Santiago or El Calafate

For most international visitors, Santiago is where the journey south begins. Chile Travel's guide on how to get to Torres del Paine from Santiago describes a flight from the capital that lands at Teniente Julio Gallardo, outside Puerto Natales, after 3 hours 17 minutes and roughly 2,000 km,¹ while another Chile Travel page rounds the direct trip to about 3.5 hours.² Either way, the flight is the quick part of the trip.

The Natales airfield is the closest air gateway to the park, which Chile Travel says gives the shortest route in, especially in high season,⁶ but its direct flights run mainly in the warmer months.⁷ Once you land, Chile Travel puts the airfield 15 minutes from the town center,⁸ and a taxi to the bus station takes about 11 minutes,⁹ where the buses and tours for the park leave.

The year-round alternative is Punta Arenas. Chile Travel gives the flight from Santiago to its airport as about 3 hours 27 minutes nonstop, or about 4 hours 45 minutes when the plane calls at Puerto Montt on the way,¹⁰ and notes that the airport works normally all year with daily flights from Santiago.³ The catch is the road: from Punta Arenas you still face about 3 hours, or 250 km, to Puerto Natales.¹¹

If you plan to travel early in the coming southern summer, check your flights with extra care, because the gateway closest to the park will not run its usual schedule. Chile Travel reports that the Natales airfield will open only on a fixed timetable through the first quarter of 2027, 1 January to 31 March,⁴ and that during this quarter airlines will fly in mostly at weekends, and only the days from 1 to 10 January running as normal.¹⁹

Chile Travel attributes the closures to conservation and infrastructure work reported by Chile's civil aviation authority,²⁰ and it points to a widely used alternative for that season, routing the trip through Punta Arenas. Its airport operates normally all year and receives daily flights from Santiago,³ and the road on to Puerto Natales is about 3 hours by coach or hired car.¹¹

If your booking lands in or leaves Natales during that window, ask your airline whether the flight still operates, and book the bus or car from Punta Arenas early, as Chile Travel warns that summer demand in the Magallanes region runs high.²¹ A day spent on the road from Punta Arenas is a day not spent at the glacier, so write it into the itinerary early instead of learning about it at the check-in desk.

For travelers combining Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, El Calafate is the natural link. Hotel Lago Grey names it, with Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales, as a starting point for Torres del Paine.⁴⁴ A scheduled bus runs from El Calafate to Puerto Natales in 5 hours, with a Spanish-speaking driver, from $64, and the reverse service from Natales to El Calafate costs the same.

The road crosses the border near the park. Chile's border agency lists the Río Don Guillermo complex as open to all types of vehicles, at 260 m above sea level, with Puerto Natales as the nearest town,³⁵ and CONAF places it at Villa Cerro Castillo, 52 km short of the park's Sarmiento entrance.³⁴ The Dorotea complex, at 605 m, is the other crossing near Natales.⁴⁵

There are also day tours from El Calafate. A full-day Torres del Paine trip from there runs 16 hours, with 7 hours by coach each way and a guided walk of 1.5 hours in the park, from $207, and another includes a short photo stop at the Grey Glacier on its route, from $189. Neither lists the boat in its itinerary, so if the sailing is your goal, plan a night on the Chilean side.

Hotel Lago Grey suggests a minimum of 3 nights in the park, because distances in the region are long,⁵⁰ and for a traveler coming from Santiago the full trip to the boat easily fills several days. Keep in mind the morning sailing leaves the beach at 09:30, with check-in an hour earlier,⁵¹ which is hard to reach from Puerto Natales without a very early start or a night inside the park.

Sort the paperwork before you travel. Park tickets are sold only online, at least 24 hours before your visit, and never at the gates,^38,52 and there is no internet or mobile data at the park entrances, so keep the QR code downloaded or printed.³⁹ The boat booking does not include the park fee,⁵³ and Chile Travel lists CLP 32,400 for a foreign adult's daily pass.⁵⁴

Keep a margin for weather. Chile Travel describes conditions here as extremely unpredictable and windy,⁴² and CONAF can close trails at short notice, as it did with the Playa Grey trail in November 2026.¹³ With a spare day before your flight home, a cancelled sailing costs you a day, not the glacier. Clocks in the Magallanes region stay on UTC-3 all year.⁴¹