Gear Up:

Patagonia is quite an adventure. Make sure to take a light-weight backpack and minimal gear for a multi-day trip. A windproof jacket, rain cover for your backpack and a hat can be very helpful. Weather in Patagonia is unpredictable and you might have rain, storm, cold and sun changing throughout the day. It might rain for several days and be very wet, so make sure you come prepared for that.

While water is everywhere and you dont have to carry more then 1 big bottle with you, food is expensive here, so taking some of your own can save a lot of money. Dry soups, snickers, peanuts, bread, peanut butter, cookies, salt and pepper, ham, cheese, tea and coffee, and other basics. We decided to take a little camp stove, so we could cook our own stuff in the refugios.

There are lots of great blogposts about Torres, like this one by Kelvin.

You can also arrange a tour and let everything be arranged. Great tours are lead by the archeologist and explorer Raquel London and her company.

Set Up:

You can stay in the refugios (dorms from $50, make sure to reserve in advance), rent tents or bring your own stuff. I would definitely go for camping, but you will need a good tent, which can hold wind and rain. You can rent tents and sleeping bags in Natales or reserve already set up tents in advance, so all you have to do is jump in and sleep. But in that case you will need to plan every day of your route, which might be difficult for some people, especially with the changing weather in Patagonia.

Fly south to Punta Arenas

Fly deep south in Chile and take the bus to the base camp to Torres del Paine: Puerto Natales. Don’t listen to wrong information, the public bus goes directly from the airport to Natales, without going to the bus terminal in Arenas. The public bus is 5000 pesos one way, which is 3 hours of drive. But you might risk of not getting a place in the bus, so if you have some time, take a shuttle bus or a taxi to the bus terminal in Punta Arenas.

Explore Punta Arenas

If you end up in Arenas, eat a completo hotdog or churasco burger, drink coffee and discover the history of Punta Arenas in photos hanging on the walls in the famous cafe called Lomitos, next to the main street. You will spot a lot of locals here.

Towards Puerto Natales

The Base camp and entry port to Torres del Paine is a little fishing town with some nice little restaurants and some basic accommodation. The last bed which you will sleep in the next 5 days, if you camp while trekking in Torres.