Explora Torres del Paine Patagonia

Everything was excellent: location, friendly staff, food, service, cleanliness, equipment, and interesting hikes with knowledgeable guides. Every day, there was a multiple choice of hikes or tours for half a day or a full day, from easy to advanced. On the day of arrival, the staff offers an introductory meeting to clarify guests' goals and capabilities.

Since this is probably going to be long, the TLDR: The view is unbelievable, the guides do a great job, the food is good, and it's hard for me to believe there's a better way to experience this area. We were greeted at the airport by Explora staff and took a comfortable shuttle to the hotel (about 1.5 hours). Some amount of unpaved roads, but not too bad. After check-in there was a short orientation session that went over the five different zones for hikes, how signing up for them would work, and some general info about Explora. Right afterwards everyone was distributed among the guides where we chatted a bit about what we were interested in doing and what the weather was going to be like, and we got our first day of hikes scheduled along with tentative plans our other two days. Each day you can either sign up for a full day hike or two half-day hikes (or just one half-day if you wanted to take it easy). Full days and morning half-days leave in the 7:30-8:30 range, and afternoon half-days leave around 3:00, leaving you plenty of time to rest a bit and get lunch at the hotel. It was very windy while we were there, so the scheduled our French Valley hike for the second day since that's when it looked less windy (important since it involves a boat ride). Hike reviews: Pingo Chorrillo - Nice forest hike. Not a ton of views, but we did see some cool birds and the hike ends with a waterfall. Sarmientno - More of a plains hike, amazing color of the lake and cool rock formations French Valley - Full day so one of our longer hikes, a bit steep towards the end but amazing views of the glacier. It was warm our day so we saw (and heard!) some small avalanches too. Beer and soda and snacks waiting for us on the boat afterwards! Aonikenk - Some interesting ancient rock paintings, but kind of a flat hike overall. Also very windy! Laguna Negra - Gauchos led us around for some easy horseback riding. All the guides are great, all their English was quite good, and they were really knowledgeable about the area and what we'd see on the hikes. Definitely fun to hang out with and spend a morning, afternoon, or day with. We generally didn't get the same guides though I think that's mostly luck-of-the-draw. Rooms are spare but very nice, modern, clean, with lots of wood. The view (if you get a lake/mountain-facing-room) is legitimately startling -- it really does feel unreal. Just amazing. Wi-fi was totally fine in all areas of the hotel. We were in room 51 which is the furthest one in the newer wing and it worked great, roughly 4mbps up/down. Easily good enough for stuff like social media and posting photos, and we could stream an episode of Jeopardy before bed without any issues (yes we're nerds). Seems significantly better than earlier reviews, maybe they got Starlink or something? Laundry service was pricy but quick -- we could leave a bag out in the morning and it'd be ready and waiting for us the same day after dinner. Food ranged from decent to very good. We're pescatarian so our options were a bit limited, but only a bit, since it seemed like they always had both vegetarian and pescatarian options available. Breakfast was a buffet with a few dishes you could order if you had time, and lunch and dinner were both a choice of a starter, main, and dessert, each of which had three options. We eat out a lot and have pretty high standards, and while some of the dishes were just fine, some were really excellent. I'd recommend going with the more local dishes, they were more interesting and new to us, and generally just seemed better executed. The ingredients seemed a bit limited (you'd sometimes see similar things used in different ways), but were generally high-quality. The trout in particular was very good, the tuna less so (I'm used to it being more buttery, theirs was a bit tough). It's for sure not a place I'd go specifically for the food, but it's remarkable how good it is for how remote the location is. They have a little automated wine machine so you can fill your own glass (or get a taste) from any of four options in the bar, though we mostly ordered cocktails which were good. Can definitely recommend the pisco sour, but the calafate sour (basically a pisco sour with some calafate juice) was definitely worth trying too. The spa was nice for some after-hiking soaking in a hot tub, but getting their itself was a bit of a hike! It's way down a bunch of steps from the hotel itself. Worth the walk, but climbing back up at the end of the day I probably could have done without. Also it closes early at 8, so going after dinner isn't really an option (possibly because of the dark and all those steps). They had a little store that had a small selection of basically everything you'd need, in case you forgot anything. It was pricey as you'd expect, but nice to have. Tipping was pretty easy too, they had a little form to fill out that could either give tips to individuals or the staff as a whole, and could be charged to your card (no cash needed). Overall, if you're willing to spend the money, highly, highly recommended.

We stayed 5 nights here on a fully inclusive basis in a Salto Chico room. We were picked up from our hotel (Remota Patagonia) in Puerto Natales by an Explora lodge van and driven to the lodge (around 1.5 hours drive). On arrival, we were greeted by Manuel, the manager at the door and bags delivered to our room. Manuel showed us around the lodge and explained how the days work here at the lodge. We were booked in for a walk from the lodge that afternoon. Our room was fabulous - I had been concerned that the 'lesser' Salto Chico room may have been disappointing, but no - we were very lucky to have Room 28 which was a corner room. Not a huge room but very comfortable. Unless money is no object, I would highly recommend the Salto Chico rooms - you really don't spend a lot of time in your room if you are here on a fully inclusive basis, and out for most of the day. The lodge has amazing view from the lounge and restaurant to enjoy any time. A lovely touch is the welcome card in the room as well as a quality water bottle and small dry bag of useful items. We sat down with a guide over a drink before dinner to plan out activities during our stay - this was revisited over a drink with a guide every evening to take into consideration the weather conditions expected for the next day. This lodge is stunning - the views amazing, the service fabulous and the food exceptional. It's the location though, in one of the wildest places of extraordinary beauty that we are here to experience. And so we did - we packed our days with activities - either full day activities where we would take a packed lunch or two half day activities where we would be back at the lodge for lunch in between. We had 4 full days and I would recommend this - we felt it allowed us to see a lot of the park in all directions. The Cuernos walk was stunning - difficult in its length - a full day of hiking with a few steep bits. Sarmiento - very interest - blowing a gale and horizontal icy rain yet we still enjoyed it!. Mirador Toro walk - lovely lookout. Pingo Chorillo - lovely walk to a waterfall. Laguna Largo - easy with the most stunning views of the horns. Aonikenk + La Loma - a full day. They offer horse riding - we didn't take this up. Groups were generally small - at most 8 with a guide, but often just us and 1 or 2 others. A highlight was our close enounter with a Puma - spotted high on a hillside by our driver when we were enroute to a walk one morning - to our amazement it walked towards the road and then ran between our group - amazing photos. I can't recommend this lodge enough - sure it is expensive but the location is the best, the guides and activities so good, the food and service could not be faulted. An experience we will always remember.

Excellent full board hotel and hiking guides! Marisol and entire staff are awesome, friendly, courteous, polite, professional. We loved everything about our stay and hiking here. Excellent food, and service. Nice bar! Don’t think there is anyway to make it even better. Also offered our reserve list wines at an additional cost. The ExPloRa hiking guides are very knowledgeable about the region. The transportation and drivers great. Would definitely visit again amd recommend any of the ExPloRa sites in Chile & Argentina. Well done!

While this is a very expensive option, it was worth every penny. I added it to my bucket list many years ago because of the view, and it did not disappoint. All the staff members were excellent, the food was delicious and drinks and snacks were offered throughout the day. The tour leaders loved what they were doing and assisted in every way. With the number of walking tours that were available, I wish I had been in better shape, but I managed. It’s an all inclusive that also included transfers that did not require waiting, and also included the tours - specialists met with guests to explain the tours, which we found helpful.