What is a Full day tour in Torres del Paine?…..all day in the park?, what do you do?.. what do you see??..timing’s..reliability.. bottom line: WHAT CAN I EXPECT
From 7:30 to 19:30 / Entrance $15.000 /
First: A General idea
The idea is to get up early and they pick you up (Yes they go where you are staying), in Puerto Natales and close by Hotels (just a few kilometres around). The First stop is at Cerro Castillo, it is mainly a toilet stop… and there are souvenirs, but probably you would find the same at Puerto Natales, same shop. Then… finally after some frantic shopping in the middle of nowhere.. you head to the park, first entering by
Sarmiento Lakes, deep blue.. with a white border all around (calcareous formation).. nice view by the east side.
The second stop would be at the Laguna Amarga entrance of the Park, after paying or handling the vouchers, filling a questionnaire you can go to Las Torres Hotel, the beginning of the hike to the Base of the towers lookout and on a one day hike to the entrance of the French Valley. If you sleep here and still want to to do the entire tour, keep going and they would take back to the Hotel. The other direction takes to Pehoe Lake, where is the Catamaran that is Pudeto, where also you can go to see the Salto Grande. The time scheduled of the catamaran is in this post-catamaran.
Here is a place where you can have St that Pehoe Sodexo Campground there is “Quincho” a kitchen with a barbecue and a dinning room, nice pics taken from here also, you can buy food here or eat your box-lunch, if it’s warm enough….. the box lunch..cause here is a must to eat outside the van, eat by the lake you can spot some aquatics birds but if it is raining at the other side of the road you can get in a shelter.
After this there is a little nap-trip to the Grey Glacier, some stops at the administration center of the ranger park, here is a interesting map relief of the whole park it give a very good sensation of the area.. and how small we are.
On the way to Grey Glacier, there is a little chance to spot huemules (Hippocamelus bisulcus) is a small Andean Deer, and Chilean Symbol. If you don’t see them here there are more chances at Grey Lake, in the trail between the parking lot and the beginning of the trail. There is a hanging bridge here that only 6 people can cross at one time. This is a soft and easy hike… but it can be windy, cold, rainy or extremely hot, no wind and not a cloud in the sky..so you have to take your chances before the hike, that is around 1:40 round trip, to the end of the beach, you can keep going to a lookout that is in a island. The glacier is way back… 16 kms approx, but there are icebergs in the beach and the scenery around is stunning.
After this retun to Puerto Natales, or they would drop you at the hotel that you are staying at the park.
Bottom line: is a long day, take plenty of water, dress in layers… film.. sorry.. batteries and memory card