JulianoMelao

Dear Fodorities friends..

I will arrive at Santiago 24 December and leave 01 January.

Planning in rent a car 24 Dec at Airport stay 1 night in Santiago and get Route 5 to Puerto Montt (around 1000 km) stop in some places and sleep in strategies points, stay some days in Puerto Montt area, drop off the car at airport and get a flight back to Santiago.

So, have some doubt:

Is it better drive Santiago x Puerto Montt or Puerto x Santiago?
About New year eve, where is better?
In Puerto Mount is a good idea to use car or better get tours?

I had already visit Val Paraiso and region.

Tnks you guys,
Juliano.

live42day

We were in this area in January of this year and had planned on doing just what you said above. When we looked at the map and what was in-between, we decided to fly to Puerto Montt and rent a car there. We figured otherwise we would be spending almost the entire week in the car.

We are glad we did. We spent a week exploring Chiloe, and Puerto Varas and highly recommend that area. If you book in advance you can get very inexpensive flights on Sky.

The car rental in Puerto Montt, we used Budget, was the easiest pick up and drop off I have done anywhere in the world.

We did not go into Puerto Montt at all, just stayed in Puerto Varas and did one tour from there but otherwise we drove around ourselves. Driving was easy, great roads if you stay on the main roads but anywhere off the main highway is usually gravel, but was not a problem.

We spent two nights in Castro, and one in Ancud on Chiloe and the other four nights in Puerto Varas.

JulianoMelao

Thank you.

Did you drive Puerto Varas to Santiago or just use flight from/to?

So, Is it better stay in Puerto Varas than Puerto Montt?

Tnks again.... ;-)

live42day

We flew both ways. I did some research on Puerto Montt and decided that we would be more suited to a smaller place, Puerto Varas. The scenery was spectacular, a lakeside town with Mount Osorno as a backdrop. We could walk everywhere from our B and B and enjoyed good restaurants and small town feel. The lake was full of families swimming. It was their summer vacation so quite busy and very warm.
We just had that as our base and did day trips from there in the car.

A week later we did a cruise from Valparaiso that stopped in Puerto Monnt and all the excursions were to places around Puerto Varas or outside Puerto Monnt if that gives you an idea. It is only about a half hour away if I remember correctly.

HappyTrvlr

Yes, I would stay in Puerto Varas over Puerto Montt.

yestravel

We also flew from Santiago to Puerto Montt. As discussed above our original thoughts were to drive to Puerto Montt, but agree that it looked like a very long and not particualry interesting drive. In PM we picked up a car and went to Chiloe. We stayed in Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas and did prefer PV to Puerto Montt.

We were on an extended trip so went onwards to other places and did not go back to Santiago, but if we were going back there I would have flown.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

Puerto Montt is a medium-size city. It has a couple of sights, but not much to keep you there. The towns around Lake Osorno (Puerto Varas, Frutillar, and Puerto Octay) are much more charming and interesting.

tower

hard to disagree with Jeff who is resident expert on Central and South America (Chile).We loved the entire lake district (rural and otherwise) including those towns named above. They were far more real with a flavor for mid-Chile. We stayed at Hacienda Los Lingues and were treated to a spirited horse show and auction. Then drove for a few days to Chillan, Pucon, Pangipuli (sp), Frutillar, Octay, etc. The small boat lake crossing (five lakes from Puerto Varas to Bariloche) was rural and quite dramatic. The Antumulal Lodge in Pucon was our favorite.(Pics below)

tower

Pics, Chile, lake crossing, Bariloche:

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...ocheArgentina#

(Also have scanned pics of Amazonas region and Rio, if interested.)