Puerto Montt vs Puerto Varas
 

Which one out of the 2 (Puerto Montt or Puerto Varas) is better to stay for a couple days??

Also, is it worth taking a day trip to Chiloe Island from Puerto Montt/Varas?? Any idea on what the cost would ?

I'd choose Puerto Varas over Puerto Montt. PV has more the look and feel of a small town in Austria; PM is more of a small city. In PV, you have the perfect view of the Osorno volcano across Lake Llanquihue.

Chiloe would not be an easy day trip from either. The ferry crossing is 35 miles south of Puerto Montt, with another half-hour on the ferry to get to the island. From there, it's about 30 minutes to the small city of Ancud and another hour to Castro, the largest city on the island, and another hour beyond that to Quellon, where the highway ends. (That's the southern terminus of the PanAmerican Highway.) If there's a tour operator that can take you, great, but it will be an awfully long day.

I agree, PV is the nicer of the 2 towns to spend a couple days in. U can read about our trip to Chiioe island
http://www.fodors.com/community/sout...-chile-arg.cfm -- Its on April 24.

Piya: don't fully ignore PM...we liked it...the Angelmo
fish market is unusual, with specimen's that defy imagination...the little cafes at the market are fun places, with strolling troubadors. The small city has a certain electric vibrancy...we turned in our rental there (after taking more than two weeks to drive down from
Santiago/Valpo/Vina del Mar)..and booked the Andes lakes tour to Bariloche (from theVicente Rosales Hotel)
The bus stopped in PV, and at Petrohue Falls..stopping overnight at little Puella...arriving Bariloche the next day.
As I'm sure you've read, it's bus-boat-bus-boat-bus-boat!
I had hoped to do Chiloe, but was told that the fog was unrelenting on the day we were to drive to the ferry.

Puerto Varas Things To Do: 115 reviews and photos of things to see in Puerto Varas, Chile from real travelers and locals.
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel...a/Chile/Region...

PV far prettier...

I agree with tower - we stayed in both and certainly like PV but the market at Puerto Montt was a revelation and if you like food/consider yourself a foodie I would say it is not to be missed.

Pics on our blog here (scroll down)

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/l...ke_distri.html

I agree you don't have enough time to visit Chiloe - the drive/ferry/drive combo eats up a lot of time.

And on this page are pics in PV - it is very pretty as well!

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/l..._distri_1.html

Thanks all for your responses.

Liz...wow..those Angelmo pics were super nostalgic...we ate in that very same building, can't recall the name of the little place. We were last in Chile pre-digital, so my scanned pix are not that great...but you'll recognize several.
I went two or three on a page at times..but best to click on pic and then click on magnifying glass icon to enlarge and move around with mouse. No food pics, as we do love good food and found Chile to be a surprising delight in that category, but we are not in the foodie realm. You certainly have a great blog. My Andes lake crossing pics are not yet scanned. Happy travels.

http://picasaweb.google.com/stuartto...esOfChile1994#

stu

I have pics from a later visit but not yet scanned.

Piya...you can't really go wrong staying at either place. If you have a car thay're very close with a main higway interconnect. You will love Chile..

I favor Puerto Varas. Find out about the little vans that go from Puerto Varas to Puerto Mont and vice versa por a real inexpensive fare, like one dollar or so, easy to take. In Puert Mont there is an area like a market, and places to eat fish by the water , forgot the name but worth visiting. Good luck/ (t was easy for us to visit the Chiloe Island but I was not impressed...

Puerto Varas is pleasant and has some lovely places around. Chiloé is interesting but does make a long day, we had beautiful weather the day we went there.

Pictures of our time in the area may be of interest:

http://wasleys.org.uk/SthAmer_websit...ras/index.html