Punta Arenas or Puerto Natales?
 

I will be arriving in Santiago in the morning.

Due to which days on what flights are offered I may then:
1-Stay a day/night at Singular Santiago and the next day fly Sky Airlines to Puerto Natales, to then continue to Explora Patagonia.
-or-
2- Take a same day as arrival mid day LAN flight to Punta Arenas, and then drive to Singular Patagonia for 1 night before continuing to Explora Patagonia.

Any opinions as far as shorter drive, longer travel day, more scenic drive, and all around better option?
Thank you in advance! After all your advice this is my last detail to iron out.

I am also interested in this topic..

It is usually advised to spend the night before continuing on to account for possible delays and flight cancellations. If there is a flight to Natales to be had, I would choose that option. The drive from Arenas to Natales is not anything special. Not to mention it is about 4-5 hours-that makes for a crazy long day/days of continuous travel.

If one has extra time, would you recommend a day or two in Natales to explore, or take day trips, before heading to a lodge in or near TdP? I like sampling places to eat, and visiting food markets, and maybe do handcraft shopping. Is Natales a pleasant place to wander around for a half day or a day?

For onthebow, I think I would try for the flight to Natales also.. it wasn't an option until last year.

You will see enough of the flat Patagonian steppe grasslands between Natales and Torres del Paine.

ekscrunchy, what's your reason for going to Patoagonia, most people do it for the walks, scenery and wildlife. It isn't really for the the things you mentioned, there are other places in Chile that work better for that and are less expensive and time consuming to reach. If you have to kill time for some reason (eg waiting for a bus), there are undoubtedly some gift stores in Natales and PtaArenas, but I wouldn't spend half a day shopping. There are a few more 'things to do' for a city tour in Punta Arenas, a museum, old mansion, cemetery. There's a sort of market near the port where you can buy a beer and a king crab empandada. I think the penguins are probably the main attraction (excursion to Magdalena Island). You can also rent a car and drive along the Beagle Channel. I've heard people with time take the ferry across to Porvenir for wildlife viewing if they aren't doing a bigger cruise, also. That takes a little more time though. If you make it up to Natales then you can do a day tour to Torres del Paine if you aren't a hiker. But if you are a hiker I'd try to have a few full days in the park.

From Natales there is an excursion called "Tursimo 21 de Mayo" that leaves from Natales and goes up the Last Hope Sound (so like a mini cruise), to a farm with the usual lamb lunch. Probably most passengers will be other Chileans, which is fun, too.

https://www.turismo21demayo.com/

ekscrunchy-I assume you are going to TdP and will find yourself in the area with perhaps an extra day and that you are not just seeking it out for tourism in and of itself. With that said, we spent two nights in Natales and enjoyed the town. We too like spending a little time immersing in the local culture. We had some fabulous meals, enjoyed the markets and shops and watching the locals fish and play soccer.

See the blog entitled Patagonia (Not Return to Patagonia). Dec 21 and 22 are from time spent in Natales:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/odie1/1/tpod.html

Thank you for the advice. I tried for Natales, yet with the way the flights worked out, we are going to fly to Arenas and make the long drive so we can start our first official day out of Santiago; and with a hike after breakfast.
I will post when we return.

Oh, sorry. Yes, Natales would be a possible stopover before heading to one of the lodges in or near the TdP park.

What Odie wrote is what I was referring to: wandering around the town (or Arenas), visiting a food market (is there one, though?) eating seafood, and seeing if there are any crafts or food for sale to take home. The reason to visit Patagonia is the scenery, and any wildlife would be a bonus. Odie: I read a few pages of your blog, and except foro the dogs and the wind, it really stoked my interest.

Onthebow: Sorry for breaking in here. If I decide to go forward I will post another thread of my own...

If you are flying into Punta Arenas you might want to look into spending the night at La Casa Escondida and ask them to prepare dinner for you. It isn't far from the airport.

http://www.lacasaescondida.cl/home.html

Ekscrunchy-I agree with Odie. We enjoyed checking out Puerto Natales where we picked up our car for our drive to TDP. It was a nice little town. Also agree that Punta Arenas while having some sites, was unbelievably windy. We took the bus from PA to PN. I have a very lengthy TR that describes our time in both towns.

Yes, I always enjoy your reports. Will check the SA one out now!! Thanks.

Mlgb: Thankk for the tip. Will check that out as well!!

eks-if you aren't a fan of wind, I am afraid you will be in for a big let down in Patagonia. Over two trips one for two weeks and the other for almost three-there was wind everyday, most of the times strong wind, not light breezes. Funny thing is though that unlike yes, PA was the least windy of the places we traveled to!
If you read the days on Puerto Natales, you will see that indeed there are food markets-the one we went to was inside, more like a supermarket I suppose, but culturally just as interesting. You will also read about the indoor market we went to, where we saw the artists creating their pieces. It was set up with various stalls/storefronts. There are some fabulous restaurants in Natales as well.
We also wandered around Punta Arenas but while there is some pretty architecture, we found we liked Puerto Natales better. I would recommend going out to the Singular for a fantastic meal and to see the converted sheep factory. They have left many parts of it in its original state.

Thanks so much!! The wind does sound kind of dreary...I wonder about the variability of the weather in early March, when I was thinking of going (next year).
I will take a look at some weather charts. It would be terrible to be there and have cloudy, drizzly days. That is the chance we take whenever we travel but this is so dependent on scenery, it's not like I can duck onto a museum or covered market if it rains!!!....I have to give it some thought and do some more reading.

It was often hella windy both times I was there (once Dec/Jan and once late March/April). There were always fronts coming through, so the more flexible you are, and the longer you spend the better your chances of good weather. It would be risky just going for a single day! We had both clear and overcast days on both trips around Patagonia. Even had a mostly clear day when I hiked up to the Towers and a beautiful clear day when I came in from Natales by van.

Fantastico Sur has a lot of good info on their website, as does Las Torres Hotel (they are really the same company).

http://www.fantasticosur.com/en/

Some info on private transfer costs

http://www.lastorres.com/en/all-inclusive-2/transporte

In TdP, I stayed at Las Torres hotel, the newer Refugio, an at Vertice Patagoia's Paine Grande Lodge.

In Natales I had a hard time finding availability on short notice. Since this was before there was widespread use of booking.com I had to telephone and make a reservation which wan't easy in Chilean-accented Spanish!. So I would try and make lodging reservations as soon as you know your travel dates.

While our day in PA was windy I think we got lucky in TdP as I don't recall the wind being an issue. We had nice, sunny weather the couple days we are there. I loved TdP and thought it magnificent.

Eks-I would love to have a meal with you one of these days when I am inNYC. You have the best recommendations ��

That will be great!! I will be home in mid April...