This post is based on my personal hiking experience at the Torres del Paine of 2015
The Torres del Paine national park is one of the most important and beautiful natural park in Chile and in South America. The park is located about 100 km north of the pretty city of Puerto Natales.
The park is a popular destinations for hikers from all over the world, containing two of the most famous long-distance trekking trails, the W and the Q (see map).
The W trek is the shortest and most popular of the two. It consists of 100 km of hiking trails running into the park and it is usually completed in 5 days/4 nights. Inside the park there are two possibilities for accommodation. The Refugios (shelters) and the Campamentos (campings).
Since 2016 both of them have to be reserved in advance. It is strictly forbidden to camp outside the campings area in the park.
Refugios and campamentos are managed by two private companies, Fantastico Sur and Vertice Patagonia, and directly from the public CONAF. The private campings have many services (shower, restaurants), while the public CONAF campanentos are more spartan, consisting basically just of a campsite, toilets and some tables.
In the next posts I will give you some hints on how to prepare for the Torres del Paine trek and a description of the W circuit trek, based on my experience in 2015.
Stay tuned!