Punta Arenas Chile
Punta Arenas is the Arrival Airport for Torres del Paine
Punta Arenas is accessible by a 4.5hr flight from Santiago, often via Puerto Montt. the Southern-most city of the American continent. It is situated on the northern bank of the Straits of Magellan and is a relatively clean, modern city with an unusual history based on maritime trade, sheep ranching, coal mining and more recently petroleum extraction. The architecture around the central plaza area hails from a European style, which of course is the result of the early European settlers who colonized the area.
Punta Arenas (means SandyPoint in English) was officially founded in 1848 when the previous earlier-established settlement was relocated to its current position. It is the Southern-most city on the American continent. Prior to the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 Punta Arenas was a vital and major sea port for shipping coming from Europe to the western side of the Americas via the Straight of Magellan (a natural sea passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans avoiding the need to circumnavigate around Cape Horn), although the Clipper class ships still used the Drake Passage around Cape Horn in order to have enough space for navigational position maneuvers. Today, in terms of its maritime importance it is a key stop over for large cruise ships and also the departure point for maritime cruises to Tierra del Fuego and Ushuaia. It remains an important fishing port and Chilean Naval base. Punta Arenas is also still a highly important centre for the local wool and lamb trade with the principal exporters operating from here and sending their produce all over the World.
Punta Arenas offers an ideal rest point to break the journey between Santiago and Torres del Paine and is also a place from which to visit penguin colonies in the area. More recently it has also become the base from which to go on a whale-watching experience.
Torres del Paine Accommodation Partners
(the hotels below are our preferred partners, but we can work with a hotel even if it is not shown below)
