The Carretera Austral is one of the great driving roads of the world. 1,240 km of mostly-gravel highway running through Chilean Patagonia from Puerto Montt in the north down to Villa O'Higgins in the south. Mostly forest, fjord, glacier and very few people.
I did it in two weeks in January 2022. Rented a 4WD in Puerto Montt, drove south, took the ferries that link the road's sections, returned the car at Coyhaique a week later, flew home from there. The southern section past Cochrane I haven't done yet. Next time.
[IMAGE: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1568797629192-908ad8ed5e8a?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop | A stretch of the Carretera Austral winding through forest with snow-capped Patagonian peaks rising behind]
What it is
The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway, Ruta 7) was built starting in the 1970s under Pinochet as a strategic road to connect Chile's southern regions, which had no overland link to the rest of the country. Most of it was finished by 1996. Sections in the deep south are still gravel and slow.
The road runs through Aysén Region, the most sparsely populated part of Chile. About 100,000 people in an area the size of Iceland. Forest. Fjords. Glaciers. Volcanoes. Very little else.
How to drive it
Three options.
Hire a 4WD in Puerto Montt. Drive south at your own pace. Return in Puerto Montt or in Coyhaique (about halfway) or in Cochrane. Drop-off fees apply for asymmetric returns. About 80–120 USD per day for a small 4WD in 2022.
Bus. Slower, less flexible, fine for travellers without a licence. Daily buses cover most of the route in segments. Plan a week longer than a car trip.
Bicycle. The Carretera is a famous bike-touring route. Three to four weeks. Stunning. The wind in the open Patagonian sections is the limiting factor — January and February are the best months for riding.
I chose the car. It was the right choice for two weeks.
When to go
December to March is the open season. The Carretera north of Coyhaique is paved and drivable year-round. South of Coyhaique the gravel section can be closed in winter (May–September) by snow or by ferry schedules pulling back to summer-only routes.
January and February are warm (15–20°C in the lowlands) and have the most daylight. The wind picks up in late February. Rain is common all year — pack accordingly.
I went mid-January. Conditions perfect. One day of heavy rain. Otherwise dry and clear.
The sections
The route divides naturally into three.
Puerto Montt to Hornopirén then ferries to Caleta Gonzalo. The northern section. Paved through farmland and Andean foothills. Two ferries link Hornopirén to Caleta Gonzalo — book ahead in summer through Naviera Austral. The road becomes serious after Caleta Gonzalo.
Pumalín Park. Possibly the most beautiful section of the road. Pumalín is a private-then-donated national park created by Doug Tompkins, the late American clothing entrepreneur who bought 800,000 hectares of Chilean forest and gave it back as a park. Old-growth alerce forest, hanging valleys, the Chaitén volcano which last erupted in 2008. Drive slowly. Stop often. The campsite at Caleta Gonzalo is small but excellent.
Chaitén to La Junta. Slower gravel. Small towns. Hot springs at Termas Amarillo (small, hand-made, no tourists). Fjords on either side of the road.
La Junta to Coyhaique. Returns to paved sections. Coyhaique is the regional capital — 60,000 people, supermarkets, dentists, the only place to get a flat tyre fixed in 500 km. Resupply here.
Coyhaique to Villa O'Higgins. The deep south. The famous part. Past Coyhaique the road is gravel for most of the remaining 600 km. Cerro Castillo national park. Lake General Carrera (largest lake in Chile, turquoise water that doesn't quite look real). Marble caves at Puerto Rio Tranquilo. The Northern Patagonian Ice Field comes into view. Cochrane. Tortel (a fishing village built entirely on wooden boardwalks — there are no streets). Villa O'Higgins at the road's end.
I made it to Cochrane on this trip. Tortel and Villa O'Higgins are for next time.
Practical things
The road south of Coyhaique is the hardest driving. Loose gravel, washboard sections, potholes hidden by puddles. Top speed 60 km/h. Average closer to 40. Expect tyre punctures.
Fuel stations are spaced 100–200 km apart in the south. Fill at every chance. Carry a spare jerry can.
Mobile coverage exists in the main towns and nowhere else. Download offline maps before leaving Puerto Montt.
Accommodation is mostly small family-run cabañas — 50–100 USD a night, breakfast included, owners often have their own farm food for dinner. Book in advance for January and February at the popular stops (Caleta Gonzalo, Puerto Rio Tranquilo, Cochrane). Outside peak season, walk-in works.
Pack rain jacket, warm layer for evenings, walking boots, a 2-litre water bottle, motion-sickness tablets if prone (the gravel rolls).
Where to stop and walk
A short list of walks that were worth pulling over for.
Mirador Volcán Chaitén — short hike (90 min round trip) up a viewpoint with the still-steaming Chaitén crater across the valley. Eerie. Quiet.
Sendero a la Cascada Escondida (Pumalín) — 45-minute walk through alerce forest to a hidden waterfall. The trees here are 1,000+ years old.
Cerro Castillo national park — full-day or two-day backpacking trip into the alpine zone. The hanging glaciers and the lagoon at the foot of Cerro Castillo are unforgettable. Bring proper gear.
Marble Caves (Puerto Rio Tranquilo) — short boat trip from Puerto Rio Tranquilo into the marble caverns on Lake General Carrera. Touristy but the water colour underneath is unreal. Two hours.
Glaciar Exploradores — guided ice trek onto the Northern Patagonian Ice Field. Half-day, around 120 USD per person. Crampons provided. The ice field is the third-largest in the world after Antarctica and Greenland.
Food
Patagonian cooking is meat-and-potatoes-with-a-glacier-view. Specifically.
Cordero al palo — whole lamb roasted on a spit over a wood fire. The main event of any Patagonian feast. Family-run establishments along the road will do this if you ask the day before.
Curanto — Chiloé-style seafood and meat steamed in a stone pit. More common further south on Chiloé Island but you'll find it in some Carretera kitchens.
Calafate berry jam — the small purple Patagonian berry. Local farms sell it from roadside stands. Buy two jars to take home.
Patagonian beer — D'Olbek and Cerveza Austral are the local craft brewers. Both excellent.
Combining the trip
The natural extension is north into the Chilean Lake District (Pucón, Villarrica) before starting the Carretera, or onward into the southern Patagonian icefields and Torres del Paine after Villa O'Higgins (involves backtracking up through Argentina). I came north into the Lake District after — three more days, easy. The Chile Lake District and Chiloé area is a different kind of trip and a good pair.
For broader context, the South America category page collects more from across the continent. If you'd rather have someone else handle the logistics of a Carretera trip, browse tours in Chile for guided options.
Official sources
CONAF, Chile's National Forest Corporation, manages the national parks along the route — Pumalín, Cerro Castillo, Queulat, and Patagonia. Their site has trail closures and weather updates. Aysén regional tourism has the road conditions and ferry schedules for the most updated info before driving.
A last thing
The Carretera is not an efficient road. Two weeks to drive 1,000 km is the right pace. The towns are small. The food is plain. The road is rough. None of that is the point.
The point is what's beside the road. Forest the way it used to be. Fjords that haven't been mapped properly. Glaciers visible from a roadside pullout. Volcanoes that were erupting fifteen years ago and might erupt again next year. People who have lived in valleys with one road in and one road out for three generations.
Slow morning. Easy ride. Worth doing while it's still mostly empty. A bit cold in the evenings but worth it.
On the ferries
The road is interrupted by water in three places between Hornopirén and Caleta Gonzalo. The crossings are not optional — there is no alternative road. Naviera Austral runs all three. Their summer schedule has six departures a day on the longest leg; their winter schedule drops to one a day with weather cancellations.
The trick I learned the hard way is that the ferry queue starts forming an hour before sailing, and at peak summer dates the ferry can be full by the time it leaves. We had to wait six hours for the next sailing on one of the crossings. Now I would book online or arrive ninety minutes early.
The crossings themselves are short — fifteen to fifty minutes depending on the leg — and the scenery from the open deck is the best you will get on the trip. Bring warm layers; the wind on the open deck cuts through anything light. Take the time. There is nothing else to do.
A final thought on solitude
In two weeks on the Carretera I passed perhaps thirty other vehicles outside the towns. The same kind of silence I used to find in Norwegian fjord valleys is here, only larger. If you are a person who needs silence sometimes, this is a road that gives it.