Torres del Paine National Park

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‘Big Break’

Gwyn Topham watches mammoth-sized icebergs float past in the epic landscape of Patagonia's Torres del Paine national park and takes a (slow) ride with the gauchos.

Guardian, 2 Sep 04

Review by press.

‘Walking in Torres del Paine’

It's a long way away but that just keeps it quieter. When I first came here in 1994 I ended up spending 6 weeks walking through the park, following any track and path I could find. It really is unbelievably beautiful.

What ever you do, don't come here to spend 2 days which many people seem to do. You need 5 or 6 days in the park, minimum, to get a sense of the variety of this place. You want to see the area around glacier gray, the hike up to the torres themselves is a must.

Ideally you want to do the 'W' trek which takes 4 days or the full circuit which will take you more like 9 days. That really depends how active you want to be so I'm not going to be prescriptive here.

Clearly if you love to hike then you need to spend more time here but my point is that even if you aren't all that into your activities you need to allow time to get across those lakes and up against the mountains and that takes time. Don't stint on your visit here, you will almost certainly regret it.

5 / 5 Review by member Thomas Power

‘Fully agree....’

....that it rates amongst the best National Parks in the world. I spent a year exploring Patagonia by horse and never got really close to the wildlife, basically due to my dog, but in Torres you can almost touch the chulengos, armadillos, rheas and so on. Another must in life!

5 / 5 Review by expert member Mikael Strandberg

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