Originally Posted by EEB
Thanks for this advice.
The Explora looks good but is lots more expensive and I'm not sure it's worth the extra for us. We normally travel independently but I wasn't sure how easy that would be in this area. I wasn't sure how basic the other hotels would be but it sounds OK. How long did it take to drive up from Punta Arenas? Were the roads OK?
Traveling is quite easy in Chile, the roads are generally good and there's always food/gas available. From Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales the road is paved (actually concrete I think) and very good (about 250km/155mi), and then you get on a good unpaved road for another 150km/90mi (if I recall the distances correctly). I suggest you fill up with gas in Natales, as there is only one place to get gas in the park (a distance from Las Torres, closer to Explora), and it is expensive and you have to seek out the guy who operates the tank (he didn't seem to be around all the time). Also, I would make sure you have a working spare with you - we had a flat in the middle of nowhere in the park, at dusk - thankfully we had the spare, so it wasn't a big deal. They were able to fix the flat at Las Torres - lucky again, as we had another flat in Punta Arenas the night before our flight back!