Explora Torres del Paine Patagonia

Location is fantastic (easy access to MANY hikes), hotel and rooms are first-class and the guides were amazing (friendly, well-organized). We loved everything about Explora Torres del Paine - except if you are vegetarian and/or gluten-free. The serving staff never seemed to know about our dietary restrictions and we had to explain every time. There were not many gluten-free options, and vegetarian meals were too rich and not enough protein.

We had an absolutely incredible stay! Could not recommend this place enough. It has a hefty price tag, but they make it so worth the money. We are avid hikers and are very well travelled but can say this was one of the most incredible stays and experiences we’ve had. Totally exceeded our expectations. Major highlights: SCENERY - the scenery throughout the park is incredible. The view from the hotel alone is insanely beautiful, but everywhere you go with Explora is so picturesque. HIKING - The W hikes are wonderful, but the Explora team also has knowledge of other hikes in the area that are absolutely stunning (we highly recommend Alto Del Toro - 8 mi, 200P ft elevation loop). The base of the towers hike did not disappoint. We couldn’t do the French valley or grey glacier due to wind, but were very happy with the hikes the Explora team recommended instead. PEOPLE - the Explora team is top notch. All of the guides are passionate and friendly. When hikes got precarious (60 mph wind on top of a cornice) they were composed and confident — great leadership in a crisis. Things to note: - the Explora has a boat they use to take you to the start of the French Valley or Grey Glacier (2 legs of the W trek). If it is too windy, the boat does not run. We were at Explora 5 full days and each day, the boat was cancelled. This was ok as there were other beautiful hikes, but if your #1 goal is to do all the iconic W hikes, you will need to make a backup plan. The backup would be pre-arranging a two-way ticket for one of the larger boats (they can navigate in the higher wind speeds) to the start point of the French Glacier or Grey Glacier (the base of the towers is accessible by car). In retrospect, we may have done this as a backup plan to ensure we could do those two hikes. TLDR; if these hikes are top priorities for you, talk to the hotel before your trip starts to get advice on how to organize those rides. - If the boat IS running, Explora can only take a limited number of passengers each day to those two hikes. We were not aware of this, so ended up very low down on a waitlist to access those hikes if the boat were to run (the boat ended up not running anyway due to high winds speed, but we would’ve been bummed if we missed our opportunity to do the French Valley hike). TLDR; if doing the grey glacier or French Valley hikes are top priorities for you, mention this your guide right when you get to the hotel and ask specifically to be added to the boat list each day. - Five days was a perfect amount of time for our group. We have some very experienced hikers (4000 feet of elevation and 13 miles was very doable) and other members of our family who prefer to do a maximum of 8-10 mi with 2000 ft max of elevation) and felt like there were great options for each person.

Our first impression was the view of the Torres del Paine from the hotel lounge and it is truly stunning. After that, we were not disappointed either: the location is great, very central and ideal to explore the national park - with a wide range of included excursions (hiking, horse-riding, etc.). Most importantly the service is excellent (and very friendly). This was our first time in an Explora lodge and we loved it, from A to Z. Great guides (dedicated, friendly, knowledgeable…), great staff, really good food, excellent hiking, good sized swimming pool and spa (and the joy of combining swimming in the ice cold river and relaxing in the hot tubs) … We had an awesome 5-night stay! Only thing was we had to be a bit insistent to register for the longest / hardest hikes, even after a couple of days of proving we are experienced hikers.

We stayed here for 3 nights in peak season December 2025. It was around $3k per night. This price point set expectations very high, and while overall it was a great experience and stay, we expected perhaps a bit more personalized experience and quality at that price point. At $2k per night we would give it 5 stars. The main value/benefit of Explora is that (a) you are staying in the park itself rather than in Puerto Natales town. This saves you about 1.5 hours each way, or 3 hours in total a day of commuting to get to the popular hikes. On top of that, Explora knows which hikes on which days are the right ones to do as they monitor weather conditions very closely. So if you only have a few days, Explora gives you the best chance to maximize your stay and see the best of the park that weather conditions will allow. I haven’t researched whether there are other luxury options within the park, but do these two reasons alone I would stay at Explora again. Also, the view from the lobby/common area/dining is absolutely breath taking. Some of the drawbacks were that with 50 rooms and hence potentially 100 people staying at the lodge, much of the time you are in a small group of 6 people when you do your trek. We greatly preferred the one hike that my wife and I did with a personal guide, as we could set our own pace, stop when we wanted etc. The food and room are solid and nothing really to complain about, but I wouldn’t say spectacular, which again, was what I was hoping for at that price. The spa was also underwhelming a bit underwhelming.

There were elements of our stay that I liked - good transfer to the hotel (with stop at Gabriella’s for a great breakfast), location of the hotel is great, guides are very knowledgeable. I’d say the rooms are adequate, given how remote the lodge is. However, some aspects really need improvement - particularly the restaurant. Food was hit and miss, small portions and on 2 occasions even the bread was served with the dough not fully cooked. Excursions are quite regimented and left me feeling at times like I couldn’t take time to enjoy the scenery. It was also hard to know who exactly to speak to in order to organise the next days activities - an allocated contact/guide for each room would be better. Communication seemed an issue, for example we cancelled one excursion with reception but they didn’t pass the info onto the guide, who was then trying to track us down at the departure time. Massage at the spa was not up to the standard I was expecting and the spa is in an unusual location, walking back in wind/rain detracts somewhat from relaxation! Explora provided an onwards transfer to our next hotel- 8 hours car journey, but did not provide any lunch or even water. This was out of keeping with all other similar standard hotels we’ve stayed at in Chile/Argentina - who provided onwards lunch bags for long transfers. Overall this stay wasn’t good value for money for us and not comparable to other hotels at similar price point