Visiting Torres del Paine National Park with kids is especially suitable for families with kids who love hiking. Torres del Paine Park is perhaps the most beautiful national park in Chile (and all of South America) and is located in Chilean Patagonia. We visited this national park (without our daughter) and in this blog we list all the information you need to visit this national park with kids.
Best travel time Torres del Paine with kids
The best travel time to visit Torres del Paine National Park is from December through February. These are the summer months in Chile, when you have the greatest chance of good weather. Therefore, it is not super cold and this is certainly the best period for hiking. During the winter months, many accommodations are also closed. From April through September (winter period), you are also not allowed to go on your own in the park and must always have a guide with you.
Because it is only a short period that it is the ideal conditions to visit the park, you can naturally imagine that during this period it is high season and very crowded in the park. Despite the fact that the park does have quite a large size, so while hiking it does spread out the tourists a lot. The prices of accommodations may then also rise during this period.
Transportation to and in Torres del Paine
The best base from which to visit Torres del Paine National Park is the city of Puerto Natales. From this city, it is still about 1.5 hours away by car or 2 hours by bus to the national park. You can book the bus to the park at most hotels in Puerto Natales. In the park itself you can drive around by car and, of course, it is recommended to take several walks in the park.
To get to Puerto Natales, you can fly from most major cities in Argentina. From El Calafate, it is about a 3.5-hour drive to Puerto Natales. At Puerto Natales airport, you can rent a car and drive that way to the Torres del Paine. This way you can make several day trips to the national park with the kids and end up spending the night in Puerto Natales….
You can rent a car here at the Puerto Natales airport through the rental company Sunny Cars. We usually rent a car through Sunny Cars, as they have a very nice rental package where everything for the car is included in the price and you can also often cancel very shortly in advance. To rent a car at the Puerto Natales airport, take a look here.
Hiking in Torres del Paine
As we mentioned earlier in this blog, hiking is one of the activities most commonly done here. The most popular hiking trail is the W circuit and we walked it ourselves in 4 days. Especially with packs on, this was quite a tough hike and not really suitable for families with kids. By the way, it really is a fantastic route to walk and the scenery is really tremendously diverse. We found it to be a really nice route to walk.
You have another longer route and that is the O circuit and this hike takes between 8 and 10 days. Of course, you can imagine that this one is also not very suitable for families with kids. So in this blog, we focus mainly on families with kids and assume day trips.
The most famous day trip in the park is the trek to the Base of the Towers. This hike is 17 kilometers and often takes about 10 hours. We also did this hike and found it very tough. When we got to the top, the lesser weather also made it impossible to see the towers. This hike is also not really suitable for kids.
Below we list some trips that are suitable for families with kids. Of course, it is then still up to the parents to make a good assessment of how far your kids can walk. Also, don’t expect a WIFI connection in the park (only for a fee), so be sure to be prepared in advance if you’re visiting this park with your family.
Sightseeing Torres del Paine
#1 Mirador Condor
A great day trip to Torres del Pain National Park with kids is to viewpoint Mirador Condor. This is a relatively easy walk of about 3 quarters of an hour, making it a good hike even with kids. You then drive by car quite a bit in the Torres del Paine park (so you already see a lot of the park) to camping Péhoe and start the hike from there.
You have a great view of the lake and the beautiful mountains at the viewpoint on this hike, and of course it’s fun with kids to spot the Condor bird that regularly flies around here. In addition to this hike, you can also take a second hike here to a waterfall: mirador Salto Chico. This is another relatively short hike.
You can also eat with the family near the campground at Pehoe Barbeque restaurant. This is a small restaurant with wooden tables, where you can go for mainly different meat dishes. So this way you can have two great hikes with kids and enjoy Torres del Paine National Park.
#2 Grey Glacier
One of the most famous glaciers you can visit with kids in Torres del Paine National Park is the Grey Glacier. You can drive to this lake by car. You will then drive to Hotel Lago Grey which is located near this lake. From there it is a short walk to the lake. It is beautiful to see the blue ice floes broken off from the glacier floating in the lake.
Another relaxing way to explore this beautiful lake and this magnificent glacier is to book a boat tour of the lake. This boat trip takes about 3 hours and goes several times a day. This is a boat tour that is also suitable for families with young kids who can’t walk much yet.
You can then get close to the glacier and, with any luck, you can see pieces of ice breaking off the glacier. This makes an impressive sound when this happens. For more information on these boat trips, check out the Torres del Paine website.
By the way, you can also do several hikes near the lake, including one that heads toward the glacier. It’s smart anyway when visiting the park on your own with kids that you also take a moment to visit the Torres del Paine visitor center.
Here they have much more information about the different trails you can walk as a family in the park. Near the visitor center you also have a small hike to a cool viewpoint of Las Torres, which is also good to do with kids.
#3 Organized day trip Torres del Paine
If you don’t have a rental car and still want to visit Torres del Paine park, you can possibly do so with an organized day tour from Puerto Natales. These tours are suitable for kids 10 years and older. You will then be picked up at your accommodation and drive towards the Torres del Paine park. Here you get an immediate view of the famous towers for which the park is famous.
You’ll stop at various vantage points in the park during this organized tour, which will give you quite an impression of what the national park looks like. After you have lunch in the park you will go to Gray Lake where you will hike for an hour in the forest and along the beach of Grey lake, among other places.
You can also see the beautiful blue glaciers here. Eventually you will be returned to your accommodation in Puerto Natales. This way you can still get an impression of this national park without your own transportation. Of course, this tour does take you a full day on the road. For more information on this organized tour, take a look here.
Family-friendly restaurant Puerto Natales
Puerto Natales is not a big city, but more of a cozy village that caters mainly to tourists going to visit the Torres del Paine park. We trekked in the park for 4 days and were able to rent in Puerto Natales the necessary gear for in the park, such as a tent and cooking gear.
In Puerto Natales you also have plenty of restaurants where you can get something to eat with kids. We list some of these restaurants.
Restaurant Y Pizzeria Alcazar: This restaurant is located near a hostel, which makes it feel a bit like eating in a dining hall. With kids for that matter ideal, as this also makes the atmosphere very informative. They have a wide menu at this restaurant with many options, including several pizzas and pastas. They also have a wide menu here in terms of (international) beers.
Napoli Pizzeria Italiana: this is another restaurant in Puerto Natales where you can go with kids for different pizzas or other pasta dishes. We also recommend the tiramisu for dessert here. The interior is a bit on the small side, though, with small tables and chairs.
Chocolateria Patagonia Dulce: If you are looking for a joint where you can have a cake or something else delicious in between meals, this is a good option. They speak good English here and the coffee here is very good. There is also a good WIFI connection which can be useful even abroad with kids!
Family-friendly hotel Puerto Natales
You can stay in Puerto Natales with kids just fine. There are plenty of family-friendly accommodations you can book in this place near the Torres del Paine. We list the best rated accommodations in different price ranges. Click on the blue link for more information.
Budget accommodation: Isla Yu Patagonia
Middle class accommodation: Hotel Costaustralis
Luxury Accommodation: Appelgren House Hotel Boutique
For a list of all family-friendly accommodations in Puerto Natales, take a look here.
Camping in the Torres del Paine Park
Of course, it is also possible, for example, to spend a night (or 2) at one of the campgrounds in Torres del Paine National Park. We spent 3 nights in the national park ourselves, and as we mentioned earlier, we rented most of our camping gear in Puerto Natales.
That way you won’t have to keep going up and down from Puerto Natales to the park. Of course, you then have to consider that you are going fairly back to basics in terms of accommodation and food and drink.
The Torres del Paine National Park website provides good information in English about what you can do here and is also a fine website to further orient yourself on your visit to the park.
