The Carretera Austral (Route 7) connects Puerto Montt with Villa O'Higgins over more than 1,200 kilometers through Chilean Patagonia, crossing fjords, glaciers and forests that in several stretches can only be covered by combining driving with ferry crossings.
How much time you need
Driving the full route, stopping at the main points, takes between 10 and 15 days. With less time, many travelers choose to cover just the stretch between Puerto Montt and Coyhaique, or between Coyhaique and Villa O'Higgins, which already offers several of the route's most iconic landscapes.
Stops worth planning ahead
- Pumalín National Park, with ancient alerce forests and the Chaitén volcano.
- Queulat National Park, with the hanging glacier as its main draw.
- Marble Caves, on Lake General Carrera, only reachable by boat or kayak.
- Villa O'Higgins, the end of the route, from where you can also cross into Argentina on a multi-day trek combining hiking and boat travel.
Several stretches of the Carretera Austral are still unpaved (gravel), so it's worth budgeting more driving time than the distance in kilometers would suggest, and booking the ferries that cross the fjords in advance, since they run on limited schedules and fill up days ahead in high season.
If you're driving it in a rental car, check the requirements for foreigners renting a car in Chile, insurance and deposit before booking.
If you'd rather go with a group by bike, we compare the 10- and 11-day guided Carretera Austral trips in our guide to Aysén tours.
