This is part one of a comprehensive guide for a road trip through Carretera Austral. This post focuses on how to travel through the Carretera Austral using various transportation options including buses, self-driving, hitchhiking, taking the ferry, and border crossing.
Note: this post was created based on my experience on Carretera Austral in November 2017 and extensive research. Schedules and the cost of public transport may change from time to time. If you find there are discrepancies in the information provided here, please drop me a line and I will update the post accordingly.
I spent two weeks on Carretera Austral, which covers 770 miles from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins. It is the most remote part of Chile’s Patagonia with a total number of 100,000 inhabitants. I took the bus from Puerto Montt, stopped in many rural villages along the way, and eventually exited the Carretera Austral in Chile Chico.
Although the Carretera Austral is one of the most beautiful highways in the world with endless beautiful natural sites off the tourist radar, planning this journey is in no way easy. The bus has no fixed schedule online and clear information about how to travel through this road is scarce in the guidebooks.
Related Post on Traveling in Chile:
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- Carretera Austral: Places to Visit and Things to Do
- Rafting Through Patagonia in the Beautiful Futaleufu River
- Best Tips on Visiting Easter Island
- Puerto Williams, Chile – The Southernmost City in the World
- 8 Reasons Why I Love Chile
For weeks, I was left in the unknown on where and how to take the bus and purchase the tickets, where I should begin the trip, and where I wanted to get off the road and how. With my Argentinian tourist visa application pending approval (I received it halfway through the trip), my travel plan was restricted to Chile’s side, and that added more frustration.
Despite the lack of information and long hours of planning, I decided to take the road trip and it turned out to be the best adventure I had in Patagonia; it was totally worth all the effort and the cost.
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Entering and Leaving the Carretera Austral
There are several ways to get to the Carretera Austral depending on your timeline and your budget. Different people have different ways of traveling through this route and every option has its advantages and cons.
By Air
The only airport you can use to fly to the Carretera Austral is Balmaceda Airport in Coyhaique. A daily flight is available between Puerto Montt to Coyhaique in the high season and the airfare can be as low as $22. For the schedule and airfare, visit Skyscanner here.
To get to Puerto Montt airport, ask your hostel and hotel in Puerto Varas to call you a taxi. Upon arrival at Balmaceda, you will find shuttle buses taking passengers to the city center of Coyhaique for $7,000 CLP.
Coyhaique
Puerto Montt airport is midway between the city of Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas, so it takes the same amount of time to reach the airport from both places. I recommend that you not spend too much time in Puerto Montt and only treat it as a place for transit. The city is ugly and it is not worth spending a night there.
Puerto Varas, Patagonia
I did not take the flight to Coyhaique. The city is located halfway along the road and I did not want to miss the scenery on the other side or double back, so I chose to travel using public transport from Puerto Montt.
By bus from Puerto Montt
I originally planned to travel all the way to Coyhaique, then return north and take a flight to Punta Arenas. As my Argentinian visa was accepted when I got to La Junta, I decided to continue the trip further south and here is my route:
Puerto Montt – Chaitén – Futaleufú – La Junta – Puyuhuapi – Coyhaique- Puerto Rio Tranquilo – Chile Chico (cross the border to Argentina towards El Chalten/El Calafate)
Puerto Montt – Chaitén – Futaleufú
In Puerto Montt, Kemelbus leaves for Chaitén at 7 am and travels 9 hours alongside the national parks, fjords, turquoise-blue lakes, and colorful mountains. I went to the Puerto Mott bus station and purchased the ticket a day in advance and the bus fare to for adult foreigners was $20,000 CLP.
From Chaitén, the daily bus leaves from the bus station to Futaleufú twice at 11-12 am and 4 pm. The 11-12 am bus drops passengers in Futaleufú and continues traveling to Coyhaique. I did not find the information on whether the 4 pm bus terminates at Coyhaique. Once you arrive at the Chaitén station, you can purchase your ticket to Futaleufú in advance.
Chaiten, a town destoryed by volcano eruption in 2008 and the volcano still remains active.
Futaleufú – La Junta – Puyuhuapi – Coyhaique
There is no timetable for the bus from Futaleufú onwards. The only way to find out the departure schedule is to ask the people at the bus station when you arrive in town.
In Futaleufú, the bus travels southwards once a week on Wednesday at 11 am to La Junta, stops in Puyuhuapi, and terminates in Coyhaique. The ticket is expensive owing to the rarity of the bus and this is where I experienced an increasing number of travelers hitchhiking to the south and crossing the border.
Futaleufu, Chile
In Puyuhuapi, the bus makes one trip to Coyhaique during the weekdays and two trips on weekends. The additional bus on weekends leaves in front of the tourism office at 6 am and the bus fills up quickly. The reason is that Coyhaique is the first place on this road to have access to banks, ATMs, currency exchange, many restaurants, huge grocery stores, and a mall. Everyone needs to stop there to get cash and stock up on provisions for their remaining trip.
Coyhaique Southwards
The ticket to Puerto Rio Tranquilo and Cochrane can be purchased in advance at the Coyhaique bus terminal, which is two blocks away from the main street. The bus leaves to Puerto Rio Tranquilo once a day in the early morning.
Once in Puerto Rio Tranquilo, the bus stops for a while to drop off passengers and continue onto Cochrane. From Cochrane, you can connect with another bus that takes you to Cartel Tortel and Villa O’Higgins.