Hiking in the Chilean Lake District

Puerto Varas offers easy access to day hikes in three very different national parks.

The most popularly visited is Vicente Pérez National Park, for hikes around the perfect cone of Osorno Volcano and the shores of Lake Llanquihue. The Paso Desolacion trail takes in both, with an option to include the sparking waterfalls of Saltos de Petrohué.

To the south, Alerce Andino National Park offers a contrasting experience with its thick temperate rainforest and ancient alerce trees that can live for more than 3000 years. The appropriately-named Alerce Milenario trail is one of the loveliest day hikes, along with the seasonal summer Triángulo trail around a series of tiny mountain lakes.

Hornopirén National Park is the least visited of the parks near Puerto Varas, due to its lack of established trekking circuits, but its wild hikes through alerce forest to lakes and volcano viewpoints are a hidden delight.

Slightly farther afield, the epic wild landscapes of Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park offers glaciers, volcanoes, rainforest and access to the famous Carretera Austral highway, but day hikes from here are better if you stay in a lodge in nearby Caleta Gonzalo. 

Pucón sits on the doorstep of two stunning national parks threaded with trails for day hikes.

Villarrica National Park has trails around the base of the base of the still-active volcano that gives the park its name, but some of the best hikes to be found around neighbouring Quetrupillán volcano, through thick forest with amazing views when you climb above the tree line, including to majestic Lanín volcano on the Argentine border.

Huerquehue National Park is braided with rivers, jewel-like lakes and stands of the prehistoric araucaria (monkey puzzle) tree, making for a very varied hiking experience. The Sendero Quinchol and Sendero San Sebastián trails here are the two best in the park

A little further to the north but still accessible from Pucón is Conguíllo National Park, where parts of the landscape still bear the dramatic scars of recent activity from twin-peaked Llaima volcano. Here, the Sierra Nevada trail offers sweeping views from glacier-capped mountains and beautiful ancient forest.

National parks in the Chilean Lake District have a variety of camp sites and refugios for multi-day hikes. Huerquehue and Conguíllo probably have the best number of campsites. with options more limited in parks like Alerce Andino. In Vicenté Perez National Park it can be possible to arrange homestays with local families as you pass through their farmland. One option here is to make a three-day trek passing the needlepoint of the Puntiagudo Volcano.

One of our favourite hut to hut hikes is actually outside the national parks around Lake Tagua Tagua. This private park, accessible by boat, is covered with temperate rainforest, tiny lakes and well-marked hiking trails. Staying in simple refugios allows you to truly explore this near-pristine wilderness.

More than 2,000 volcanoes run down the spine of Chile, and the Lake District has some of the most spectacular, including Osorno near Puerto Varas and smouldering Villarrica closer to Pucón. There are many trails offering brilliant day hikes on the slopes of the Lake District's volcanoes but it's also possible to climb to the peaks of the region's two most famous cones.

Villarrica (2860m) is the most popular to climb, as it offers the rare opportunity to gaze down into the lava-filled crater of a still active volcano. The ascent requires good level of physical fitness, but crampons and ice-aces are needed – your guide will provide instruction at the start of the hike.

For those interested in more technical climbs, the ascent of Osorno (2652m) overlooking Lake Llanquihue is a rewarding challenge, best tackled by spending a night at the refugio on its slopes. The final glacier approach is particularly steep and tricky, and requires some mountaineering experience, but the reward of the view at the summit make it all worthwhile. .