We built the itinerary for our six-month exploration of South America around one specific set of dates: hiking the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. The park is world-famous in the hiking community for its incredible views, soaring jagged mountain peaks and icy glaciers. Now that we’ve done the trek, there are a bunch of Insider Tips for Hiking The W Trek West to East that we wish we knew before we started. We’ll share them with you here.

Note: This is the ‘technical’ post with our learnings from our W Trek . For the ‘fun’ post about the trek itself, go here!

Insider Tips for Hiking The W Trek

I’m not going to provide an in-depth guide covering everything about the W Trek – we have our main W Trek blog post for some jaw-dropping photos, and there are plenty of itineraries out there to help you plan. I’m going to assume that you have a basic understanding of where the trek is, how you get there, how long the trek takes, etc.

Here I’m going to focus on some of the specific ‘insider tips’ for hiking the W Trek west to east that – hopefully – might make your hike more enjoyable. It’s a little bit of a hodge podge, so just graze on this in between your other research!

The Campsites: How to Book, Available Services and Some Different Options

“There are three different companies you will need to interact with to book your campsites and get your park pass.”

Three different companies?? This all seemed a bit too much like hard work for me, especially when there’s a company that manages the various organizations for you, called torreshike.com. I think it probably cost about $20USD more than if I’d booked it myself, but…the process was seamless, it was a one stop shop, and when I needed to change the dates (on multiple occasions!) they managed everything for me. It was well worth it, in my opinion. (They’re not paying me to say this, either – they’re just a well-run service).

One of the best parts of their booking process is their map that ‘builds’ your hike as you go, and describes what each day is made up of (e.g. how many km you’re hiking). You can also add things like pre-purchased meals, tents, sleeping bags and mats for each site individually.

Book your dates as early as you possibly can. The Torres Hike guys can help change them later if your plans change (with some restrictions).

Alternate Routes for Hiking the W Trek

We ended up going west to east, staying at campsites Grey –> Paine Grande –> Cuernos –> Chileno. This is a pretty classic route. But during our trek, we discovered a couple of minor variations that you may want to consider:

Day 1 Alternate Route (Hotel Lago Grey to Grey): Instead of taking the ferry from Pudeto to Paine Grande, you can go upscale by taking a boat excursion. The boat is organized by and leaves from Hotel Lago Grey, and travels up Lake Grey and to the Grey Glacier before it stops at Refugio Grey, where you can get off. This not only gives you an up-close and personal view of Grey Glacier, but you avoid having to retrace the same trail on Day 2 back to Paine Grande. There are buses from Puerto Natales that take you to Hotel Lago Grey, or the hotel can organize transport for you. (You could even go really fancy and stay the night there the night before.

Note: If you do end up taking the ferry to Paine Grande (like most people) they only accept cash (Chilean pesos or USD) – no cards. In January 2023 it was 25,000 pesos per person.

The bus leaves you at Pudeto for the ferry and there’s a little cafe that sells hot drinks and some food. If nothing else it’s a nice shelter out of the cold until the ferry arrives. People went an lined up early for the ferry but you don’t need to. They have a policy that no-one is left behind. They’ll add another ferry if needed.

Day 2 Alternate Route (Camp Grey to John Gardiner Bridges Loop): Before packing up for the hike back down to Paine Grande, grab a daypack and head up to the two suspension bridges on the way to John Gardiner Pass. It’s about 3 hours, 7km return, and offers a great mirador to the glacier.

Day 3 Alternate Route #1 (Paine Grande to Italiano): There is a secondary route from Paine Grande to Italiano which goes on the south side of Lago Skottsberg. It’s called the Skottsberg trail but not labelled. About 1km from the start of the trail, you will see a sign pointing to the right saying ‘Italiano Solo Ida‘ (One Way to Italiano). It adds about 1km to the route, but is definitely the ‘road less travelled’ and well worth it. You have views over the lake towards the towering mountains, a view you don’t get is you walk the main route along the mountainside. It is well-marked and takes you through the centre of the area ravaged by a forest fire a number of years ago.

Day 3 Alternate Route #2 (Extra Day at Camp Frances): The ‘normal’ Day 3 trek goes from Paine Grande to Italiano, where you drop your main bag and do a day hike up and back to the Frances Valley, before carrying on to either Refugio Frances or Cuernos. This is probably the toughest day of the hike.

Consider adding an extra day to your trek and staying at Frances for a night. Hike Paine Grande to Frances on one day, stay over night at Frances. Take a full day exploring the Frances Glacier mirador and the Frances Valley mirador, and return to Frances that afternoon, or carry on to Cuernos to sleep there. You can swim in the lake at both Frances and Cuernos.

Day 4 Alternate Route #1 (Cuernos to Chileno): Although many maps seem to show that the hike from Cuernos to Chileno is 18km, with the last 2hrs ‘straight up’, in fact it is only 12km if you take the ‘shortcut’. Midway through Day 4’s trek, you will see a sign pointing to Hotel Las Torres (to the right) and another sign pointing to Chileno (to the left) – there’s another sign that actually says ‘Shortcut to Chileno’. Take the short cut path to the left. It’s shorter and less steep than the other way.

Day 4 Alternate Route #2 (Extra Day Trip to Torres del Paine): If you leave early enough from Cuernos (before about 8am), you can arrive in Chileno in time to hike up to Torres del Paine that afternoon. You need to be at Refugio Chileno by 2pm as the trail closes. Trail closures are not policed but it’s best to respect the park’s advice. Now, to be honest, you may choose to do this, but we decided against it. Unless you know the weather is going to be terrible the next day, OR you’re one of those people where too much is never enough. It’s not an easy hike up at the best of times, and we chose to keep our legs fresh for Day 5 and… 

Day 5 Alternate Route (Pre-Dawn Departure for Torres del Paine): Commit to getting up early and doing the pre-dawn walk up to Torres del Paine. For us this meant getting up at 3:30am, and practically freezing to death at the top waiting for the sun to rise. It was soooo worth it. The colours that you see as the sun comes up are unbelievable, and you just won’t see them at any other time of the day. Even an hour later and the colours were muted.

No matter what you do, go early. From about 9:30am the day tripper groups start arriving at Chileno to head up to Torres del Paine. You don’t want to be on that narrow path with all those groups.

Day 5 Alternate Route (Shuttle Bus to Park Entrance): Rather than walking all the way to the park entrance, you can take a shuttle bus the last couple of km. When you hike down from Chileno you’ll go past Hotel Torres del Paine. Continue 15 minutes to the Welcome Centre. They have good toilets, and some food. There is a coach bus that leaves at 2pm and they will run more buses if needed. It’s a bit disorganised so line up from about 1pm to make sure you get on the bus. You pay 3,000 pesos cash as you get on. Some people had pre-booked, which you could try doing (we still aren’t sure how you do this). The bus company is Transportes les Torres. The coach takes about 20 minutes back to the park entrance where you catch your bus back to Puerto Natales.

Clothing and Gear For Hiking the W Trek

Don’t underestimate the weather in Patagonia. Bring a warm base layer (tops and bottoms) and layers to protect you from anything that nature might feel like throwing at you. We had rain, sleet and snow on the first day, and snow on the last day. Bring a toque/ beanie, and at the very least light hiking gloves to keep your hands warm. On at least one night I wore all the clothing I had to stay warm overnight. You’ve been warned.

Rain Jacket and Rain Pants are a must. Gaiters come in pretty handy to keep the rocks out and the rain off your boots.

Bring hiking poles. Your knees will thank you on the way up, and it makes it so much easier to clamber up / down the many bouldery parts of the path you’ll encounter

Bring a really lightweight daypack. On several of the days you’ll leave your main bag behind while you do a ‘side trip’, and you’ll want something to carry your ten essentials in (extra clothing, extra food, water, sun screen, etc). But you also have to carry that daypack the rest of the time – so choose something that’s light. I used what I’d call a shoebag instead of a knapsack – just a bag that has two rope drawcords that also serve as the shoulder straps – and it was perfect.

Make sure you bring a strong headlamp and fresh batteries for the final day’s predawn hike to Torres del Paine

Camping Equipment: Rent and Carry? Or Fully Equipped Sites?

Because for us hiking the W Trek is just part of a longer South American trip, we couldn’t really bring any of our camping gear from home, so we ended up renting equipment – specifically a tent, sleeping bags and pads, a cook stove and mess kit.

This was not a cheap exercise. It was hundreds of dollars. (We rented from Rental Natales, which is probably not the cheapest option out there – but we were tired, it was raining, and we were leaving on the trek the next morning, so… there you go)

The tent and sleeping bags, although of good quality, were SUPER HEAVY.

The sleeping pad offered little to no actual padding (in fact, we carried an additional yoga mat, and ended up renting additional sleeping pads the nights we were on platforms). It doesn’t seem like anyone offers inflatable beds as rental options. Perhaps I’m just a wimp, but I like a little more padding under me after a long day of hiking.

That’s all that separates your sore aching body from the hard rocky ground…

And finally, the night we were at Chileno there were no campsites available anyway, so I had to reserve a fully equipped site with a tent, as well as lug our rental tent with us.

So what would I change if I was doing it all again?

First and foremost, if we were only hiking the W Trek and nothing else, I would bring my own camping gear from home.

If this wasn’t possible, I would definitely pay to rent fully equipped campsites with tent and sleeping bags & pads provided. When I first reviewed the pricing I thought this would be outlandishly expensive. It wasn’t until I got the bill for the rental equipment that I realized that for just a few dollars more, we wouldn’t have had to lug around the tent and bags, or bother setting them up and taking them down each day. The weight savings alone would have been much welcomed; although our bags were manageable, losing 10kg of tent and bags between us would have been incredible. (Note that not all sites offer tents, so you may end up in the hostel dorm room, e.g. at Paine Grande)

If you really can’t stomach paying the extra and insist on renting gear in Natales (or if you want to be true hard core and carry everything on your back) but can’t bring your own stuff from home, I’d suggest at the very least bringing an inflatable camping mattress from home. The pads they give you (even the ones you rent at each Refugio) offer very little in the way of padding or comfort. An inflatable mattress is pretty small to carry around with you the rest of your trip, and your back, hips and shoulders will thank you…

These are even fancier versions of the tents available at some of the sites – true glamping!

Buying Food At the Camps and Refugios

The shops at each of the Refugios varied wildly in what they offer for sale. In our experience, they got progressively worse as we moved from west to east.

The best shop without a doubt was at Refugio Grey, which had fresh eggs, fresh tortilla wraps, instant meals – all sorts of things. Camp Paine Grande was a close second, with very similar offerings including eggs.

Camp Grey shop photos:

Camp Paine Grande Shop Photos:

Camp Cuernos didn’t have much of anything aside from Doritos and Snickers bars, although they were able to provide us with fresh eggs from the kitchen when we asked.

By the time we got to Camp Chileno, the shop had pretty much given up. Some chocolate bars and chips. No eggs – in fact they laughed at me when I asked.

Pre-Purchased Meals (Dinners and Boxed Lunches)

From what we heard from other hikers, the pre-purchased meals (both lunch and dinner) were overpriced and underwhelming. We didn’t go that route, so can’t say first hand.

Keep in mind that at Chileno (which was our final night), you aren’t allowed to use your stove (Although we did see a group set up their stove in the restaurant area and make some noodles, and the staff seemed to ignore them – YMMV). They do have an urn that is always accessible with hot water. It seems like most people actually prepay for the prepared dinner here – which we didn’t really think about doing. We’d basically run out of dinners and lunches by then, and had just planned on buying something at the restaurant. This worked fine (we had the quesadillas, which were excellent and huge!) – but be aware that the hours and offerings from this restaurant are very limited. It closed at 5pm to prepare for the prepaid dinner crowd. Luckily we’d gotten in pretty early that day and were starving, so ate early.

I can tell you that there are restaurants and bars at Grey, Paine Grande, Cuernos and Chileno, and the food looked OK (if expensive) at all of them. They all took credit cards. They are only open at set times so you may need to wait for your meal.

Beer is available at all of these locations and is super expensive (6000 CLP per bottle) but gosh, are they satisfying after a long day’s trek.

All of the camps we stayed in had plentiful power options to recharge your phone. They also all had wifi which we didn’t use. They also all have flushing toilets, toilet paper and warm-ish showers. 

Some Options For Carrying Food With You

We were not able to find dehydrated camping meals anywhere in Puerto Natales, or in El Calafate either for that matter. We came across some in a hiking store in El Chaltén and so scooped up 10 meals to bring with us, and were very glad we did – that plus a packaged soup was our main meal each night.

For lunches, we relied on tortilla wraps and sliced cheese for the first couple of days (we babied a bell pepper to have with it), and then wraps with boiled eggs from the shop for two days more. The supermarket in Puerto Natales is well stocked with lots of things in small sachets perfect for camping. You can buy mayonnaise (and many sauces!) in large sachets, which work really well for a couple of days’ supply (stick them in a ziplock bag after you open them, or get the ones with the nozzle built in)

We bought these in Puerto Natales

Knowing what we know about the shops now, we’d have bought a few more eggs on Day 2 to see us through to Day 5 (We’d basically run out of food by the final night).

There’s no fruit or veg to speak of in any of the shops, so unless you’re willing to carry it with you, you’ll have to survive for a few days without them.

We always bring 10 or so freezer-quality ziplock bags with us when we travel, as they come in super handy. (And they’re a bit hard to come by and expensive in Chile and Argentina).

Drinking Water

I can confirm that water is abundant and beautiful just about wherever you are on the circuit. We each carried about a litre (in a camelbak) and refilled when it started to get empty at one of the many streams.

Trail Maps

This map (which is found on the picnic tables at Chileno campsite), provides a super-simple view of the W and O treks. The dark lines across the bottom form the W shape of the main hike. (The lines in white that travel around the top of the ‘circle’ represent the additional days/hikes that you add to the W to form the O).

Looking at the map, you can see that at the top of each of the stems of the W lie the ‘signature’ sights of the trek. (Of course, the entire trek is filled with amazing views, but these are the key ones). Starting from the west, we have Grey Glacier, French Glacier/French Valley, and finally Torres del Paine.

Here’s another map. One thing that we noticed about the different maps we’ve seen is that they all seem to list conflicting distances for the various sections. One theory we have is that the distances sometimes refer to the distance to the ‘Sector’ rather than to the ‘Refugio’ or campsite itself.

Insider Tips for Hiking The W Trek: Final Thoughts

Hopefully you’ve found a few tidbits here to help in your planning.

If I could offer a few final tips, they’d be:

• Don’t count on being able to buy any gear you might need when you arrive. Make sure you think about what you need, and bring it with you. The stores are quite limited – and expensive – here.
• Do some conditioning hikes before you arrive! You’re covering some pretty big distances each day, the last thing you want is to have your fitness affect your enjoyment. We saw a lot of people limping around camp. (Anti-inflammatories can really help with sore knees, too!)
• Prepare to have a trip of a lifetime!