Booking Torres del Paine campsites continues to be a struggle for many hikers. When I booked the campsites for our O-circuit hike, I actually didn’t find it as complicated as many people made it sound, but I did miss some details when booking. So the booking process was a little more time consuming and frustrating than it had to be.
In this how-to-guide, I will explain you step by step how to book the Vertice and Las Torres campsites. So you will have all the details you need to make the booking process as painless as possible.
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Table of Contents - How to book Torres del Paine Campsites
- What makes booking the Torres del Paine campsites difficult?
- Where to book the Torres del Paine campsites
- A step by step guide on how to book Torres del Paine campsites
What makes booking the Torres del Paine campsites difficult?
There are two things that complicate booking the campsites for a multiple day hike in Torres del Paine:
- The campsites are owned by different companies: Vertice, Las Torres and CONAF. If you want to hike the W-trek or the O-circuit, you will need to book campsites with at least two different providers.
- The popularity and limited capacity of the W-trek and O-circuit. This means that accommodation fills up quickly, especially the budget options, and you need to book your place as soon as possible.
CONAF campsites: The free CONAF campsites have been closed for the past seasons. From what I gathered talking to people working in the park, the facilities could not keep up with the amount of visitors. This is why they needed to be closed for maintenance. But since these campsites were free, and Las Torres and Vertice need to pay a percentage of their earnings to CONAF, I have my doubts about whether they will open again. So in this guide, I’m focussing on booking with Vertice and Las Torres. If CONAF does open their campsites again, I will add the relevant information to this article. If you notice they have opened and I haven’t added the information yet, please send me a message or comment below so I can add it.
Where to book the Torres del Paine campsites
There are two popular ways to book the campsites in Torres del Paine:
- Directly with the companies (and CONAF if they open)
- With Torres Hike
I booked the campsites for hike directly with the ccompanies, since I’m a bit of a control freak and like to see exactly what I’m booking and paying for. Since I didn’t use Torres Hike, I can’t compare based on my own booking experience. But from looking at the website and talking to people who booked it I’d say that it’s a good alternative.
I’d say that if you’re flexible with your dates, willing to invest some time puzzling with dates, and only want to book a certain accommodation type, you can book your campsites directly with the providers. If you just want the quickest and easiest booking experience,Torres Hike is a great option!
A step by step guide on how to book Torres del Paine campsites
Step 1: Determine which campsites you need to book
First of all, it’s important to know which campsites you actually need to book for your hike. For standard itineraries, this would be the following:
- Standard 5D4N W-trek:
- Grey (Vertice)
- Paine Grande (Vertice)
- Frances OR Los Cuernos (Las Torres)
- Central OR Chileno (Las Torres)
- Standard 8D7N O-circuit
- Seron (Las Torres)
- Dickson (Vertice)
- Los Perros (Vertice)
- Grey (Vertice)
- Paine Grande (Vertice)
- Frances OR Los Cuernos (Las Torres)
- Central OR Chileno (Las Torres)
There are several variations possible of these hikes, which I will further discuss in upcoming articles about the W-trek and the O-circuit. For this article, I will use these standard itineraries as examples.
Do note that if you’re doing the O-circuit, you can only do the hike counter clockwise and you’ll need to book the Dickson and Los Perros campsites together. The hike from Los Perros to Grey is very long, and it’s not possible to skip Los Perros. So if you want to shorten this hike by a day, you can skip Seron instead.
If you’re hiking the W-trek, you will need to decide whether you prefer to hike from East to West starting at Grey, or from West to East, starting at Central or Chileno.
Step 2: Determine your dates
Next, it’s important to know your range of possible dates to hike Torres del Paine. While the National Park is open year-round, the O-circuit is closed during the winter season (generally from April to October, but this can vary per season). The W-trek stays open year-round, but you’re required to hire a guide if you’re hiking between May and September.
If you’re completely flexible, I recommend going for the shoulder season. We hiked at the end of March, finishing a few days before the O-circuit would close, and it was still super busy. Especially the trails shared with the W-trek where packed, and even more so on the trails that can also be done as a day trip on top of that. January and February (the most popular months) must be insane!
Step 3: Open the website(s)
To book the Vertice campsites: https://booking.vertice.travel/booking
To book the Las Torres campsites: https://lastorres.com/en/where-to-lodge/camping-in-torres-del-paine/
For CONAF: While it’s unlikely these campsites will open again, you can double-check and possibly book here.
Or book everything together with Torres Hike. If you’re booking with Torres Hike, you can find the standard itineraries on the website, or make a custom trip. Then just add your preferred dates, and the system will tell you how much this trip will cost you, based on found availability. Book the option that best suits you and you’re done. Easy as that!
If you prefer to book with the providers directly, there is a little more work to be done, which I will explain in the following steps.
Step 4: Search for availability with Vertice
I found the Vertice website a lot easier to use than the website of Las Torres, so I recommend starting there. It’s much quicker and easier to see whether they have all the required availability than Las Torres.
Add your information on the first page and pick your hike (the W-trek is called W-circuit here, and the O-circuit is the Paine Massif Circuit) to get to the booking page.
Step 4.1 - Select the campsites
The system will lead you through the selection process of the accommodation by itself. Since the O-circuit is more restricting, selecting the accommodation is very straightforward. You’re only given one option until the last night. For the W-trek, you will need to select Grey as your first accommodation if you’re hiking the classic 5-day trek from west to east, and Paine Grande if you’re hiking from East to West.
Step 4.2 - Finding available dates
Add your first preferred date to the calendar for the first campsite and the system will search through the available accommodation options. So if you want to hike any day in March for example, add the first of March for the first campsite. If there is no accommodation available for one or more nights, you will get an error message. Click on retry and add the next possible date to the first campsite. That would be the 2nd of March in this example. If there is availability for all selected nights and accommodations, you will get the option to select your preferred accommodation in the drop-down menu.
Step 4.3 - Select your preferred accommodation type
Select your preferred accommodation option in the dropdown menu for each campsite. Only available options will be shown. If you need additional services, like meals or if you want to rent camping gear, you can select this here as well. Just add the services you need, you can change the amount on the next page. But we will get to this later.
Now you can choose to keep searching for other options if you want to go system by system, or continue to step 5 & 6. Make sure to leave the page open regardless, as you will be going back here.
Step 5: Calculate dates for accommodation Las Torres
So now that you have one or more possible stating dates for your hike, you can calculate for which dates you will need which accommodation in Las Torres. So if you want to hike the classic 8-day O-circuit and you’ve found availability for the 2st of march until the 5th of March with Vertice, you’re schedule will look like this:
- 1st of March – Seron (Las Torres)
- 2nd of March – Dickson (Vertice)
- 3rd of March Los Perros (Vertice)
- 4th of March: Grey (Vertice)
- 5th of March Paine Grande (Vertice)
- 6th of March: Frances or Los Cuernos (Las Torres)
- 7th of March El Chileno or Central (Las Torres)
If you want to hike to Mirador Las Torres on your first day instead of your last day, move the last night to the beginning of your itinerary.
For the W-trek from West to East, your itinerary would be the same as the last 4 days (4th of March till the 7th of March in this example). And if you want to hike the W-trek from East to West, it will be in the opposite order.
Step 6: Search for availability with Las Torres
Go to the Las Torres website which you opened before and scroll a little down on the page until you find the calendar. Add your preferred starting date. On the next page select whether you’re a foreigner or a local resident and you’ll get to the booking system.
Step 6.1: Search for availability at Frances or Los Cuernos
Let’s start with the most difficult one: Frances or Los Cuernos. Or, if you really have your heart set on staying at El Chileno, start here. El Chileno is the most difficult campsite to book, as it’s always the first one to fill up. But you can hike Las Torres from Central as well, and this campsite is a lot easier to book. It’s huge.
The system will prefill all dates with the first date which you’ve added to the calendar, so you’ll need to update it. Start with adding your date to your preferred campsite: Frances or Los Cuernos and click on “search”. Next, you will see all accommodation options, and whether they are available or not. If your preferred option is not available, try the other campsite. If this one is not available either, try another date if you made a list with options from Vertice, or head back to Vertice to find another option first. Follow these steps until you found matching availability with Vertice and Frances or Los Cuernos.
Additional services at Las Torres – Note that Las Torres has a separate accommodation option for included camping gear, whereas Vertice gives you the option to rent gear separately with them. If you want to include meals, you can select them below the accommodation type.
Step 6.2: Search for availability at the remaining campsites
Now search for availability for the other Las Torres Campsites. If you’ve found availability at either Frances or Los Cuernos, you’ll likely find availability for the other nights as well. If not, you will need to head back to Vertice again and start over. Until you’ve found available accommodation for every night, at both websites. Yup, it’s a puzzle!
Step 7: Book your selected accommodation
Did you find suitable accommodation for all required nights? Congratulations! Now quickly head back to the Vertice website and make sure your dates of preference are still available. Make sure all required accommodation and additional services are selected and click on next. Your selection will now be reserved for 25 minutes. Enough time to complete your booking with Las Torres, which doesn’t give you a guarantee like this. So complete your booking with Las Torres, and head back to Vertice to complete this booking as well.
If you have selected additional services, update the amount on the confirmation page, before heading to the payment. A tent is good for two people, but if you need to rent a mat, or sleeping bag, or want meals for two, or more people on the booking, you’ll need to update the amount here.
Saving your itinerary – Vertice will show your itinerary on the booking confirmation, but Las Torres will not. So I recommend saving a print screen of an overview of the selected campsites, or note them down somewhere so you always have easy access to them.
This was: How to book Torres del Paine campsites
I hope this guide has simplified the booking of the Torres del Paine campsites a little for you. If not, or if you still have questions feel free to reach out to me via the below comment section or the contact form.
