Travel Pulse: Chile: The World’s Best Adventure Destination

Chile has been awarded the World Travel Awards’ title as the world’s best adventure tourism destination for the sixth year in a row.

It’s home to the world’s driest desert, clear-blue lakes, surf-worthy coasts and glaciers, making it a destination that can be visited dozens of times, without seeing the same thing twice.

Most people know that Chile is home to the Atacama Desert, the driest desert on Earth. With salt flats, sand dunes and some of the most beautiful night skies in the world, this extreme desert offers plenty of activities, like sandboarding, mountain biking or just hiking.

Less active adventurers can enjoy visiting the region's astrotourism attractions, like the many observatories that take advantage of the region's dry weather and incredible views of the Milky Way to study space.

Further south is Chile’s capital city of Santiago, which offers adventure activities within its beautiful metropolis. The city is known for its bike parks, like the Metropolitan Park, which offers both cement and dirt trails for both regular bikers and mountain bikers to enjoy. La Parva is another destination in the Andes that offers an 80-meter descent beginning over 3,000 meters above sea level.

In the deep south, in the Aysén or Magallanes regions, travelers can explore a diverse landscape made up of thick forests, turquoise lakes, active volcanoes, rocky mountains and hot springs.

A trek along the Cerro Castillo brings travelers four days of high-impact dirt trails through forests, alongside gorgeous lakes and through snowy, rocky terrain. Cape Froward is the southernmost point of South America and offers another four-day trek, this one with incredible views of the Magellan Strait, Lomas Bay and some of the islands along the coast.

Chile is truly the land where adventure travel thrives. No matter which type of destination or adventure activity a traveler desires, they can find it and more in Chile.