Puerto Varas: Ganztagestour zur Insel Chiloé: Castro und Dalcahue

The reason I’m giving this two stars instead of one is because I do think it would be more fun in summer when penguins are out. We went in winter and the guide did not follow the itinerary. Ancud is in the tour’s title, but we did not go there. We also did not go to the Museo de Las Iglesias. We only went to three churches — barely. We couldn’t even go in one and another just happened to open right before we left. We were dropped off at a couple of places where the guide was just like “meet back in 20” with no info about what we could see except that we could shop. The shops were cool but this overall felt like a glorified bus. I personally would prefer to see churches and museums than shop and wished we’d driven ourselves and planned our own itinerary. I’d recommend just self driving this. There was very minimal “guiding” or cultural education even though we were on the bus driving for so many hours. The guide told two stories and seemed to think that would do it. It may also not be worth visiting Chiloe if you’re in Puerto Varas because it’s simply quite far. Especially in winter. Staying on the island would likely be better! Additionally, the guide told us Chiloe has no tourist culture and as such their food is only “gourmet” (whatever that means) so we should go to a lunch at someone’s “house” which would be more culturally relevant. Definitely just a house of someone paid by the tour? I bet the company gets a cut of the money. It felt like no was not an option and I definitely wished it had been listed in the itinerary. We almost packed lunch. It felt like a sales pitch to go there. The veggie option was just a pile of veggies. My husband got the pollo and it was really just a chicken thigh with some potatoes. They did ply us with unlimited wine though… and it was fun chatting with the other people on the tour… but this was supposed to be a tour where you actually see things not just chat. We were at the lunch place for two hours. And it cost 15000clp on top of what we were paying for the tour. We saw empanadas in the nearby town for only 1.5 clp! Plus plenty of other restaurants that looked great. Overall I’d consider self driving if you want to see stuff. Although the penguin tour may be worthwhile. It is just overpriced … and expect them to do things with extra costs. The guide also mentioned potentially doing a sailing tour for an additional cost (also not in the agenda) but it ended up being too windy. The main thing I was concerned about with self driving was getting on the ferry but it seemed super easy. It was 14.000 clp both ways but at least that was included in the tour price.

Todo el viaje muy lindo y entretenido. no lo califico con 5, porque el lugar para almorzar que fue el sugerido por el tour, no fue de buena calidad. se dijo que era muy bueno, pero no, sin sabor es lo minimo que dire.

This was quite a full day out with a lot of driving there and back. It was worthwhile, though, to have seen some quaint and colorful little towns on the island and it was fun to take the big bus on the ferry. The lunch was $15,000 and hosted by a local family. The food looked good but I had packed a lunch and decided to eat that. There was a little confusion about the meeting time. I thought I was being picked up at my hotel at 8:30 and ended up walking down to the main square at 8am after being called by the guide. She said that she had contacted me prior about the change in time and maybe she had but I was paying more to the actual ticket. It might be good to confirm with the agency the day before. We had about 30 people on our bus for this excursion.