This Eco-Friendly Lodge Offers All-Inclusive Adventure in Patagonia

It’s not every day your massage runs late because a puma is draped over the spa’s doorway. That’s the reality of staying at Hotel Las Torres Patagonia: one of the few hotels within the limits of Torres del Paine National Park where we humans are very much the guests of the resident fauna and flora.

Originally a working ranch, this private nature and cultural reserve inside Chile’s hypnotic national park has been in the hands of the Croatian-Chilean Kusanovic family for generations. It was Antonio Kusanovic Jercic and his wife, Amor Eliana Marusic, who cautiously opened their home to adventurers enticed by the granite peaks and glacial landscapes of the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region. After these humble lodgings and home-cooked meals proved a hit in the 1990s, an eco-boutique hotel complete with a sustainable restaurant and bar, spa, organic garden, and stables attended by baqueanos/baqueanas eventually supplanted the estancia.

Open seasonally during the Chilean summer and early fall, these 72 rooms and suites are upscale base camps with the comfort of a five-star hotel but the soul of the mountains. This isn’t the kind of all-inclusive where you’ll be lolling around over room service: a stay at Hotel Las Torres Patagonia is all about getting outdoors (on foot or on horseback) and, hopefully, encountering a puma or two.

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All-inclusive adventure in Chilean Patagonia

Photo courtesy Jonathan Barría Arjel

Operating as an all-inclusive, all packages include full board, round-trip airport transfers, and a choice of 40 excursions focused on nature and culture. Even getting to Las Torres from Punta Arenas Airport is rolled into the guest experience. Although a handful of flights do serve Punta Natales (a 90-minute drive from the hotel), the older, southerly terminal maintains more frequent connections with Santiago. The five-hour journey north past glacial fjords and windswept grasslands flecked with wild guanacos is broken up with a pitstop at Estancia Cerro Negro for once (“on-say,” – Chilean teatime).

After indulging us with pastries, the baqueana and heir to the estancia, Ninoska “Nino” Belén Kusanovic Olate, showed us around her family’s original farmhouse and demonstrated sheep herding with her Patagonian sheepdog – a hardy Barbucho Magallánico with European origins native to the region. This experience lays bare the tougher realities of living in Chilean Patagonia (the bracing winters is why Las Torres only opens between October and April) and dives into how traditional agriculture has innovated over the years to compete with modernization and the rise of synthetics. Spending time with Nino at the ranch serves as the perfect introduction to Patagonia; I’d encourage all travelers curious about rural culture to fly into Punta Arenas.

Arriving at the hotel under a pollution-free night sky meant being spellbound by the scenery of Torres del Paine would have to wait until morning. This brought a Christmas-Eve-level of anticipation and I flopped under the covers eager to see what the light of day would bring. My room was perfectly fit for its purpose with a firm mattress for restoring weary limbs between hikes and reliably hot water in the chic en suite. Practical storage racks helped me prepare for what lay ahead with plenty of spacing for coordinating apparel and readying my fetching new pack, courtesy of this eco-forward hotel. Fashioned from recycled plastics, these waterproof hiking totes are gifted to every guest along with a neck gaiter and stainless steel bottle to refill in the streams streaking through the park.

As for the view, it didn’t disappoint: a soaring view of Cerro Almirante Nieto greeted me through my window. Conveniently, this hulking mountain serves as a handy navigation tool on the trails.

A boutique stay on the trail of Base Torres

Photo courtesy Hotel Las Torres

Staying at Las Torres puts you within walking distance of the national park’s iconic day hike, Base Torres, and spares the shuttle bus commute from Punta Natales. The 11.5-mile (19 km) hike weaves through the windy Ascencio Valley and Patagonian lenga forests before reaching the lookout at the foot of the triumvirate of granite towers.

While it’s possible to explore most trails independently, enlisting the company of the hotel’s guides is highly recommended. Besides sage insight on regional culture and nature, the guides bring a relentless energy to every outing. Our group particularly enjoyed Benjamin’s use of props while explaining the geology of Cuernos del Paine – his pop quizzes were less appreciated. We were equally charmed by Michelle’s unwavering cheer – and, later, the hotel’s complimentary hiking poles – as we heaved ourselves up the boulder-strewn finale of Base Torres. Las Torres also offers packages for the W and O circuits with options to sleep in the hotel’s campsites, cabins, or mountain hostels.

The stable houses a herd of gentle-natured Criollo horses who, in the company of baqueano and baqueana guides, carry us wannabe gauchos deep into the wilderness. After settling into the Corralero saddle (far comfier than any Western saddle) and being mentored on communicating with our steeds, we slowly trekked to Nordenskjöld Lake. The route dipped through rivers where the horses could hydrate and snaked along spine-tinglingly sheer ridges. Fortunately this breed is especially sure-footed and we all mastered the art of riding with only one hand on the reins. After our guides surprised us with a gallop (optional) across the plains we arrived back at the hotel just in time for sunset, my spa appointment – and that puma encounter.

Once the puma cub had rejoined his pack, I was ushered into a cozy chalet warmed by a woodfire and scented with the fragrance of rosemary and orange oils from a botanical store in Punta Natales. While untangling my knots with a deep tissue massage, my massage therapist joked that a massage would bring my heart rate back to normal. She went on to share how the mother puma and her three cubs are frequent visitors around dusk; they pose zero risk to guests as long as a respectful distance is maintained.

Therefore, if the prospect of a post-hike sauna or spot of wellness (hotel guests get 20 percent off any treatment whereas the sauna is free) was already on your mind, that’s another reason to go ahead and book in some dusktime R & R.

Sustainable cuisine and cocktails in Chilean Patagonia

Photo courtesy Hotel Las Torres

As the four pumas circuited the restaurant and spa, the park rangers did a fine job of keeping us onlookers safe while also encouraging us to appreciate the moment. This is what a stay at Las Torres always comes back to – respecting that we are guests in this ecosystem.

Sustainability took center stage at this family-owned hotel long before it went mainstream. In fact, the decision to relocate all livestock to Cerro Negro was the first step towards establishing a sustainable tourism ecosystem and the hotel also has its own environmental NGO, AMA. The lodge, thrice nominated for South America’s Leading Green Hotel in the World Travel Awards, has signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action and pledged its milestones for achieving carbon neutrality.

Breakfast and dinner are served in Restaurant Coiró where dishes are curated with ingredients from the property’s orchard and greenhouse. I was surprised by the diversity: lamb shank, fish stews, comforting pasta dishes, and a salad of the day inspired by what was picked that morning. I wouldn’t hesitate to re-order Caldillo de Congrio (conger eel soup) or any starter containing mushrooms and beetroot grown in the plot. The hotel could get away with a smaller menu but it’s done a stellar job of covering all tastes with a balance of local flavors, national dishes, and comfort food. Most importantly, plates are sized with hikers’ appetites in mind.

Lunch and late-night bites of burgers, salads, and sharing platters are available in Bar Pionero. Helmed by Federico Gil – a Uruguayan cocktail wizard who fell for the charms of Chilean Antarctica – this is South America’s “pioneering” (get it?) sustainable bar. Guests are welcome to request a cocktail masterclass with Gil, learning how to prepare his signature tipples infused with calafate berries and native herbs. These are served in delicate vessels repurposed from glass bottles and straws handcrafted by Gil using Chilean copper. These are available to purchase in the property gift store alongside chunky knitwear, baqueano berets, and the hotel’s wine.

In addition to crafting his own lagers and ales, Gil also distills a deliciously botanical gin and a lightly spiced whisky exclusively for the hotel’s cocktail menu. He relies on glacial water and hops plucked in the greenhouse while any byproducts are pumped back to the garden to reduce waste. He broke my heart when he told me that, as per the hotel’s sustainability manifesto, the store doesn’t sell bottles of either spirit. But, I suppose that’s yet another incentive to return to Las Torres.

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