When I was researching driving the Carretera Austral a few years ago, there was virtually no information on this little visited region of Chilean Northern Patagonia. The road had a reputation of being one of the wild roads of South America, a badly maintained gravel beast that only a madman would think of driving alone.
There is more information available now, but even so, there are some quite useful things to know about driving the Carretera Austral, things it would have been useful for me to know before I got there.
So if you’re flying into Balmaceda to drive along the Carretera Austral here’s what you might find helpful.
When you say you’re “driving the Carretera Austral”, this has many definitions. There are several ways you can do it.
You can start in Puerto Montt, get two long car ferries over the watery bits (one is about 5 hours, so this is a not insignificant amount of time), and drive all the way down to the end of the road at Villa O’Higgins which is a really long way from anywhere. The total distance is 1240km.
You can drive through Argentina to avoid the ferry crossings.
Or you can do what I did, fly to Balmaceda and drive a portion of the Carretera Austral.
I’d decided that if I wasn’t doing the whole things, ferries, bells and whistles, I didn’t need to drive all the way down to Villa O’Higgins. My itinerary took me as far south as Puerto Tranquilo to see the Marble Caves and as far north as Futaleufu to go whitewater rafting, with a side trip to Puerto Aisen to see the San Rafael Glacier. And that was going to take 11 days.
So first thing it’s useful to know. All of the car hire companies have a stand at Balmaceda Airport and all the stands are manned when the flights land, even on Sundays.
I’d had nightmares trying to get my hire car, or pick up truck in my case, booked. I’d tried sending messages that bounced back, the unreliable online information said the car hire companies were based in Coyhaique, which is no use when you’re flying into Balmaceda.
Europcar seemed to be the only company at Balmaceda Airport, but their website said you couldn’t drive on gravel roads or the Carretera Austral in their vehicles. Since Balmaceda is on the Carretera Austral, it seemed unlikely that this restriction would apply, otherwise no one would hire cars from them, but only after a lengthy discussion by email in bad Spanish with Sebastian in Santiago (my Spanish was bad, not his!) was I able to establish this and exactly what type of vehicle would be sufficient for my requirements.
All the car hire companies have stands at Balmaceda Airport and they are all manned when the flight from Puerto Montt lands, including on a Sunday, which I was worried about, as this did prove a problem for me when I was travelling in Australia. But in Chile all the car hire stands were open.
So you probably don’t need to book in advance. I like the certainty of advance booking. I’ve been travelling a long way, I have things I want to do, I don’t want to chance flying into Balmaceda and find there are no vehicles available, especially for an odd duration, like my 11 days. But I suspect you could get away with it, especially if you’re travelling for a shorter amount of time.
It’s always worth checking before you sign on the dotted line, but the hire car companies expect you to be driving on the Carretera Austral if you fly into Balmaceda. Where else are you going to go? So you don’t need to worry about that. If you’re told you can’t drive on the Carretera Austral, just go to another company. There are several to choose from.
You also don’t need a 4 wheel drive even though the Carretera Austral isn’t all paved. More about that later. But a 4 wheel drive isn’t strictly necessary. Having said that I did find it useful to put my vehicle into 4 wheel drive on the gravel sections of the Carretera Austral, but I was just being extra careful. Plenty of people were in 2 wheel drives and they should be fine for anywhere you want to drive along the length of the road. However, as I mentioned, I didn’t drive all the way to Villa O’Higgins and the further south you go, the worse the road conditions get.
I had a 4 wheel drive pick up truck. I’d actually rented a 2WD, but was given a 4WD. I had chosen this, because with the limited information I had been able to gather, a lot of locals drive them and you are supposed to be able to get parts easily if they break down. I was sincerely hoping my pick up would not break down. It was brand new. It had only done 2500km when I took the keys. They’re also supposed to be nice and sturdy. With the reputation of the Carretera Austral being poorly maintained and full of potholes, nice and sturdy seemed the most sensible option.
I hired a manual pick up, so I had to change gear as well as everything else. I should mention that I’m used to driving a manual vehicle. I should also mention that as a Yorkshire lass, I have a right hand drive car, which is standard in England and am used to changing gear with my left hand. So not only did I have to change gear, I had to change gear with the wrong hand. But I’ve driven manual left hand drive vehicles in Europe before and you soon get used to changing gear with a different hand.
I seemed to be the only tourist who was driving a pick up. Everyone else had rented SUV type vehicles. And I could have had one of those and managed absolutely fine on the Carretera Austral with it. But I actually got quite attached to my pick up truck, it had a bit of character. And it blended in with the locals. But you certainly don’t need a pick up truck if you want to drive something smaller.
When I left Balmaceda Airport and drove 15km down the road from the airport to join the Carretera Austral, the road was all paved. Then I turned onto the Carretera Austral to drive southbound and this was also paved. The further I drove along the paved road, I wondered had I hired a 4 wheel drive pick up truck to drive along a fully paved Carretera Austral? Where was the gravel? Be careful what you wish for! The pavement does end and 90km or so north of Puerto Rio Tranquilo you hit the gravel.
There were roadworks at several points along the Carretera Austral. They are upgrading the road now, tarmacking more and more of it. Some of the roadworks last for about 10km and they were quite a trial, especially on the first couple of days of driving on the gravel until I got used to the road and my pick up.
And yes, there were appalling potholes in some spots too, sometimes for kilometres at a time. But generally even the gravel parts of the Carretera Austral are easily manageable. As mentioned above, I would put the pick up truck into 4WD on the gravel sections, just for extra grip on the road. After I’d got used to driving on the gravel and was picking up speed, sometimes up to 80km per hour on the straighter sections that had been newly graded, I wondered what all the fuss was about. But of course, the road conditions have vastly improved in recent years.
You will also see a lot of hitchhikers on the Carretera Austral. I never pick up hitchhikers. I always feel incredibly mean when I see them there on the side of the road, especially as I’m in an enormous vehicle on my own. But just like hitchhiking alone isn’t completely safe, particularly if you’re a woman, neither is a lone woman picking up hitchhikers. I’m sure most hitchhikers are nice people, in fact I did see a young couple of hitchhikers holding a sign proclaiming “We are Nice”, but there are enough crackpots out there who might pull a knife on you or something, to make it more of a risk than I’m prepared to take.
You will also find you can rock up to most towns and find somewhere to stay without making an advance reservation. I choose not to do this. I have done it in the past and find it a nuisance driving round trying to find somewhere to stay for the night. It feels like I’m wasting half of my holiday trying to find somewhere to stay. I prefer to know exactly where I’m going and then I have all my time for doing other things.
But actually the towns along the Carretera Austral are so small, you wouldn’t have to spend much time driving around them to find somewhere to stay, so this isn’t really an issue here. So if you like to go where the wind blows, you shouldn’t have too many problems finding a cabaña wherever you end up on this route. I saw vacancy signs in all the towns where I overnighted and this was the height of the tourist season in January.
And finally you don’t need to book your excursions in advance. I got on a boat to the marble caves without having to make a reservation and I could have also got on a trip to the San Rafael Glacier from Puerto Tranquilo without having to go through the complicated process I went through to make my reservation. If I’d known it would be so easy to roll up and go to the San Rafael Glacier the day I arrived, I probably wouldn’t have bothered posting all the necessary information to Chile from Latvia while I was working in Riga 3 months earlier!
I believe that they are slowly paving the whole of the Carretera Austral. So in a few years that wild element of the gravel and the potholes may well have gone, which I think would be a shame. Part of its appeal is the remoteness and element of danger. I’m pleased that I got to drive a good section of the gravel part of the Carretera Austral before it was completely tamed.
So there you have it. Everything you need to know about driving the section of the Carretera Austral between Puerto Rio Tranquilo and Futaleufu that it would have been useful if I’d known before coming to Chile. If you or any friends are planning on coming out here, direct them to this post. I’m sure they’ll find it useful.
Read about my adventures on the Carretera Austral in the next post.
I travelled on the Carretera Austral in January 2020.
I booked my pick up truck with Keddy by Europcar through an intermediary in the UK. It cost me approximately £52 per day for a 4WD 4 door pick up truck.
I flew to Balmaceda Airport from Puerto Montt with Latam which cost £54 return. Checked luggage and seat reservation are extra.
Read about my first day of driving on the Carretera Austral
Driving South on the Carretera Austral
Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine
The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2
The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4
The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey
Read about my other adventures in Chile
Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu
Read about my experience driving the tourist routes on Prince Edward Island
North Cape Coastal Drive Part 1
North Cape Coastal Drive Part 2
Cavendish and the Rotating House of North Rustico
