Villa O'Higgins

The last stop on the Carretera Austral, the isolated Villa O'Higgins boasts mythic status. First settled by the English, the frontier outpost attracted a few Chilean colonists, but it was not founded officially until 1966. The road did not reach here until 1999. Alluring in its isolation, O'Higgins provides a spectacular countryside to explore on horseback or on foot and has world-class fishing. Its popularity has grown along with the increase of (heavy and complicated) transport to El Chaitén and the Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina.

After Mitchell Fjord, there is another road of 100km. that leads us to the northern end of a narrow arm of O'Higgins Lake (known as San Martin Lake on the Argentine side). Almost nobody in the town uses addresses, but the locals are happy to put in the right direction.

How Much Do We Love This Place?

The Good

• It's an area of immense beauty with the remoteness that people expect from Patagonia
• There are some of the best fly-fishing lodges
• A lake with pristine and calypso waters
• You can find lands laden with lush vegetation or layered in fields of ice

The Bad

• Few accommodation options
• Towns along the way are few and far between
• Some parts of the highway are deserted

Somewhere Special To Stay

HOTEL	FROM	iCATEGORY
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Yelcho Patagonia	3000 USD
Hacienda Tres Lagos	276 USD