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Clothing for the Patagonia is synonym of "outdoors". You must bring comfortable outdoor footwear, windbreakers, lip balm, sunglasses, camera, hat and gloves.
Layers: the first layer should be synthetic underwear, which eliminates perspiration and maintains the body dry (avoid cotton clothes, since they get easily get wet). The next layer must be light and allow for the elimination of perspiration.. The third layer is to protect tourists from external elements, such as water and wind, although it requires adequate ventilation.
No special immunization is needed. There are no poisonous plants or animals. There is a wide range of all kinds of medicines.
Although the cities of the Patagonia count on drinking water, it is recommended that tourists drink bottled water, especially when visiting places that are located far from urban areas.
The Patagonian climate is full of colors and contrasts. Patagonia is usually quite windy in spring and summer but can surprise us with days of extreme heat or cold. During the winter we can get rain, hail or even beautiful snow.
Autumn days, filled with extraordinary beauty and colorful vegetation that turns red, seem short due to the fact that many of them reach temperatures as low as those in winter. Summer is known for its very long days, getting dark at around 11:00 PM and then the sun peaks out to begin to light the sky at around 3:00 AM. With a white blanket of snow covering the plains and hills, winter days tend to become shorter, getting dark earlier than usual at about 5:00 PM and don’t see light again until around 8:00 AM.
Because of the diversity of its seasons, there is no best time to visit the region. There is something different to do during the entire year, each season giving us a beautiful view of its surrounding landscapes. If you love the snow and enjoy skiing, then a trip in the winter is inevitable, if on the contrary, the idea is to spend long hours walking through the Patagonian wilderness, spring and summer would be the best options.
Punta Arenas has a cold steppe climate and Puerto Natales has a trans-Andean steppe degeneration. Remarkably, the Torres del Paine National Park has a microclimate where temperatures rise significantly in summer, occasionally reaching as much as 86º Fahrenheit (30º C) while at the same time, high in the mountains, the climate is freezing due to the ice and extreme moisture.
| Temperature | Rainfall | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ºC Average | ºF Average | Millimeters of rainfall |
Inches of rainfall | |
| Summer | 10 | 51 | 31 | 2,1 |
| Fall | 6 | 44 | 42 | 1,6 |
| Winter | 2 | 36 | 33 | 1,3 |
| Spring | 7 | 44 | 26 | 1,0 |
The most stores and tourist places accept international credit cards. The most common cards are Visa, Master Card, Diners Club and American Express.
American dollars and Euros are used for commercial transactions; therefore, you will be able to pay with them. However, it is recommended to carry local currency (Chilean peso) because it's the only way to pay at smaller stores and rural areas. As far as eating is concerned, it is recommended to eat in established places. Fish and shellfish should always be eaten boiled, never raw.
