Unmapped Gems
TownBest December – March

Puerto Varas

A lake town on Llanquihue's shore, its German-settler roofline framing the still-active Osorno volcano across the water.

German and Swiss settlers built Puerto Varas in the 1850s, and the steep-roofed wooden houses along the lakefront still show it, with Osorno's near-perfect volcanic cone visible across Llanquihue on a clear day. It's the base for exploring Chile's Lake District rather than a place people fly in just to see.

Puerto Varas