A road trip around Chiloe (Chiloé) island in Chile

When you hear stories about something more that fifty times from different people, you get to the point that you really want to find out what the fuss is about. For two years of my life in Chile and traveling around South America I have heard from many people, mostly Chilean, that Chiloe island is a must. They surely very proud of having the island in their territory.

It is a beautiful place indeed. From beautiful green landscape, lots of hidden picturesque corners to friendly and chatty people, it has so much to offer even for fussy travelers. It’s an amazing place for an epic road trip.

Charming churches

In this post I want to highlight one of the most unique, yet simple, thing to se: wooden churches.

One of the most recognizable attractions of Chiloé are unique wooden churches. Hence, after a boat trip to watch penguins and whales and a little hike to Muelle de las Almas we did a day-long road trip around the island to see as many of the churches as possible. We got a little map showing where the churches are, but to see all of them two days are really necessary as some of them are on the smaller islands and the little ferry trips slow down the trip.

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16 colorful, wooden churches that since 2000 belong to UNESCO World Heritage form a very interesting attraction to the island of Chiloé. They had been build in the 18th and 19th centuries and they are still in a good condition. The Jesuits that arrived to the archipelago of Chiloé at the beginning of 17th century started an evangelization mission, which was later continued by the Franciscans in the 18th and 19th centuries. As a result a total of 70 churches were built within the framework of a “Circular Mission”. The churches have a significant meaning to the mestizo that survived to the present day.

Use my favourite travel resources to plan your dream trips

Booking.com for searching best prices on accommodation.
Discover Cars is a great website as they search both local and international car hire services, so you can choose the best deal for yourself. Make sure though, that the company has a good reputation and reviews.
Get Your Guide is my place to go for searching and booking tours and excursions, especially when I travel solo.
World Nomads travel insurance. I like them because they have quite extensive coverage of different activities.
Jack’s Flight Club is a service that can save you hundreds of dollars on flights, it works especially well in Europe.
Trivago where you can search and save on hotels.
Go City is a perfect site for booking bucket list experiences and attractions all in one to avoid paying for multiple tickets. Easy and saves money.
Trip Advisor– amazing for good quality recommendations.
Skyscanner is a perfect website for searching flight routes and comparing prices.

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How to discover Chile island

The most convenient way to see the island is by renting a car. And this is what we did. It is pretty simple to drive around. We rented the car in Puerto Montt as Chiloe was part of a longer road trip. By renting the car we had a lot of flexibility and freedom and could discover such incredible place as Muelle de las Almas.

However, if you prefer not renting car, there are some options of joining day tours. And believe me, Chiloe has some amazing things to offer like whale and penguin watching, for example.

Where to stay in Chiloe

Stay in Castro

Chiloe is a popular holiday destination for the locals and the hotels get sold out in high season, so it is best to book an accommodation in advance. I use Booking.com for most of my bookings as their app allows me to have an easy overview of my accommodation, which is helpful for longer trips. Have a look at Turismo del Bosque (a dome-like hotel with great views), Casa del Faro (a full house- really beautiful with breathtaking views).

Stay in a palafito

Palafitos are the typical to Chiloe wooden houses built over the water. If you’d like to stay in one, you may want to have a look at Palafito Hostel Chiloe or Palafito Azul.

Time to end the trip

As we happily continued the road trip around the island, hoping from village to village, we managed to take a late ferry back to the continent before spending a night in Puerto Montt. On the arrival, full of excitement to fly to Brazil the next morning, I realized that my passport got left somewhere on the island. As sad as I was for not being able to take the flight, what was the real bummer was losing a precious travel souvenir such as a passport full of stamps from all over the world. Did it ever happen to you? If so, you can imagine the pain.

Read where we went instead here.

Thank you for visiting. So what do you think about the island? In my humble opinion, it is a place really worth visiting in South America. Have you been to Chiloé or other beautiful places in South America that surprised you? Please share some inspiration with us. Happy travels.

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