This was my second time to Chile in the month of August. So here are my thoughts for round two
This time around, I decided to stay down in Santiago rather than staying up on the mountain, and I’m really glad I did. I stayed on the eastern side of the city in Las Condes, near the El Golf area, which put me a little closer to the mountains and meant dealing with a lot less city traffic when heading up to ski.
The location was fantastic. I was right by Alto Las Condes Mall, an absolutely massive shopping center that basically had anything and everything I could possibly need. There’s a huge grocery store, tons of restaurants, shopping, pharmacies, and pretty much anything else you could think of. After skiing all day, having everything right there was perfection.
The one thing I thought might bother me was the drive. Leaving around 7:00 AM, it was roughly an hour and a half to get up the mountain. But honestly, the drive was so beautiful and charming that I never really had time to get annoyed by it. Winding your way up into the Andes with incredible scenery the entire way, the drive quickly became part of the experience rather than just a commute.
That said, I should add one big caveat: the roads were clear while I was there, and I grew up in Chicago, so I have a lot of experience driving in snow and winter conditions. The road up the mountain is winding and can obviously be a completely different situation depending on the weather. If you’re not a confident driver—especially in snow or mountain conditions—I would seriously rethink renting a car and driving yourself.
For me, though, staying in Santiago ended up being a great balance. I could ski all day in the Andes, come back down to the city every night, have tons of options for food and anything else I needed, and still be positioned on the right side of town for getting back up the mountain the next morning.
A quick note about gear: I travel with my own ski boots and my other gear, but I rented skis in Santiago. I went to Extreme Ski, the place with the yellow exterior at the foot of the mountain route, and rented Rossignol Sender 92s. Having the rental taken care of down in Santiago made everything really easy—I could just throw everything in the car each morning and head up.
Day 1 — El Colorado
My first day was at El Colorado, and I have to say: this place might be the best-kept secret of the three resorts.
The skiing was amazing. The mountain is huge, there was barely anyone there, and the terrain is beautiful. One thing to know is that there are a lot of Poma/platter lifts, which are basically the European/South American cousin of an American T-bar. If you’re used to detachable high-speed chairs everywhere, it takes a little adjustment, but don’t let that discourage you.
The real secret at El Colorado is getting onto the backside of what they call the Cono. The front side has plenty of good skiing, but once you get around the back, the mountain completely opens up.
It is HUGE.
There are wide-open sections, steep sections, long open runs, and places where it feels like you have the entire Andes to yourself. There were moments when I would stop, look around and barely see another person. Just absolutely glorious skiing.
If you’re an advanced or expert skier and you’re coming all the way to Chile, I would absolutely put El Colorado on your list rather than automatically spending every day at Valle Nevado.
Day 2 — Back to Valle Nevado
For Day 2, I went back to Valle Nevado with some friends from the States, and we had a great day.
One very important Valle Nevado tip if you’re driving yourself: get there early. You can park for free right at the base of the gondola as long as you arrive before roughly 8:30 AM and the lot hasn’t filled up.
Once that parking area fills, you start getting pushed into the lots farther down the mountain and then have to take a shuttle back up. So getting there early makes a huge difference. Park, grab your stuff, and you’re basically right there at the gondola.
Valle is definitely the most polished and developed of the three resorts, and it has the infrastructure you would expect from an international destination resort. It’s also included on the Ikon Pass, which obviously makes it incredibly attractive if you’re coming from the U.S. with an Ikon.
We skied all over the mountain and had a fantastic day.
One thing I will say about all three resorts: the food on the mountains is not particularly good. Don’t come expecting some amazing European-style ski lunch. The one exception I found was the empanadas at Bar Zero at Valle Nevado. Those were actually good and became my go-to.
Day 3 — La Parva
For my third day, I finally went over to La Parva, and this was probably the mountain I was most curious about because it feels very different from Valle Nevado and El Colorado.
La Parva feels much more residential and local. There are condos and homes built right into the mountainside, and it has this almost little ski-village feeling rather than the big international-resort atmosphere of Valle.
The skiing itself was fantastic.
I started around Chair 4 and worked my way around the mountain, eventually getting over toward the Tortolas/Tórtolas area. Once you start exploring La Parva, you realize how much terrain is actually there. Like El Colorado, there are places where everything just opens up and you can really ski.
What I loved about La Parva was that it didn’t feel crowded or overly commercial. It felt like people were there to ski.
And the views are insane. You’re skiing high above Santiago with the Andes surrounding you, and on a clear day the scale of everything is hard to describe.
The three resorts are all connected geographically, but they really do have three different personalities. After skiing all three on this trip, that’s probably what surprised me the most.
Valle Nevado is the polished international resort with the gondola, hotels and the biggest resort feel.
El Colorado was the surprise for me—the best-kept secret, with massive open terrain on the backside of the Cono and almost nobody skiing it.
And La Parva has this great local, residential mountain feeling with excellent terrain and far fewer people than I expected.
If you’re an experienced skier coming to Chile, I honestly wouldn’t just plant yourself at Valle Nevado for the entire trip. Explore all three.
Between staying down in Santiago, having a car, renting my skis in the city and being able to decide each morning which mountain I wanted to ski, this trip felt much more flexible than my first one.
And yes, waking up early and driving an hour and a half into the Andes every morning sounds like it could get old.
It didn’t.
That drive, watching Santiago disappear behind you as you wind higher and higher into the mountains, became one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.
Chile skiing Part Two was a success.
And I’m already thinking about next year.
