Getting Around and Eating in Torres del Paine With No Hiking.

This is a multi-part series but you can read what is useful to you:
Part 1: What to see and do without long or difficult hikes.
Part 2: Where to stay cheap for the non-hiker.
Part 3: Getting around & What to eat. <- you are here
Part 4: How many days you should, my non-hike itinerary, the costs, and my biggest mistakes.

Getting Around Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine DOES have a transit system with buses that travel between stops in key areas. There is also a public bus to travel from Puerto Natales into the park, and, as I mentioned in Part 2 , even a bus stop in Rio Serrano where I was staying near one of the boundaries to the park.

Like anywhere isolated, hitchhikers were also fairly common. I picked up both locals who worked at a resort in Rio Serrano and hikers who were hoping to get from point A to point B without having to wait long periods for the bus. 

There are many rental options at the Puerto Natales airport and I would NOT recommend who I went with – it was a larger company that started with an L. I found with them for MONTHS to get my deposit back which was $1,000 CAD. I had to go through a chargeback process, speak to them multiple times via What’sApp and finally only got traction when I left bad google reviews. 

However, I did book through Discover Cars and they were a good 3rd party to submit a dispute to get my deposit back.

Between gas and the rental the total cost total was around $400 CAD. 

THE CARS ARE PRIMARILY STANDARD TRANSMISSION. I love driving stick, but I know many people are scared of them!
If you have a limited time, I would really try to find the budget to rent a car. Using the bus system when you are doing long hikes would work much better, but waiting 30 minutes every time you wanted to see something, would eat up a lot of the time of your trip.

Do you need an international driver’s license to rent a car in Chile? I did bring mine with me (you can get these for about $60 in Canada at places like CAA) but I didn’t need to show them it to rent a car.

If you are uncertain, there are tons of day tours you can take from Puerto Natales that show you the key sites in the park. These came in the form of medium to full size coach buses.

Where to eat in Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine is a big park with lots of distance between any signs of civilization. While this isn’t a multiple hour trek to get to a canteen, I would be prepared to plan ahead. I am a budget solo traveller, so I had brought things like granola bars, bananas, and water (purchased in Puerto Natales before heading to the park) to help me get buy on a budget, and mostly ate at low cost options when I could. However, low cost food in Torres del Paine isn’t really low cost. Here are the places I stopped:

Rio Pingo – Cafeteria and Mini-Market

I ate at this cafeteria style place twice during my visit. From searching on the limited internet, it seemed like one of the most affordable options for food, and was also at a trailhead to a short hike that led to glacier views AND the boat to see the glacier. There were good bathrooms right outside the restaurant and gift shop. The gift shop had souvenirs and some basic snack items like chips and chocolate bars, plus some instant non-perishable food.

I ended up eating here twice just due to the timing of where I was in the park when I needed to eat.

Don Pascual Pampa Lodge

*The welcome centre in the park also had a food truck with some options that would be another affordable option if open, and at the other side of the park. 

This is a multi-part series but you can read what is useful to you:
Part 1: What to see and do without long or difficult hikes.
Part 2: Where to stay cheap for the non-hiker.
Part 3: Getting around & What to eat. <- you are here
Part 4: How many days you should, my non-hike itinerary, the costs, and my biggest mistakes.