Lift off to Santiago, Chile from London
Mmm… this is a live series so I am a little concerned how I should start, so I named it with episode and series. The Christmas lighting at Heathrow was very festive!
Let’s start with some simple Q & A to help your journey planning if Patagonia is on your list too.
How to get to Patagonia from London?
You probably know that if you are based in the UK there is no direct flight to anywhere within Patagonia, so you will have to find your way to the capitals in Chile or Argentina then connect through there. Oh, there some very good news I learnt during the checkin process at Heathrow airport, the checkin counter assistant mentioned that British Airway will start new route to Santiago directly from London Heathrow, so we don’t have to suffer the inflexibility of the Iberia Airline as in you can’t choose your seat when doing the online checkin and the most ridiculous thing is they will charge you for in-flight food and drinks for short haul flights. Our ticket was purchased through British Airway so not really a budget carrier therefore I would have expected Iberia to offer an equivalent level of in-flight service to BA.
Anyway, back to the question, once you have reached Santiago or Buenos Aires you should be able to find a domestic flight from there. My personal recommendation is to make your long haul flight from Europe or anywhere in the world to Santiago and fly internally in Chile as the flight fare turns out to be a lot cheaper with Chilean Sky Airline than with Argentina Airlines or with Lan Tam. If you buy the internal ticket early enough you will very likely get a bargain price to get to Patagonia.
The closest airport for Patagonia n Chile is Punta Arena, with Sky Airline, from Santiago to Punta Arena you would pay as low as US$ 80 each way. Unlike the other side in Argentina. The closest airport from Buenos Aires is El Calafate, to get there with Argentina Airline usually costs around US$250 each way.
Tips: When you book online you will have to choose foreign currency then you can use your credit card to pay to these airlines, your card will not work if you select the local currency.
Since there isn’t a direct flight from London to Santiago de Chile, so we will have to connect via Madrid (at least until January).
Here is our overall itinerary:
19 days in Chile and Argentina
London to Santiago de Chile via Madrid, then direct return flight to London from Buenos Aires
- Santiago de Chile: 2 day
- Pucón: 2 days
- Puerta Varas: 2 days
- Punta Arenas: 2 day
- Puerto Natales: 3 days
- El Calafate: 2 days
- El Chaltén: 3 days
- Ushuaia: 2 days
- Buenos Aires: 2 days
I will update the transportation between places as we go along. I am super excited to see Patagonia!