The Carretera Austral by camper: how many days, what the gravel is really like

The first time I drove the full Carretera Austral with a camper I did exactly what everyone does: dropped Puerto Varas and Villa O'Higgins into the map, saw 1,240 kilometres, divided by a normal driving day and thought "that's five days." It is not five days. Not close.

What the Carretera Austral is (and why it isn't a highway)

Route 7 links Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins through the part of Chile where the Andes fall into the sea and leave no room for straight lines. Construction started in 1976, and to this day there are stretches where the road simply stops and continues on a ferry, because the fjord can't be driven around.

That's the key thing to understand: the Carretera Austral includes compulsory sailings. They aren't an optional excursion, they're the road. No reservation, no passage.

There's much more pavement than a decade ago, especially Chaitén–Coyhaique and the approaches to the bigger towns. But the gravel is still exactly where it matters: south of Cerro Castillo, and on every worthwhile detour.

How many days you need, by how far you're going

Work with a real average of 50 km/h and a maximum of 4-5 hours of driving a day if you want to actually see anything. On that basis:

My honest recommendation for a first trip: 16 days to Cerro Castillo and back. You see the best of the route, you never drive at night, and at 15 days or more you're already on our reduced rate — so those two extra days cost less than you'd think.

Leg by leg, from Puerto Varas

Puerto Varas → Hornopirén (110 km, paved)

Easy, beautiful and misleading: it's the only day you'll average 80 km/h. Do your big shop in Puerto Varas or Puerto Montt. Hornopirén is where the first ferry leaves from, and where you want to sleep the night before, because boarding is early and unforgiving.

Hornopirén → Caleta Gonzalo (two sailings, half a day)

This leg is the ferry: you sail to Leptepú, drive about 10 km overland, then sail again to Caleta Gonzalo. It mainly runs in high season and must be booked ahead. Pumalín Park is waiting on the far side.

Caleta Gonzalo → Chaitén → La Junta (170 km)

Pumalín has the most accessible trails on the whole route — the walk through thousand-year-old alerce trees takes an hour and earns every minute. Chaitén is the town buried by its own volcano in 2008 and rebuilt beside its own ruins; stop even if it's only for fuel and a conversation.

La Junta → Puyuhuapi → Coyhaique (300 km)

This is where Queulat National Park and the Ventisquero Colgante appear — a glacier hanging between two rock walls, draining as a waterfall. The trail to the viewpoint is short and steep. Puyuhuapi has hot springs and a German-settler history that explains why there's kuchen at the end of the world.

Coyhaique → Cerro Castillo → Puerto Río Tranquilo (220 km)

Coyhaique is the last real city: big supermarket, spare parts, ATMs that work. Then comes Cerro Castillo National Park, with the most photographed rock silhouette in Aysén, and then Lago General Carrera, the second largest lake in South America, in a turquoise that looks like a filter.

Puerto Río Tranquilo → Cochrane → Caleta Tortel (340 km, serious gravel)

This is the Carretera Austral people remember. Permanent gravel, the impossible volume of the Río Baker, and Caleta Tortel: a village with no streets, built entirely on cypress walkways. You park at the entrance and walk.

Caleta Tortel → Villa O'Higgins (130 km + free ferry)

The Puerto Yungay to Río Bravo ferry is free, short and runs to fixed times: miss one and you wait hours. Villa O'Higgins is literally the end of the road. Route 7 does not continue — the onward crossing toward El Chaltén is by boat and trail, and does not take vehicles. With a camper you either drive back the way you came, or you sail.

What the gravel is like and how to drive it

Carretera Austral gravel isn't difficult, it's relentless. Loose stone, washboard, dust when it's dry and mud when it isn't. What breaks vehicles isn't the road, it's the speed.

• 60-70 km/h maximum on gravel. Above that the truck floats, and one flying stone takes out a tyre or a windscreen.
• Slow down before the corner, not in it. Braking on loose stone mid-curve is how people end up in the ditch.
• Leave distance. Dust blinds you and the stones the car ahead throws will reach your glass.
• Give way to trucks. They're loaded, they don't stop the way you do, and they know the road better.
• Check tyre pressures each morning, and check what came loose inside the camper — washboard unscrews things.

One practical note: punctures nearly always come from going fast on washboard. Our campers carry a spare and jump cables, but a blown tyre in a no-signal stretch is two hours of your life you'd rather spend looking at a glacier.

The ferries that shape your itinerary

Three sailings organise everything else:

1. Hornopirén → Caleta Gonzalo: required for the continuous route. High season, book ahead, limited vehicle space.
2. Puerto Yungay → Río Bravo: free, short, fixed times. You need it to reach Villa O'Higgins.
3. Puerto Ibáñez → Chile Chico: crosses Lago General Carrera, and it's the natural route if you're crossing into Argentina at Los Antiguos.

There are more options from Puerto Montt and Quellón toward Chaitén, useful off season or if you want to skip the northern leg. All of it, including how and when to book, is in the ferry guide.

Fuel, water and resupply

• Fuel: fill in Puerto Montt, Chaitén, La Junta, Coyhaique and Cochrane. Between Cochrane and Villa O'Higgins there is very little — leave Cochrane full, no exceptions.
• Water: refill the camper tank at campsites, service stations and municipal taps. Southern spring water is usually excellent, but fill the tank with potable water and use the streams for everything else.
• Food: the big supermarkets are in Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas, Coyhaique and, at a push, Cochrane. Everywhere else has small shops with the basics at end-of-the-world prices, which are fair: it all arrived by truck and ferry.
• Gas: cylinders are exchanged in the towns; in most cases we hand the camper over with enough gas for the whole trip.

Where to sleep along the way

The route has good, cheap campsites, CONAF camping areas inside the parks, and plenty of places where you can simply spend the night if you use judgement. The short rule: never on private land without permission, never blocking an access, never leaving a trace. Full detail in the guide to where to sleep in a camper in Chile.

When to go

December to March is the safe season: everything runs, the days are enormous, and it's also busy and expensive. November and April are my personal pick — fewer people, extraordinary autumn colour, less predictable weather. In winter the route is drivable to Coyhaique with care, but several ferries change frequency. Month by month detail is in the guide to when to travel Patagonia by camper.

And if you have fewer days than this route asks for, don't force it: Puerto Varas as a basecamp fills a whole week without repeating a landscape.