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Puerto Varas: Full-Day Tour Chiloe Island: Castro and Dalcahue
Puerto Varas, Chile
- 12 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Discover the unique history and heritage of one of Chile’s largest islands on this full-day tour to Chiloè Island, including hotel pick-up from Puerto Varas and round-trip transport by ferry from Pargua. Visit the historic village of Chacao, explore the island capital of Castro and tour the Ancud Museum. Finally, pick up some unique souvenirs as you browse the stalls of the renowned Dalcahue crafts fair.
- Free hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Informative, friendly and professional guide
- Day trip (destination A to B)
- Travel by boat and see the sights from the water
What's Included
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Guide during the whole tour
- Transport by air-conditioned vehicle
- Tickets
- Food and Drink
- Optional Gratuities for driver and guide
Meeting and Pickup
Pickup points
Select a pickup point
Start time
08:30 AM
Pickup details
Only from centrally located hotels in Puerto Varas, if your hotel is out of the pick up zone we will give you a meeting point and a presentation time.
What To Expect
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- Due to the nature of this tour and the safety of all guests, the tour operator reserves the right to refuse service to passengers who are intoxicated or show signs of intoxication. If, as a result, your tour is canceled, you will not be entitled to a refund
- A minimum of 2 people per booking is required
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
- For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
- If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
- Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
- Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
- This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Ann M
This trip was dxcellent. We felt that we had a good day out on Chiloe and a lot was packed into it. A long day, - we didn't get back to Puerto Varas until about 8.30pm ....but we thank the guide and driver for packing so much into it and working hard & long hours to give us the best experience. We feel that we saw quite a lot of Chiloe and that the trip was good value. Because the guide was from Chiloe himself he was able to tell us a lot of stories and answer all questions. He spoke good English. Both guide and driver were nice people and gave us a very enjoyable day out.
Reviews
3.5
22 reviews
Ruthie_C, Feb 2024
take note that its a very long day. we spent most of the time in the bus travelling from one place to another. i think chiloe is beat enjoyed at a much slower pace - spread out into 3 days instead of one day. there were nice coastal areas we passed by that would have been nice to explore. theres also a mandatory lunch stop in somebodys house which i think was unnecessary. it would have been better if they left us in dalcahue to find a restaurant on our own. to summarize, if you are short of time and really want to see chiloe, this is for you but be forewarned that it will be a very long day spent mostly in the bus.
Christine_G, Jan 2024
I signed up for this trip and I was not informed by Viator what we would be traveling on a huge bus with a mob of people. I do not enjoy traveling this way. Viator is booking platform with no individual attention. After delayed email answers...I would never book an adventure through them again.
Our guide Nelly was good she spoke several languages and despite the fact that she was 1 guide and 38 people she did the best job possible. The bus driver was decent.
Suzanne_L, Oct 2023
Great guide, lunch was delicious and a great value, enjoyed variability of locations visited, easy traveling
Juliana_M, Aug 2023
The reason I’m giving this two stars instead of one is because I do think it would be more fun in summer when penguins are out.
We went in winter and the guide did not follow the itinerary. Ancud is in the tour’s title, but we did not go there. We also did not go to the Museo de Las Iglesias. We only went to three churches — barely. We couldn’t even go in one and another just happened to open right before we left.
We were dropped off at a couple of places where the guide was just like “meet back in 20” with no info about what we could see except that we could shop. The shops were cool but this overall felt like a glorified bus. I personally would prefer to see churches and museums than shop and wished we’d driven ourselves and planned our own itinerary. I’d recommend just self driving this. There was very minimal “guiding” or cultural education even though we were on the bus driving for so many hours. The guide told two stories and seemed to think that would do it. It may also not be worth visiting Chiloe if you’re in Puerto Varas because it’s simply quite far. Especially in winter. Staying on the island would likely be better!
Additionally, the guide told us Chiloe has no tourist culture and as such their food is only “gourmet” (whatever that means) so we should go to a lunch at someone’s “house” which would be more culturally relevant. Definitely just a house of someone paid by the tour? I bet the company gets a cut of the money. It felt like no was not an option and I definitely wished it had been listed in the itinerary. We almost packed lunch. It felt like a sales pitch to go there. The veggie option was just a pile of veggies. My husband got the pollo and it was really just a chicken thigh with some potatoes. They did ply us with unlimited wine though… and it was fun chatting with the other people on the tour… but this was supposed to be a tour where you actually see things not just chat. We were at the lunch place for two hours. And it cost 15000clp on top of what we were paying for the tour. We saw empanadas in the nearby town for only 1.5 clp! Plus plenty of other restaurants that looked great.
Overall I’d consider self driving if you want to see stuff. Although the penguin tour may be worthwhile. It is just overpriced … and expect them to do things with extra costs. The guide also mentioned potentially doing a sailing tour for an additional cost (also not in the agenda) but it ended up being too windy. The main thing I was concerned about with self driving was getting on the ferry but it seemed super easy. It was 14.000 clp both ways but at least that was included in the tour price.
Theresa_V, Apr 2023
This was quite a full day out with a lot of driving there and back. It was worthwhile, though, to have seen some quaint and colorful little towns on the island and it was fun to take the big bus on the ferry. The lunch was $15,000 and hosted by a local family. The food looked good but I had packed a lunch and decided to eat that. There was a little confusion about the meeting time. I thought I was being picked up at my hotel at 8:30 and ended up walking down to the main square at 8am after being called by the guide. She said that she had contacted me prior about the change in time and maybe she had but I was paying more to the actual ticket. It might be good to confirm with the agency the day before. We had about 30 people on our bus for this excursion.
Mikael_S, Apr 2023
Chiloe Island is a fascinating place and he tour gave a very good overview of the nature, villages and a good guide with a lot of information about history and nature.
Ann M, Dec 2019
This trip was dxcellent. We felt that we had a good day out on Chiloe and a lot was packed into it. A long day, - we didn't get back to Puerto Varas until about 8.30pm ....but we thank the guide and driver for packing so much into it and working hard & long hours to give us the best experience. We feel that we saw quite a lot of Chiloe and that the trip was good value. Because the guide was from Chiloe himself he was able to tell us a lot of stories and answer all questions. He spoke good English. Both guide and driver were nice people and gave us a very enjoyable day out.
Eugene H, Apr 2018
We covered highlights that we anticipated when we saw the tour description, but some stops turned out to be even better than expected compared to our reading of three guidebooks. Our guide was excellent can't remember his name. He was a bilingual young man who spent as much time with us as with the other tour participants, even though we were the only two native english speakers. He was very personable. Also, the tour price was excellent, compared to another tour we independently arranged of the lake area.
Stephan M, Jul 2016
We booked an english speaking day tour, but in the end we were the only english speaking couple and the tour was done in spanish. The guide explained everything in detail in spanish which I understood, but not my wife and then gave a quick summary in english.
Not worth the money at all!!!
Yaiza_G, Oct 2023
El tour de día completo se hizo muy ameno con Jenny la guía. Pese a que son varias horas en el auto durante el trayecto nos daba muchas explicaciones y además las paradas en los pueblos hasta llegar a Castro fueron muy acertadas con tiempo libre suficiente. Repetiría de nuevo!
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up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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