Puerto Varas: Full-Day Tour Chiloe Island: Castro and Dalcahue

Posted By : Richard K
On a positive note, Anna, our tour guide was awesome! There were only five English speakers on the bus, but she made sure that all of us understood her commentary completely. The negatives were as follows ; 1. It’s advertised as a 10 hour trip but it took over 12 hours. 2. Most of the trip is spent on the bus that does not have a toilet, has a very uncomfortable seats with very little leg room, and has difficulty managing the temperature control. 3. The towns that we visited were just not that pretty or interesting. 4. We felt pressured to eat lunch with the entire bus at a private house. The food was not terrible, although the menu choices were limited. We cannot recommend the excursion.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-03-29

Posted By : 889elissah
Great small area with beautiful scenery to relax and view the volcano & huge lake! This is a pretty area and the small town is built on a hill, if you go and are looking for a place to stay you might want to know how much of a "hike" it is from the lake to the accommodations.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-03-18

Posted By : Ruthie_C
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.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-02-17

Posted By : Getaway54626851125
This was the worst tour we have ever been on and the worst day of our entire trip. We were gone almost 12 hours and spent at least 9 on the bus . There really is nothing worth seeing on the entire island and should be removed from any tour. People spent most of the day looking at their phones or sleeping. The one hour for lunch was good but not worth 12 hours. The day was a complete waste. You said the tour was in English but the guide spent at least 90% of the time speaking , I highly recommend avoiding this tour unless you like bus rides and looking at dilapidated houses,
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-02-07

Posted By : Christine_G
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.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-01-18

Posted By : PCH2012
A long but interesting day to Chiloé. Great to see the island and hear about its history and industry. Lunch in Rudi’s house was a highlight - good simple food well cooked. Lovely short boat trip at Castro.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-11-03

Posted By : Suzanne_L
Great guide, lunch was delicious and a great value, enjoyed variability of locations visited, easy traveling
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-10-07

Posted By : Juliana_M
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.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-08-13

Posted By : Theresa_V
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.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-04-23

Posted By : Mikael_S
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.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-04-16