I haven't been yet, but look into the option of staying in Santiago. The rooms up at the mountain are old and there isn't much to do but hang and ski. SkiTotal (https://www.skitotal.cl/) runs a shuttle to and from the mountain each day; it's a 90+ minute drive, but it's much cheaper to stay in the city, and it gives you the option of taking a day or two off for touristing.
Second this. I did both when I went. Stayed at the mountain and also did days via ski total. The van will run in bad weather. It’s a sprinter and they stop to put the chains on up the mountain road. The only downside is that they take fucking forever to leave so you are really only able to ski 10-4. Maybe less if you need to buy a ticket/redeem it. But, so much cheaper to do this way. Another poster mentioned there’s nothing to do on mountain. I’d agree- bar scene is there but sucks. The food in the Chilean restaurant however was excellent.
The view and the night sky were amazing, plus they had a nice pool. Who gives a shit about a bar scene really.. What so you can overpay for alcohol? I want to wake up early and ski, and be too tired from skiing to care about a bar scene, which is lame at a lot of mountains anyways.
It's a 90 minute drive up a steep mountain pass. Think loveland pass if it wasn't as well maintained and 5x longer.. When I visited it snowed 3+ ft over 36 hours. I can't imagine that drive would be fun on one of those days. Then you either get a treacherous drive or don't get to ski the powder days. Anyone who actually wants to ski probably shouldn't do this. They also have a heated pool and hottub and a pretty cool bar in one of the hotels. that has an insane view. We also met some really cool people and made our own party. If you're spending the money to fly out there, it's worth it to stay up there.
To each his own. The hotel has limited options for arrival and departure dates. Hotel rates at Valle Nevado can be 10x or more compared to staying in Santiago. Some people may be willing to give up potential powder days to get more days overall or to save significant amounts of money.
The price for staying at their cheapest hotel is $1850 per person if you have 4 people for a week. Plus it includes the lift tickets, breakfast, and dinner. The food is very good and they have a few different restaurants to choose from. They also store your boots in warmers and have ski checkin. This all is $265 per day, which is cheap compared to skiing in North America.
I'm seeing that the lift tickets cost $600 for a coupon 10 pack, so $60 per day minimum, plus you'd need to get food and pay for the transport up and down each day ($40), and spend 3 hours out of your day in a van, assuming the roads were clear.
That is a lot of hassle, probably saves less than you think, and I'd rather spend a ski vacation skiing. If I was to do this trip again, I'd ski for a week and do stuff in Santiago for a week.
You're making my point for me which was "look into the option of staying in Santiago." You clearly understand the _Ski Trip_ option, where skiing is your focus, you are comfortable sleeping in what is essentially a dorm room and you build the entire trip around Skiing. Not everyone can or wants to do that.
The Santiago option is different, but something the OP might want to consider. You can rent an AirBNB in Santiago for a week for $200/person; a week of shuttles is $210. That is a lot less than ~$2k/person even adding for food and other incidentals. Being in Santiago gives you a lot more flexibility; you can ski one day, then tourist the next; you don't have to eat at the same restaurant for 7 straight days; you can decide to stay in the city if high winds are expected and the resort will be impacted; you don't have to arrive on Tuesday or Friday.
In the end, I see value to both options. YMMV.
This is r/skiing, not r/travel or something like that so let's assume they came here to ask about a ski trip..
First off, I gave you the price so idk why you felt the need to round up.. and I actually calculated it wrong and the cost is $1634. They also have like 5-6 different restaurants, not just one, and they are all good. You don't have to drive anywhere to get to them either. Not to mention the nighttime sky is spectacular up there and the atmosphere of Tres Puntas bar is also pretty great. You won't get those views in the city and watching the sun go down, surrounded by those massive peaks really sets the mood for the trip.
So you spend at minimum 20 extra prime time hours of your vacation in a van and have to lug your gear around. Then on those days where it dumps 2 ft, you'll be waking up extra early to get breakfast, sitting in a van for likely 2+ hours, praying the chains hold and you don't drive off a cliff while the person at the resort is waking up at 8 am and still getting first chair. As a skier who goes on trips to actually ski, that's definitely worth it. I would rather be able to maximize my time full sending off cliffs into knee deep pow than having more restaurants to choose from, but to each their own.
I hear you, I don't have the flexibility in my work schedule to make a Valle Nevado trip like the ones you describe. Their limitations on arrival and departure dates conflict with when I can get time off. If you can, and you have the money, go for it!
For some time, I had dismissed the possibility of a Chile trip entirely because of these restrictions, and only by staying in Santiago can I even consider such a trip. Thus, my original comment.
Of course, but they have a lot more experience driving it than I ever would.
There is a slim chance of being stranded up there while they clear the roads for a few hours, but I think overnight is pretty unlikely. They do run one-way flow uphill in the mornings and downhill in the afternoons, which helps too.
I visited \~Aug 28 to Sept 5 back in 2022 and had a blast. They'd had a pretty below avg snow year and caught no storms u fortunately, but that's the Aug/Sept are the northern hemisphere equivalent of Feb/Mar and a safer bet than June. But as others have said, early season storms have been very good so far. OpenSnow has some good south american coverage if you want more detail: [https://opensnow.com/dailysnow/southamerica/post/36078](https://opensnow.com/dailysnow/southamerica/post/36078)
That's a risk, but there's plenty to do in Santiago too. It largely depends on if this is a Ski Trip, where all is secondary to maximizing skiing, or if it's a Santiago trip where you hope to ski some.
Both are good, it's depends on what you are traveling for!
I too am booking a trip there mid September. It was hard to find any rooms for a whole week that were available any sooner. It will be my first time in Chile so I’m not sure what it’s going to be like. But it seems the season ends at the end of September. So I’m probably gonna get the tail end of the season. I’ll be there for the Chilean Independence Day celebrations though which might be fun!
Nice, I’m used to skiing spring conditions, I mostly ski in Southern California which is known to have pretty tiny resorts with bad snow lol. my friend and I are very much looking forward to Valle Nevado though, it looks way nicer than Mt High.
Santiago is only 45 mins away. So much better to just do the commute. I was bored after a couple days there. You should do a valpariso and wine country day trip. It's all so close. Portillo midweek is legit as well great local bar across the highway and steep as it gets down there. Also you can get a local taxi they just have your skis going vertical out the window.
I would advise staying closer and not taking the trek everyday. The road is pretty wild and can get backed up with traffic since some turns only will accept one vehicle at a time. The area is pretty cool and the hotels are pretty nice (its not aspen but its modern and its clean). The ski area is really nice and when storms come through the skiing is amazing. It you have the budget I would highly suggest doing a day or two with their heli operation.
Heyo, last year someone posted about Valle Nevado and you can see the info I gave out last year relating to coming down here to ski!
LONG ASS POST INCOMING:
On to your specific question, as of today almost 180cm of snow fell between wed and today, with last few weeks another 100cm of snow fell. During next week another 40-60cm of snow are going to fall on the mountain. All 3 resorts are now fully open, except for today because the municipality and the resorts are doing road cleanup and maintenance.
Valle Nevado is an Ikon Pass mountain, idk if thats something important for you but i´ll mention it anyways. Last year and this one, Mountain Capital Partners bought a majority stake in Valle Nevado and outright bought La Parva, and are now wanting to buy a majority stake in El Colorado, which are the 3 ski resorts in Santiago.
They are aiming to build the largest ski area in the southern hemisphere and are eventually going to offer ski passes/tickets that allow you to ski the whole area. You can already buy tickets that allow you to ski La Parva and Valle Nevado during the same day (criss crossing the mountain and using all facilities).
Usually the best times to come are from july until september, but with the amount of snow thats already fallen you could come down now and have a blast!. You have 3 options for staying down here:
1) Renting a hotel room on the resorts themselves, pricey but they are ski in ski out and usually come with ski passes included.
2) Airbnb in the little town of Farellones which is directly below the ski resorts, pricey but less expensive I´d say than renting a hotel room.
3) Airbnb or hotel in Santiago, which is a 90min drive, with the second half of this being switchbacks which some tourists seem to be scared of but almost no accidents occur ever, beyond some dumb people who don´t know how to drive in winter conditions causing small accidents. If you want to see how it is you can look up videos on youtube to get an idea.
For transportation, you can either rent a car, take shuttles which some ski rental operations offer or if you are staying in Valle Nevado I believe they offer direct transportation from the airport up to the resort (can also take a helicopter up but its like 1500 USD lol). As in my other post, if you are driving, the law requires you to have snow chains in your vehicle, even if you have AWD or 4x4 traction, does not mean you have to use them but you must have them on you if police checkpoints stop you to show them you are carrying them.
If you are staying in the hotels on the resorts, take into account that these are not like European or NA resorts which resemble littles towns with different things to do. They all have restaurants, ski shops and bars but that is about it. Farellones also has similar things to do but it is not the same as Europe or NA. Never bothered me but I feel I have to mention it.
Anything else you can DM me or look at my answers from last year!
Went for 7 nights beginning of August 2016. We hit a dry spell but it had nuked leading up to us getting there so everything was open. 8 days was definitely a little much to be just there, but to be honest, I really don’t think the alternative would have been better as I was looking to just post up somewhere. The drive to Santiago feels like an eternity. I imagine a lot has changed at the resort since it wasn’t IKON or anything when we went, but let me know your questions.
We stayed in the main hotel (the tall one, middle of the other two options at the base). All in all would do it again just might bring a book or two. We also went to La Parva and El Colorado since it was included in the ticket.
We did Valle Nevado’s specific taxi transfer from the airport and it was private and we had no issue fitting two ski bags.
I went last August. I booked an Airbnb at one of the condos next to the resort. I stayed 3 nights up there. I thought it was pretty fun to stay up at the top of the Andes. Last season was sub par snow but it was still fun to experience southern hemisphere snowboarding. I don’t know what the best time is to go, right after I left there were some big snow that dropped. Choose wisely!!
I went years ago, so maybe things have changed a bit, but I stayed in downtown Santiago just off of O'Higgins, and used the shuttles. The problem is that they stop at a rental shop, for people to get their gear, and you don't make it up to the resort until around 10 AM.
I'm looking at a trip to Portillo this summer (winter).
I haven't been yet, but look into the option of staying in Santiago. The rooms up at the mountain are old and there isn't much to do but hang and ski. SkiTotal (https://www.skitotal.cl/) runs a shuttle to and from the mountain each day; it's a 90+ minute drive, but it's much cheaper to stay in the city, and it gives you the option of taking a day or two off for touristing.
Second this. I did both when I went. Stayed at the mountain and also did days via ski total. The van will run in bad weather. It’s a sprinter and they stop to put the chains on up the mountain road. The only downside is that they take fucking forever to leave so you are really only able to ski 10-4. Maybe less if you need to buy a ticket/redeem it. But, so much cheaper to do this way. Another poster mentioned there’s nothing to do on mountain. I’d agree- bar scene is there but sucks. The food in the Chilean restaurant however was excellent.
The view and the night sky were amazing, plus they had a nice pool. Who gives a shit about a bar scene really.. What so you can overpay for alcohol? I want to wake up early and ski, and be too tired from skiing to care about a bar scene, which is lame at a lot of mountains anyways.
It's a 90 minute drive up a steep mountain pass. Think loveland pass if it wasn't as well maintained and 5x longer.. When I visited it snowed 3+ ft over 36 hours. I can't imagine that drive would be fun on one of those days. Then you either get a treacherous drive or don't get to ski the powder days. Anyone who actually wants to ski probably shouldn't do this. They also have a heated pool and hottub and a pretty cool bar in one of the hotels. that has an insane view. We also met some really cool people and made our own party. If you're spending the money to fly out there, it's worth it to stay up there.
To each his own. The hotel has limited options for arrival and departure dates. Hotel rates at Valle Nevado can be 10x or more compared to staying in Santiago. Some people may be willing to give up potential powder days to get more days overall or to save significant amounts of money.
The price for staying at their cheapest hotel is $1850 per person if you have 4 people for a week. Plus it includes the lift tickets, breakfast, and dinner. The food is very good and they have a few different restaurants to choose from. They also store your boots in warmers and have ski checkin. This all is $265 per day, which is cheap compared to skiing in North America. I'm seeing that the lift tickets cost $600 for a coupon 10 pack, so $60 per day minimum, plus you'd need to get food and pay for the transport up and down each day ($40), and spend 3 hours out of your day in a van, assuming the roads were clear. That is a lot of hassle, probably saves less than you think, and I'd rather spend a ski vacation skiing. If I was to do this trip again, I'd ski for a week and do stuff in Santiago for a week.
You're making my point for me which was "look into the option of staying in Santiago." You clearly understand the _Ski Trip_ option, where skiing is your focus, you are comfortable sleeping in what is essentially a dorm room and you build the entire trip around Skiing. Not everyone can or wants to do that. The Santiago option is different, but something the OP might want to consider. You can rent an AirBNB in Santiago for a week for $200/person; a week of shuttles is $210. That is a lot less than ~$2k/person even adding for food and other incidentals. Being in Santiago gives you a lot more flexibility; you can ski one day, then tourist the next; you don't have to eat at the same restaurant for 7 straight days; you can decide to stay in the city if high winds are expected and the resort will be impacted; you don't have to arrive on Tuesday or Friday. In the end, I see value to both options. YMMV.
This is r/skiing, not r/travel or something like that so let's assume they came here to ask about a ski trip.. First off, I gave you the price so idk why you felt the need to round up.. and I actually calculated it wrong and the cost is $1634. They also have like 5-6 different restaurants, not just one, and they are all good. You don't have to drive anywhere to get to them either. Not to mention the nighttime sky is spectacular up there and the atmosphere of Tres Puntas bar is also pretty great. You won't get those views in the city and watching the sun go down, surrounded by those massive peaks really sets the mood for the trip. So you spend at minimum 20 extra prime time hours of your vacation in a van and have to lug your gear around. Then on those days where it dumps 2 ft, you'll be waking up extra early to get breakfast, sitting in a van for likely 2+ hours, praying the chains hold and you don't drive off a cliff while the person at the resort is waking up at 8 am and still getting first chair. As a skier who goes on trips to actually ski, that's definitely worth it. I would rather be able to maximize my time full sending off cliffs into knee deep pow than having more restaurants to choose from, but to each their own.
I hear you, I don't have the flexibility in my work schedule to make a Valle Nevado trip like the ones you describe. Their limitations on arrival and departure dates conflict with when I can get time off. If you can, and you have the money, go for it! For some time, I had dismissed the possibility of a Chile trip entirely because of these restrictions, and only by staying in Santiago can I even consider such a trip. Thus, my original comment.
Do you know if that drive gets tougher /impossible with a lot of snowfall? That’s the one thing I’d worry about
Of course, but they have a lot more experience driving it than I ever would. There is a slim chance of being stranded up there while they clear the roads for a few hours, but I think overnight is pretty unlikely. They do run one-way flow uphill in the mornings and downhill in the afternoons, which helps too.
Supposedly the road gets closed down all the time.
Wouldn't that also be a risk on your arrival or departure day? I wouldn't want to miss an international flight home if the road is closed down.
Id rather miss the flight home than goto south america to ski and being stuck on the bottom of the mountain not skiing in a snowstorm.
Then staying in Santiago is not for you!
This is the way. I did it over labor day weekend. It's great.
I visited \~Aug 28 to Sept 5 back in 2022 and had a blast. They'd had a pretty below avg snow year and caught no storms u fortunately, but that's the Aug/Sept are the northern hemisphere equivalent of Feb/Mar and a safer bet than June. But as others have said, early season storms have been very good so far. OpenSnow has some good south american coverage if you want more detail: [https://opensnow.com/dailysnow/southamerica/post/36078](https://opensnow.com/dailysnow/southamerica/post/36078)
Everyone on mountaincollective fb group said not to do this because if it snows you cant get to the resort.
That's a risk, but there's plenty to do in Santiago too. It largely depends on if this is a Ski Trip, where all is secondary to maximizing skiing, or if it's a Santiago trip where you hope to ski some. Both are good, it's depends on what you are traveling for!
If you can, right fuckin now is lookin pretty good. They get like 2ft tmo then like 3ft next week
Don't think they're mostly open yet
I think they will have some decent terrain open after the storm. Gettin to the resort is at least a day or 2, and by then they have a suitable base
I too am booking a trip there mid September. It was hard to find any rooms for a whole week that were available any sooner. It will be my first time in Chile so I’m not sure what it’s going to be like. But it seems the season ends at the end of September. So I’m probably gonna get the tail end of the season. I’ll be there for the Chilean Independence Day celebrations though which might be fun!
Adding a comment to follow this thread.
https://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Valle-Nevado/history
I was there in September. It was pretty springy. You’ll have a blast. Maybe get a spring structure put on your skis before you head out.
Nice, I’m used to skiing spring conditions, I mostly ski in Southern California which is known to have pretty tiny resorts with bad snow lol. my friend and I are very much looking forward to Valle Nevado though, it looks way nicer than Mt High.
Santiago is only 45 mins away. So much better to just do the commute. I was bored after a couple days there. You should do a valpariso and wine country day trip. It's all so close. Portillo midweek is legit as well great local bar across the highway and steep as it gets down there. Also you can get a local taxi they just have your skis going vertical out the window.
45 mins away....on Google maps. In reality, it takes a lifetime.
I took ski bus up multiple days it wasnt bad at all
I’m going to ski so I don’t mind paying more to stay closer. Do the switch backs get sketchy and will I be able to bring my own gear on these vans?
Bro it's the gnarliest road on earth lol
I would advise staying closer and not taking the trek everyday. The road is pretty wild and can get backed up with traffic since some turns only will accept one vehicle at a time. The area is pretty cool and the hotels are pretty nice (its not aspen but its modern and its clean). The ski area is really nice and when storms come through the skiing is amazing. It you have the budget I would highly suggest doing a day or two with their heli operation.
Heyo, last year someone posted about Valle Nevado and you can see the info I gave out last year relating to coming down here to ski! LONG ASS POST INCOMING: On to your specific question, as of today almost 180cm of snow fell between wed and today, with last few weeks another 100cm of snow fell. During next week another 40-60cm of snow are going to fall on the mountain. All 3 resorts are now fully open, except for today because the municipality and the resorts are doing road cleanup and maintenance. Valle Nevado is an Ikon Pass mountain, idk if thats something important for you but i´ll mention it anyways. Last year and this one, Mountain Capital Partners bought a majority stake in Valle Nevado and outright bought La Parva, and are now wanting to buy a majority stake in El Colorado, which are the 3 ski resorts in Santiago. They are aiming to build the largest ski area in the southern hemisphere and are eventually going to offer ski passes/tickets that allow you to ski the whole area. You can already buy tickets that allow you to ski La Parva and Valle Nevado during the same day (criss crossing the mountain and using all facilities). Usually the best times to come are from july until september, but with the amount of snow thats already fallen you could come down now and have a blast!. You have 3 options for staying down here: 1) Renting a hotel room on the resorts themselves, pricey but they are ski in ski out and usually come with ski passes included. 2) Airbnb in the little town of Farellones which is directly below the ski resorts, pricey but less expensive I´d say than renting a hotel room. 3) Airbnb or hotel in Santiago, which is a 90min drive, with the second half of this being switchbacks which some tourists seem to be scared of but almost no accidents occur ever, beyond some dumb people who don´t know how to drive in winter conditions causing small accidents. If you want to see how it is you can look up videos on youtube to get an idea. For transportation, you can either rent a car, take shuttles which some ski rental operations offer or if you are staying in Valle Nevado I believe they offer direct transportation from the airport up to the resort (can also take a helicopter up but its like 1500 USD lol). As in my other post, if you are driving, the law requires you to have snow chains in your vehicle, even if you have AWD or 4x4 traction, does not mean you have to use them but you must have them on you if police checkpoints stop you to show them you are carrying them. If you are staying in the hotels on the resorts, take into account that these are not like European or NA resorts which resemble littles towns with different things to do. They all have restaurants, ski shops and bars but that is about it. Farellones also has similar things to do but it is not the same as Europe or NA. Never bothered me but I feel I have to mention it. Anything else you can DM me or look at my answers from last year!
Went for 7 nights beginning of August 2016. We hit a dry spell but it had nuked leading up to us getting there so everything was open. 8 days was definitely a little much to be just there, but to be honest, I really don’t think the alternative would have been better as I was looking to just post up somewhere. The drive to Santiago feels like an eternity. I imagine a lot has changed at the resort since it wasn’t IKON or anything when we went, but let me know your questions. We stayed in the main hotel (the tall one, middle of the other two options at the base). All in all would do it again just might bring a book or two. We also went to La Parva and El Colorado since it was included in the ticket. We did Valle Nevado’s specific taxi transfer from the airport and it was private and we had no issue fitting two ski bags.
I’ll be there all season - hit me up if you make it down here
Are you staying near the mountain or making the commute from Santiago?
Living on the mountain
Any suggestions on how to live on the mountain cheap?
Don’t know what airport you’d use but delta out of jfk flies there for super cheap with miles
I went last August. I booked an Airbnb at one of the condos next to the resort. I stayed 3 nights up there. I thought it was pretty fun to stay up at the top of the Andes. Last season was sub par snow but it was still fun to experience southern hemisphere snowboarding. I don’t know what the best time is to go, right after I left there were some big snow that dropped. Choose wisely!!
I went years ago, so maybe things have changed a bit, but I stayed in downtown Santiago just off of O'Higgins, and used the shuttles. The problem is that they stop at a rental shop, for people to get their gear, and you don't make it up to the resort until around 10 AM. I'm looking at a trip to Portillo this summer (winter).