After camping one night at Refugio Chileno and achieving our goal of hiking to Base Torres, we knew that we were going to need a place to rest before continuing our journey through Torres Del Paine National Park, Chile. Enter: Camping at Refugio Torre Central, operated by Fantastico Sur.
We found that many of the reviews we encountered while planning our Torres del Paine trip were outdated or unnecessarily negative, so we were happy to find that Refugio Torre Central offered fully-equipped, clean camping sites that met our needs in the heart of the national park. We would be happy to recommend camping here for any like-minded hikers, and we would do so again if we are ever lucky enough to return to Patagonia.
Here’s our full review of Camping at Refugio Torre Central, including photos so you know what to expect.
Location and Getting There
Refugio Torre Central is located in the Central Sector of Torres Del Paine National Park and is accessed by a combination of car or bus and a short hike.
Parking is available at the base of the mountain next to the visitor center for free. The parking lot is not monitored, so we advise against leaving valuables visible in your car. That said, we left our larger suitcases locked securely in the trunk of our rental car, and others did the same. No one reported problems with theft during our trip. Take standard travel safety precautions.
If you don’t have a rental car, the visitor center near Refugio Torre Central is serviced twice daily by Bus Sur. You can find schedules and book tickets here.
This visitor center is well-appointed and has the nicest bathrooms we found anywhere in Torres del Paine. They also sell snacks, pizza, and other food. The receptionist helpfully pointed us in the direction of the trail, Refugio Torre Central, and Camping Torre Central.
From the visitor center, you’ll follow the trail out the back door. The first turn-off after about 300 meters is for the Refugio. You’ll come to a sign at the next turnoff for Camping Central, located about 500-600 meters from the visitor center or 200-300 meters from the Refugio. Make sure to note that the Refugio and the campground are two distinct locations. The Refugio also has its own restaurant that is separate from the visitor center.
Even further up the trail, you’ll find Hotel Las Torres, an all-inclusive option.
Booking
We booked our stay at Refugio Chileno and Refugio Torre Central as a single itinerary through Las Torres.
Booking through Las Torres was straightforward. We entered our travel dates and searched for availability at the Refugios. Once selected, we provided our credit card information and checked out.
I immediately received a payment confirmation email. Within 5 days, I received a final detailed receipt with confirmation that our tents were booked with date information.
Accommodation Types: Campsites, Fully-Equipped Campsites, and Hostel/Refugio
Refugio Torre Central offers single beds in the refugio (a hostel), fully equipped single tents, and fully equipped double tents. We chose to book a fully equipped double tent because we prefer the privacy of a tent over the comfort of a mattress in a room with strangers. Your personal preferences may vary.
The price per person in a fully equipped campsite ($70 per person or $140 per tent for the 2022 season) was also less expensive than the price per person in the hostel ($125 per person).
You can also reserve an empty campsite where you provide your own camping equipment, including your own tent, sleeping pad, and sleeping bag. This is the most economical option, but you’ll need to rent equipment in Puerto Natales or bring it from home and carry it up the mountain with you. Since we were in the middle of our round-the-world trip, we weren’t able to carry our own backpacking equipment, and it was worth the expense to simply purchase a fully outfitted campsite.
Is it worth the price?
We’re going to say the same thing we said in our Review of Camping at Refugio Chileno.
If you haven’t stayed in mountain huts or backpacker hostels before, you might be surprised at the price of a campsite or hostel bed compared to the price of budget hotels in other areas of South America. Although it seems high, the pricing in Torres del Paine (not just Refugio Chileno) is on-par with similar backpacker hostels around the world. For example, huts along the Appalachian Trail start at $110 per night and may go as high as $140 or more for a single, un-outfitted bunk bed with a shared bathroom and half-board.
“But wait!” you’re thinking. “This is Chile, not the USA!“
It is Chile, but Torres del Paine solely attracts tourists from the USA and Europe. This isn’t a local activity, so don’t expect local pricing.
Torres del Paine is a remote national park with very few services. The refugios offer the least expensive way to visit. If you want to stay here, you’ll pay the price, and it isn’t worth getting worked up over comparisons.
Nowhere else has these views, so any comparison is unfair anyways!
Check-In
Once we found Camping Torre Central, we joined the long line of hikers checking in at the reception hut.
The check-in process was efficient. They checked our ID and assigned us a campsite. An attendant carried our sleeping bags, guided us to the tent, and verified that its zippers were working correctly.
Fully-Equipped Campsite and Bathrooms
Fully-Equipped Campsite and Tent
We headed to our campsite and found a high-quality, bright yellow tent already set up for us with two sleeping pads. Tents at Camping Torre Central are sitting on the grassy ground. The sleeping pads are very firm but protected us from the rocks underneath.
We were handed two sleeping bags and left to set them up ourselves. The sleeping bags appeared to be clean; we saw several hanging out on the line to air out as we checked in. They kept us warm (too warm, even) through the night.
I did supplement with my own travel pillow.
Everything was in excellent repair. Zippers worked well and there were no holes.
The campsite had everything we needed.
I will note that Las Torres is advertising new premium camping setups that are launching after January 1st, 2023 at a price of $100 per person per night. It isn’t clear whether Camping Torre Central is included in these improvements.
They’re advertising a more luxurious experience, including less intrusive tent colors. I can’t say that I care about the color of the tent, but if I could make one suggestion, it would be to add cots in addition to the sleeping pads. I think cots would be inexpensive to add and maintain, and when combined with a pad, you’d have a much softer surface to sleep on.
As it was, we were exhausted from the hike and slept for something like twelve hours here. Not too bad.
Bathrooms
The bathrooms were shared, as expected in a campsite. The toilets had their own private stalls with shared sinks. Shower stalls were separate. All of the plumbing functioned and toilet paper was available.
The cleanliness started out perfectly fine for a campsite but deteriorated as the night went on.
If you need to shower here, I suggest going as early in the afternoon and as close to their cleaning time as possible. You’ll want shower shoes.
Food and Beverage
Cooking is allowed at Camping Torre Central in the cooking tent. Fire danger is high throughout Torres del Paine, so it’s important to only cook in the designated area.
The tent was a large structure that protected several picnic tables underneath.
Sinks were available in the adjacent building for washing your dishes.
The Las Torres website would not allow me to book half-board with our reservation. I attempted to contact the team directly to book dinner, but they stated that it was unavailable for our date. I wasn’t clear from their response about whether there would be any other food options on-site, so we brought our own food with us. We were able to help ourselves to water and hot water for free in the Refugio.
We visited the Refugio the following day and saw that the dinner menu from the night before included onion soup to start, a choice of salmon papillote or stuffed eggplant for the main course, and brazo de reina for dessert.
It turns out that a la carte food was available both at Refugio Torre Central and the visitor center adjacent to the parking lot. Both served pizza (CLP$15,000), sandwiches, and a few other snack items. Bringing our own food may have been cheaper, but after that hike, I would have happily paid for a pizza and a beer.
Service
Our only interaction with the staff was during our check-in. We were so exhausted that we collapsed in our tent shortly after and had no need to contact anyone during our stay.
Check-Out
When we went to check out at 8:30 AM, there was no one present at the hut where we checked in. We bagged up our sleeping bags and left them in the tent for someone to find later on. We left and did not receive any further communication from Refugio Torre Central, so we assume that this method of departure was fine.
Overall Impression
We were happy with our experience camping at Refugio Torre Central and can wholeheartedly recommend it to you. Torre Central had everything we needed from an equipped campsite in a stunning location. After hiking from Refugio Chileno to Base Torres and all the way down to Refugio Torre Central in one day, we were so happy to have a place to sleep on the mountain before we continued our journey.
We also stayed at and reviewed Refugio Chileno.
Hiking Torres del Paine was one of the best travel experiences of our entire lives and we highly recommend making the journey!