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Things to Do in Puerto Varas, Chile
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Plan language: EnglishMost popular attractions in Puerto Varas, Chile
Ask anyone about the top things to do in Puerto Varas, Chile, and the answer usually starts with the waterfront. You might hike Volcán Osorno, a 2,652 meter volcano with a ski resort, paddle on Lago Llanquihue, or photograph the red Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón, all within a short day trip.
1. Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón
A wooden cathedral disguised as stone, built by German immigrants on the lakefront. Watch Osorno volcano turn pink from its tower at sunset.
Quick facts: Peel past the gray, stone-look stucco and you hit Oregon pine lumber, a rain-proof shell German settlers used to defend the wood from lake storms. Nearly everything inside, from the altar to the gallery railings, was hand-carved from native woods more than a century ago.
Highlights: Climb the creaking wooden staircase into the bell deck and press your palm against a bronze bell cast in Germany that still tolls for clear-weather weddings. On clear evenings, the pointed spire's reflection ripples across the lake while the volcano behind it catches a vivid orange alpenglow.
2. Lago Llanquihue
Snow-capped Osorno mirrors across cold turquoise water from nearly every beach. Kayak wild shoreline cliffs, swim the free coves, and watch the cone burn pink at golden hour.
Quick facts: Glacier meltwater fills this 550-square-kilometer lake, the country's third largest, and its surface holds a frigid 12°C year-round. Two volcanoes, perfectly white Osorno at 2,652 meters and brooding Calbuco, frame the shoreline from nearly every angle you stand on.
Highlights: On windless dawns, Osorno's white cone slides upside down across the water so crisply that kayakers say they paddle a mirrored twin. German settlers rowed ashore in the 1850s, and their descendants still run shoreline dairy farms whose smoked cheeses you'll smell from a block away.
3. Volcán Osorno
Watch a snow-dusted volcano rise straight out of a mirror-calm lake. Ride a vintage cable car to ski, hike, or picnic above the water with snow peaks all around.
Quick facts: The 2,652-meter cone rises straight from a lake shoreline, a symmetry so perfect it has doubled for Mount Fuji in film and TV shoots. Its glaciers still flow down the flanks today, yet the last eruption came as recently as 1869.
Highlights: On mirror-calm mornings, the entire snow-glazed cone reflects upside down in the water, and at dusk the glacier tints salmon-pink before the sky fades. A creaky red-and-white cable car has hauled skiers up the slope since 1936, making it one of South America's oldest lifts still running.
4. Saltos de Petrohué
Raw volcanic geology meets startlingly blue water inside a national park packed with wildlife. You'll walk boardwalk loops beside churning falls and cold spray, all framed by a snow-capped volcano.
Quick facts: Volcanic eruptions from Osorno volcano sculpted the basalt channels that funnel this river's frigid water. Each second, glacial meltwater from the Andes surges through with a striking turquoise tint, dropping roughly 20 meters in a series of cascades before flowing toward the sea.
Highlights: Visitors feel the ground tremble before they ever see the froth, and the water keeps a glassy, unnatural turquoise even as it thrashes sideways through narrow lava alleys. On sunny mornings, the spray catches the light over the volcano's snowy 2,652-meter cone, which rises directly behind the falls.
5. Lago Todos los Santos
A chain of three ferries glides across turquoise meltwater between volcano cones. Waterfalls drop into the lake as you cruise, and the run ends at a hamlet no road reaches.
Quick facts: The name marks the All Saints' feast day, the occasion when the first Europeans laid eyes on these deep blue waters. Three volcanoes frame the shoreline, and the glacier-fed water stays near 10 degrees Celsius even at the height of summer.
Highlights: Suspended glacial flour paints the surface a shifting turquoise that deepens to emerald in late afternoon. Cold downslope winds off the volcano can flip the lake from mirror-calm to whitecaps in under ten minutes, so no two crossings ever look the same.
6. Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales
The country's oldest park pairs thundering waterfalls with an almost perfectly conical volcano. Expect emerald glacier rivers, ancient rainforest walks, and shoreline views that look photoshopped.
Quick facts: The nation's oldest national park pairs lush Valdivian rainforest with glacier-fed lakes and rivers. Meltwater here glows vivid emerald from fine volcanic sediment, and alerce trees can push past 3,000 years old.
Highlights: Petrohué Falls thunder over a basalt ledge that hardened from an 1835 lava flow of Osorno Volcano, whose cone reflects in the emerald pools below. On calm mornings, kayakers paddle into milky turquoise shallows where glacial flour swirls like slow smoke under the hull.
7. Casa Yunge
Cross into a 1902 German settler's home where alerce beams and painted stoves frame the story. Creaking rooms, fire-saved heirlooms, and live artisan workshops await.
Quick facts: German pharmacist Guillermo Yunge raised this alerce wood house by hand in 1902, and his family lived here for six decades. A fire gutted the interior in 1982, yet local volunteers rebuilt it as a cultural center that now stages rotating art shows and craft workshops.
Highlights: Original hand-painted Kachelofen stoves, decorated with cobalt blue alpine scenes, still heat the main salon every winter. Upstairs, a low wooden door opens onto the attic where the family's Bremen-made cargo chests, their iron locks still snapping shut, survive completely intact.
8. Museo Pablo Fierro
Step into a hoarder's paradise where every shelf hides a century of forgotten treasures. Wander three floors of antique gadgets, toys, and curiosities that spark wonder at every turn.
Quick facts: More than 4,000 objects cram three floors, from brass gramophones and clay pipes to porcelain dolls hauled back from five continents. Sixty years of flea-market hunting built the hoard, and the owner still adds new finds whenever a junkyard yields a surprise.
Highlights: Behind a plain wooden door on the top floor waits a room stuffed with the collector's most personal finds: ration cards, love letters, and a battered shoe that belonged to a 1906 earthquake survivor. The owner's son opens this room only for small groups, telling the story of each salvage like a bedtime tale.
9. Feria Artesanal
Stall after stall of handwoven wool and silver you won't find in city shops. Smell the lanolin on fresh throws, see weavers at work, and leave with hand-stamped Mapuche silver.
Quick facts: Roughly 100 artisan stalls fill the covered market beside the lake, with many booths run by the same families for generations. Sales peak hard during January and February, when visitors snap up handwoven merino wool ponchos and Mapuche silverwork that rarely appear in city shops.
Highlights: Behind the wool and ceramics rows, a handful of Mapuche silversmiths hammer trapelacucha pendants by hand, and each finished piece is stamped with the maker's own symbol. Tip one of those silver pins over and you will spot tiny hand-chiseled pumas and condors, details that machine-made souvenirs never carry.
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Traditional Sweet Dishes
Kuchen de Manzana
This German apple cake came to the Lake District with settlers in the 1850s, and Puerto Varas is so famous for it that the area has its own Kuchen Route with bakeries competing for the best recipe.
Berlines
These German style doughnuts are usually filled with manjar, Chile's sweet caramelized milk, and they are a breakfast favorite that shows off the town's deep German heritage.
Strudel de Manzana
This flaky apple strudel uses paper thin pastry rolled around cinnamon spiced apples, a recipe handed down from the Austrian and German families who settled around Llanquihue Lake.
Traditional Savory Dishes
Curanto
Curanto is cooked underground on hot stones with seafood, potatoes, and meat, a method that comes from the indigenous Mapuche people and is still celebrated at gatherings around Puerto Varas.
Cordero al Palo
A whole lamb is slowly roasted on a wooden spit over an open fire, and it has become the signature feast dish for festivals and family gatherings in the Chilean south.
Cazuela de Mariscos
This hearty seafood stew is packed with local mussels, clams, and fish pulled from the cold waters of the nearby Pacific and Reloncaví Sound, making it a warming winter staple.
Traditional Beverages
Navegado
Navegado is red wine gently simmered with orange peel and cinnamon, a warming drink that is perfect for the rainy winters of the Lake District.
Chicha de Manzana
This lightly fermented apple cider comes from the abundant orchards around Puerto Varas, where farmers press apples in the fall and serve the tangy drink at harvest celebrations.
Cerveza Artesanal
Puerto Varas is home to breweries founded by German families, including the famous Kunstmann craft brewery, so locally brewed beer is a point of pride in the city.
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Most popular day trips
Petrohué Waterfalls and Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park
Turquoise waterfalls, Todos los Santos Lake, and views of Osorno Volcano
Osorno Volcano Ski and Recreation Center
Ski slopes in winter and hiking and chairlift rides in summer
Frutillar
Charming lakeside town with German heritage, a theater, and craft markets
Puerto Montt and Angelmó Market
Coastal city with a lively seafood market and curanto specialties
Chiloé Island (Castro and Ancud)
UNESCO wooden churches, stilt houses, and rich island traditions
Getting there
Train stations
Long distance buses from Santiago, Osorno, and Chiloé; no passenger rail service
Connections to Chiloé and southern Patagonia routes
Fly to El Tepual (PMC) then take a 20 minute shuttle bus or taxi to town. From Santiago, a direct overnight bus takes about 12 hours.
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Comments (12)
Honestly thought it would be cheaper. It's not a budget town. But the empanadas at the market are worth every peso.
Going in shoulder season was the move, March specifically. Less crowds around the lake and the weather was still decent enough for hiking.
Skip the tour boats near the water, way overpriced. Walk to the public pier and catch a local ferry, it's like half the price and just as good.
Weather was all over the place. Sunny morning, sideways rain by lunch. Pack layers or you'll regret it. Still stunning though.
The German influence here is real, the kuchen bakeries are legit. Find the little one on the side street behind the church, better than anything tourist facing.