Base of the Towers

A surviving set of nineteenth-century hillside lifts, several still in daily use, connecting the port with the hill neighbourhoods.

Pablo Neruda's hillside house, kept as he left it, with collections of ships' figureheads and glass above a view of the bay.

Torres del Paine is a granite massif in Chilean Patagonia with three signature towers, turquoise lakes, glaciers and guanaco herds on the steppe below. The W trek takes four to five days between refugios, and the full O circuit eight to nine; both need booking months ahead because beds and campsites are capped. Wind is the defining condition.

A glacier front on the western arm of the park calving into Lake Grey, seen from boats, kayaks or the shoreline lookout.

The Atacama is the driest non-polar desert on earth, sitting at 2,400 metres and above with salt flats, flamingo lagoons, the El Tatio geyser field and altiplano lakes on the Bolivian border. San Pedro de Atacama is the base for all of it. The dryness and altitude give exceptional night skies, which is why major observatories are here.

A salt and clay valley west of San Pedro, eroded into ridges and caverns, visited in late afternoon for the colour change at sunset.