Time was, travelers to Patagonia were faced with a pretty stark choice: rough it in a tent or a hostel, or splash out five-star–style at Explora. But it seems the market has found a third way, as markets will: Puerto Natales, increasingly, is home to more than a few sub-luxury, supra-hostel options. The most stylish of which is, in our judgment, the Indigo Hotel & Spa.
Puerto Natales sits right on the Last Hope Fjord, and the hotel, a pair of rugged and charmingly mismatched buildings, stands at the edge of the water. From here it’s a modest drive to Torres del Paine park, which is what most people are talking about when they talk about Chilean Patagonia; and the town is accessible by plane and ferry, which the more remote reaches of the park are not.
Which makes this an ideal jumping-off point. As a hotel, Indigo is architecturally daring and stylistically very modern — from the interiors you’d think you were in one of the world’s great style capitals, not a remote Chilean outpost town. Rooms are comfortable enough, and vary according to price — the cheapest, for example, feature only showers, while the Indigo Suite has a deep soaking tub. A restaurant and lounge keep you fed and watered for your adventures, and the spa takes the edge off any end-of-journey fatigue; the three outdoor jacuzzis with views of the fjord and the Balmaceda glacier are Indigo’s little corner of heaven.
author watson@mouselink.net, source www.tablethotels.com
