Patagonia 2028: Carretera Austral Adventure
March 2–12, 2028 - 11 Days / 10 Nights
We love travel.
We love nature.
And more than almost anything, we love to dream about the places on this planet that still feel wild, pure and utterly breathtaking—the kind of landscapes that stop you in your tracks and make you feel small in the very best way.
For years, we've searched the world for a special place we could scout ourselves and then return to share with a small group of fellow adventurers. We wanted somewhere with a level of natural beauty that is genuinely rare—and just as important, a place where we could travel with confidence and feel completely at ease while surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth.
We found it in Chilean Patagonia.
At the heart of this remarkable corner of the world runs one of the great drives on the planet: the Carretera Austral. National Geographic has called it the perfect road trip at the bottom of the world. Lonely Planet ranks it among Patagonia's most iconic road trips. The BBC has described it as one of the world's great remote journeys.
This is the road we're going to drive.
But for us, creating this journey means much more than plotting a route on a map.
In March 2027, Kent will spend several weeks traveling the Carretera Austral solo in a Yeti camper, experiencing the road firsthand and scouting the journey from beginning to end. He'll drive the roads, ride the ferries, hike the trails and seek out the places that deserve more time—and the ones that don't. He'll scout accommodations, restaurants, campsites, hikes, waterfalls, glaciers, hot springs, the Marble Caves and the unexpected places you only discover by actually being there.
He'll also have his video equipment with him, documenting the journey along the way so we can share the real Patagonia—not simply the version found in guidebooks.
And he'll be looking beyond the landscape.
Throughout Patagonia, artists and craftspeople create work shaped by the traditions, materials and extraordinary environment around them. Kent will seek them out, step inside their studios and workshops, learn their stories and identify a select few we'd like our guests to meet.
Those relationships will become part of our Bring It Home experiences during the group journey—personal encounters that give us another way to understand Patagonia and, perhaps, the opportunity to bring home something extraordinary created by someone we've met along the way.
Then, on March 2, 2028, we'll return with a small group of fellow adventurers for an 11-day, 10-night journey down this legendary road.
We'll begin together in Puerto Varas before setting out in our convoy of Yeti campers. We'll spend part of the journey sleeping in the wild landscapes we've come to experience and the balance in carefully selected hotels and lodges along the route.
We'll hike. We'll get out on the water. We'll experience glaciers, waterfalls, forests, mountains and impossibly blue lakes. We'll meet people Kent discovered a year earlier. We'll drive one of the great roads on Earth.
And because Kent will have traveled it first, we'll know where it's worth slowing down.
This is the Patagonia we want to share with you.
The Journey
Over ten nights, we'll travel south through Chilean Patagonia along the legendary Carretera Austral—one of the world's great road trips.
For part of the journey, we'll travel and sleep in our Yeti campers, giving us the freedom to spend a few nights surrounded by the wild landscapes we've come all this way to experience. For the balance of the trip, we'll stay in carefully selected hotels and lodges along the route.
We aren't interested in racing through Patagonia just to cover more miles. We've designed the journey to give us time to get out of the vehicles and experience it—hiking through extraordinary landscapes, getting out on the water, exploring remote communities and leaving room for the unexpected discoveries that make a road trip memorable.
Along the way, we'll also introduce you to some of the artists and craftspeople Kent discovers while scouting this route in 2027. These Bring It Home encounters will take us beyond the scenery and into the studios and workshops of people whose work is connected to this remarkable part of the world.
Some days will be about the road. Others will be about staying put and experiencing where we are.
That's exactly how we want to travel through Patagonia.
Must-See Highlights
Marble Caves (Capillas de Mármol) — One of the most extraordinary natural experiences on Earth. We will glide by boat (and optionally by kayak) into a labyrinth of swirling blue-and-white marble formations sculpted by glacial waters for thousands of years. Sunlight dances across the cathedral-like ceilings and reflects off the turquoise water in a way that feels almost otherworldly.
Queulat National Park & the Hanging Glacier — A massive glacier suspended high on a cliff face, sending waterfalls thundering into the valley below.
Cerro Castillo National Park — Jagged black peaks rising like a fairytale castle above a turquoise glacial lake. The day hike to Laguna Cerro Castillo is pure Patagonia.
Parque Pumalín Douglas Tompkins — Ancient Alerce trees, hidden waterfalls, and the chance to hike Volcán Chaitén for a view into its steaming crater.
Puyuhuapi Fjord & Hot Springs — A quiet village set on a deep fjord, perfect for soaking in thermal waters with mountain views.
The road itself — Endless waterfalls, lupine-filled valleys, hanging bridges, and those moments when you simply have to stop the car because the landscape is too beautiful to drive past.
BRING PATAGONIA HOME
Some of the most meaningful things we discover when we travel aren't places at all. They're people.
Throughout Patagonia, artists and craftspeople create work shaped by this extraordinary landscape, its traditions and the materials found here. Handwoven textiles, ceramics, paintings and other pieces tell another story of this remote part of Chile.
During his 2027 scouting journey, Kent will seek out artists and makers along the Carretera Austral, visit their studios and workshops and spend time getting to know both the people and their work.
From those encounters, we'll select a few special experiences to share with our 2028 group.
We'll step inside working studios, meet the people behind the pieces and hear the stories that make their work meaningful. And if you discover something you love, we'll have researched the practical details in advance—including packing and shipping options—to help make bringing it home easier.
There's never an expectation to purchase anything. Meeting these talented people and seeing Patagonia through their eyes is part of the experience.
This is Bring It Home—another way to connect more deeply with the places we travel.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
A little wild. A lot comfortable.
This is not a ten-night camping trip.
We'll spend a few carefully selected nights sleeping in our Yeti campers, giving us the chance to wake up in some truly extraordinary places. For the majority of the journey, we'll stay in comfortable, thoughtfully selected hotels and lodges along the Carretera Austral.
The campers give us freedom. The hotels give us comfort.
And we think the combination is just about perfect.
YOUR HOME ON THE ROAD
Our Yeti campers will be much more than a place to sleep. For ten days, they'll become our own little homes on the road—and one of the things that make and one of the things that makes this journey so much fun.
Think of your camper as your personal Patagonia base camp.
Hiking boots, rain jacets, cameras, binoculars, favorite snacks, an extra bottle of wine, a deck of cards, a portable Bluetooth speaker for your favorite road-trip playlist—it can all travel with you. Instead of packing and unpacking everything as we move through Patagonia, your gear stays organized in your camper while you take a lightweight duffel into the hotels and lodges along the way.
And then there's lunch.
Because we're traveling with kitchens, tables, chairs and supplies, we don't always need a restaurant. Kent will scout special places along the route where we can pull over, open up the campers and turn an extraordinary Patagonian setting into our lunch spot.
Maybe it's beside a turquoise lake. Maybe it's overlooking the mountains. Maybe it's simply somewhere so beautiful that none of us wants to keep driving.
We'll spend a few selected nights sleeping in our campers, waking up surrounded by the wild landscapes we came all this way to experience. For the balance of our ten-night journey, we'll stay in carefully selected hotels and lodges where a comfortable room, hot shower and great meal will feel especially good.
But even on hotel nights, the camper remains yours. It's where your gear lives, where the snacks are hidden, where you grab the binoculars when someone spots something in the distance and where your road-trip playlist is waiting the next morning.
We'll begin with a hotel stay in Puerto Varas. The following morning, our convoy of Yeti campers will be delivered to the hotel, we'll get settled into our new homes on wheels and then head south.
By the end of the journey, we suspect your camper won't feel much like a rental vehicle.
It'll feel like your little home in Patagonia.
REMOTE, BUT CONNECTED
Part of the magic of Patagonia is getting far away from everyday life. But far away doesn't have to mean completely out of touch.
Kent will travel with a Starlink Mini satellite internet system throughout our journey, giving our group another way to connect in many of the remote places where traditional cellular service may be limited or unavailable.
Want to check in with family? Send a message home? Share a photo from an incredible day? Check tomorrow's weather? You'll have opportunities to get online along the way.
And because Starlink travels with us, connectivity isn't limited to our hotels. When conditions and satellite visibility allow, we can set it up at camp or during one of our stops along the Carretera Austral.
Of course, this is still Patagonia. Mountains, forests, weather and our location can affect satellite service, so we can't promise a connection everywhere we go.
But that's part of why we're bringing it.
We want you to experience the freedom of traveling through one of the world's great remote landscapes—with a little extra peace of mind tucked into the convoy.
WHY THIS FEELS LIKE PURE VANARNAM MAGIC
This journey has so many of the things we love about travel.
An extraordinary road. Wild landscapes. Great hikes. Beautiful places to stay. Nights in our campers. Lunches wherever the view tells us to stop. And the freedom to experience Patagonia at a pace that lets us actually enjoy being there.
But what excites us most are the things we don't know yet.
The little restaurant Kent discovers while scouting. The perfect place beside the road to pull out the chairs and make lunch. The trail that turns out to be even better than expected. The artist whose work stops him in his tracks. The place everyone wants to linger just a little longer.
Those discoveries are why we scout our journeys ourselves.
We'll take what Kent learns during several weeks on the road in 2027 and use it to create something we couldn't build from behind a computer—a Patagonia journey shaped by actually being there.
Then we'll come back in 2028 and share the very best of it with you.
That's VanArnam Adventures.