Everyone tells you that two things are unmissable when visiting Patagonia: seeing Mount Fitz Roy in Argentina, and hiking the W Trek in Chile’s Torres del Paine. I believed them. In April 2025, I finished the W Trek as my first-ever multi-day hike, and honestly, I regretted it.
The W Trek is world famous. Thousands of blogs, Instagram posts, and Reddit threads called it “life-changing.” But for me, the W Trek was unnecessarily hard, uncomfortable, overpriced, and underwhelming compared to the alternatives.
Here’s why.
What is the W Trek?
The W Trek is a W-shaped trail in Torres del Paine National Park, covering about 46 miles and nearly 10,000 feet of elevation gain. Most people do it in 4–5 days, staying in either tents (your own or already set up by the park) or refugios (lodges with bunks). The W Trek is widely considered the best way to experience the park, and by extension, Patagonia.
This is the side of the W Trek people don’t talk about, and why I personally didn’t think it was worth it.
1. The trek is hard for no reason.
Some hiking trails are tough and gain a ton of elevation because they climb to mountain summits – fair enough.
But parts of the W felt designed by a sadist. The stretch from Refugio Chileno to Refugio Francés is the worst example: relentless steep uphills followed immediately by steep downhills, repeating for miles, with zero net elevation gain. It’s exhausting, punishing on the knees, and honestly pointless, and the views during that stretch aren’t even good because you’re blocked by the surrounding vegetation.
2. The trek is highly uncomfortable and gross
- The trails are rocky for no reason (I didn’t see any rocks in the surrounding vegetation). It’s uncomfortable to walk on and twisting your ankle is a constant risk.
- Horse manure is everywhere. The smell is constantly there while you’re hiking for hours, and you can’t avoid stepping in it.
- The trail is horribly maintained: Overgrown vegetation, narrow paths, and stretches of mud deep enough to soak your boots if you’re not careful.
- The food sucks unless you shell out hundreds of dollars. Unless you pay for overpriced refugio dinners ($70 per person!) or carry all your own meals, expect to survive on absolute junk. I didn’t see a single fruit or vegetable in five days. At Paine Grande, all they had was an abysmal “burger” with cheez whiz on it (no vegetables available) and a quesadilla with beef that literally tasted like rubber. Although I must give a shoutout to Refugio Chileno for serving one of the best meals I had in all of Patagonia.
3. The payoff is kind of mid
I know this sounds privileged, but the views didn’t wow me, especially after hiking in El Chaltén.
The highlights:
- Sunrise at Mirador Base Torres.
- The view of Los Cuernos from the catamaran leaving the park (you do not need to hike at all to see this).
- (Honorable mention) Glacier Grey (although Perito Moreno in El Calafate was far more impressive).
The rest of the hike? Long stretches through thickets with no real scenery. Meanwhile, El Chaltén offered jaw-dropping views almost every step of the way without making you suffer sadistic trails.
4. The prices are batshit insane
- Park entry: $48 USD per person
- Tent and dinner at Chileno: $175 USD per person
- Shared dorm at Francés: $160 USD per person
- Room with a 20-person shared bathroom at Paine Grande: $100 USD per person
- Peanut M&Ms: $3
- Plain cheese quesadilla (no sauce, no vegetables, etc.): $12
For the quality and comfort you get, the prices are outrageous.
5. Booking the W Trek is a logistical nightmare
Booking the trek is confusing and frustrating:
- Two companies run all lodging (Base Torres on the east, Vertice on the west). It’s not obvious which company controls what, so you can easily end up on the wrong website. In addition, each company has a monopoly over half of the park, so there’s no incentive to keep prices competitive.
- The booking systems are buggy and manual, and don’t clearly show which refugios are closed in shoulder season.
- Transport is a mess: buses from Puerto Natales, shuttles, catamarans, and return buses often don’t line up. I wasted hours just waiting in random outposts with nothing around to do.
What I’d do instead
Here’s how I split my time in Patagonia during my trip:
- El Chaltén (3 days): Laguna de los Tres, Laguna Torre, Chorrillo del Salto, Mirador de los Cóndores.
- El Calafate (2 days): Perito Moreno Glacier, bus to Puerto Natales.
- Torres del Paine (4 days): Full W Trek.
If I could redo it?
- El Chaltén (5 days): Add Loma del Pliegue Tumbado to the hikes I did and complete the hike to Laguna Torre, plus buffer days for weather.
- El Calafate (1 day): Perito Moreno Glacier.
- Torres del Paine (1-2 days): Sunrise hike to Mirador Base Torres, and maybe a catamaran across Lake Pehoé with a side trip to Glacier Grey without staying in Paine Grande.
More time in Chaltén, less time (or none) in Torres del Paine.
My context (a.k.a. My excuses)
- This was my first-ever multi-day trek.
- I was recovering from a fresh knee sprain, so I wasn’t able to train earnestly for the months leading up to the hike.
- My boots were a poor fit, which reactivated an old foot injury earlier during my trip.
- I had pneumonia just a week before and was still recovering, so I wasn’t in the best shape.
My experience was definitely colored by all of this, but even healthy and better-prepared, I don’t think the W would have been worth the hype.
Final thoughts
Personally, I wish someone had warned me that the W Trek was not “all that” before I dropped over $700 on it. To be honest, I probably still would’ve done it, as thousands of people do it every year and see it as one of the best experiences of their lives.
However, Patagonia has so much beauty to offer, and not all of it requires overpriced dorms with mid food, endless mud and horse shit, and trails designed to break your knees (check out my Patagonia Travel Guide here).
My final recommendation? Consider skipping the W and taking your vacation time and money to somewhere more enjoyable and with better views.
ADJENTURING 