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Patagonia

Undiscovered Gems | Wildlife Wonders | Meet the Locals

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Route of Parks

Chile’s Route of Parks links 17 national parks across 2,800km of Patagonia, from the Lake District to legendary Cape Horn, via the remote beauty of the Carretera Austral, the twisting glaciers of the icefields and the mountains of Torres del Paine...

The Route of Parks is a celebration of Chilean Patagonia in all its unspoilt glory, protected and preserved through conservation as a consequence of tourism.

From the herds of guanaco grazing the open grasslands, to the predatory pumas which follow in their wake, and from the slow growing ancient alerce trees, to the woodpeckers, hummingbirds and hued hueds which live in the cool rainforests, Patagonia is a wilder place thanks to the world’s most ambitious conservation project.

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Pumas are an increasingly common sight in Patagonia
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The Patagonia National Park in all its protected glory


While the numbers are impressive and the scale mind-boggling, as its heart, this great feat is the culmination of 25 years of dedication on the part of pioneering conservationists Kristine and Douglas Tompkins, to take ecologically critical land from absentee landowners, restore its ecosystems and give it all in perpetuity to the people of Chile as protected parkland.

Despite fierce opposition along the way, their efforts came to fruition with the largest private land donation to a government in history. Together with federal land, they created five new national parks and expanded three others, forming the centrepieces of the Route of Parks.

So where do we fit into this story?

If what you value in your travels is the chance to explore remote areas of beauty in a way that preserves, rather than exploits, the environment and the opportunity to connect with and directly benefit the local communities through which you pass, then we can offer no greater validation of our credentials than by our standing shoulder to shoulder with one of the world’s great conservation through tourism initiatives.

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Kris Tompkins and her late husband Douglas, the pioneering conservationists whose tireless dedication has protected vast swathes of Patagonia
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Kris Tompkins with our co-founders Diego and Thomas at the official European launch of Chile's Route of Parks, hosted by Pura Aventura in 2019


Central to Pura Aventura’s ethos is a duty to protect and benefit the fragile destinations we work with. And Chilean Patagonia was also where the seeds for Pura Aventura were sown over 20 years ago. So the Route couldn’t be closer to our hearts.

It was therefore with immense pride that we hosted the official European launch of the Route of Parks in September 2019, welcoming Kristine Tompkins to London to discuss her decades of conservation work and help us celebrate two decades of thoughtfully tailoring travel to this beautiful part of the world.

We would love to share it all with you.

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Travel with Pura Aventura

Exceptional Vacations

Best in class vactions, service, characterful hotels, lovely locals, food and beautiful walks - that's what our clients tell us they love about our vacations, as noted in the highest possible 5* Feefo Platinum Award.

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We are one of the first UK travel companies to be certified B Corp – regarded by The Independent as the premier sustainability certification, and described by Which? as "meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance".

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Award-winning Travel Positive

We are proud to have been recipients of awards from both Wanderlust and LUXLife for our sustainable Travel Positive initiative, that includes balancing carbon by 160%, and providing 1% of our revenue to the planet.