🇨🇱 Chile · Central Chile and Santiago
Just 46 kilometers from Santiago, but more than 3,000 meters up, Valle Nevado is the great ski resort of the central Andes and one of the most important in South America. What is a bustling capital down in the city becomes, up here, a world of snow-capped peaks, dry powder runs, clear skies and a mountain sun you appreciate with every descent.
Opened in 1988 with a French-inspired design, Valle Nevado was conceived as a complete high-altitude ski resort, with hotels on the slopes, a wide network of lifts and kilometers of runs for every level. And it isn't alone: connected with neighboring La Parva and El Colorado, it forms the 'Tres Valles' ski area, which lets you cover an enormous stretch of mountain with a single connection ticket.
This guide covers Valle Nevado with a practical eye: how to get up from Santiago along the road of the 'caracoles', when the snow is best, what the ski area offers, what to do if you don't ski, where to stay and eat on the mountain and what to bear in mind about the altitude. The perfect plan for combining the city with a few days in the snow a step from the capital.
Valle Nevado was born as a relatively recent tourism project, but it stands in one of the mountain areas historically tied to skiing in Chile. Skiing in the cordillera near Santiago goes back to the first decades of the 20th century, when the pioneering resorts of Farellones and El Colorado were developed on the mountain road climbing from Lo Barnechea. In that Andean context, Valle Nevado opened in 1988, the fruit of an investment with strong French participation that sought to create an international-level ski resort, inspired by the great stations of the French Alps, with hotels on the slopes and an integrated lift system. Since then, the resort has grown into the largest in the central Chilean Andes and one of the leading ones in South America, drawing both Chilean skiers and foreign visitors who take advantage of the southern hemisphere winter (June to September) to ski outside the European or North American season. Its connection with neighboring La Parva and El Colorado created the great 'Tres Valles' ski area. Across its history, Valle Nevado has hosted events and competitions and has consolidated its place as an emblematic winter destination near Santiago. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The political and economic heart of Chile: Santiago, founded in 1541 at the foot of the Andes, with the La Moneda palace and the canalised Mapocho River; pottery villages such as Pomaire; the mountain country of the Cajón del Maipo; and the world-class ski resorts of the Tres Valles.
Read the history of Santiago Metropolitan Region →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Few major world capitals can say they have a world-class ski resort less than two hours from their streets. Santiago can: you only have to climb the Andean slope rising east of the city to go, in a single morning, from urban bustle to more than 3,000 meters among snow-covered peaks. But to understand how Valle Nevado came to exist you first have to look at the long relationship between Santiago and the snow of its cordillera. Those mountains, with summits well above 4,000 and 5,000 meters, offer abundant snow through the southern hemisphere winter, and very early in the 20th century they began to attract the pioneers of winter sports in Chile.
The great initial focus was the Farellones sector and, higher up, El Colorado, on the mountain road that climbs from Lo Barnechea. From the first decades of the 20th century, the country's first mountain lodges, lifts and ski resorts were developed there, driven by Andean clubs and mountain enthusiasts. Farellones became one of the most traditional ski villages in Chile and the gateway to skiing near the capital.
On that Andean tradition — mountain roads, lodges, ski clubs and a mountain culture tied to Santiago — the modern Valle Nevado project would be built decades later, adding a large-scale resort to a territory that already had skiing in its identity.
Valle Nevado was built between 1987 and 1988, at a moment when Chile was seeking to boost winter tourism and attract international skiers. The idea was driven by the Chilean architect Eduardo Stern, who spent years dreaming of channeling the potential of the Chilean Andes into a major ski resort. The project was conceived as a complete, modern complex, very different from the traditional centers: instead of a mountain village with scattered lodges, it proposed a station with hotels on the slopes, a planned lift network and concentrated services, designed so that visitors would stay on the mountain itself and ski straight from the hotel.
A decisive feature of the project was its strong French component. The French multinational Spie Batignolles took part as a financial partner; it had a strong presence in Chile at the time (it had worked on the Colbún hydroelectric plant) and was opening up to tourism and property projects. The complex was inspired by the model of the great integrated stations of the French Alps, especially Les Arcs. That influence shows in the concept of an 'integrated station' at altitude and in the design of the complex itself, the fruit of Franco-Chilean cooperation.
The location chosen, more than 3,000 meters above sea level and a few dozen kilometers from Santiago, combined two great advantages: the quality and abundance of snow in the high cordillera and the proximity of a major capital with an international airport. With close to 900 hectares of skiable terrain and dozens of runs for every level, Valle Nevado positioned itself from birth as the largest ski complex in Chile and a bet on international-level skiing in South America.
One of the keys to Valle Nevado's success was its integration into a larger ski domain. The resort sits on the same Andean massif as its neighbors La Parva and El Colorado (the latter tied to Farellones), and the connection between the three gave rise to the ski area known as 'Tres Valles', one of the most extensive in South America.
Thanks to that connection, skiers with the corresponding ticket can move from one resort to another by skiing or using the linking lifts, reaching a far greater expanse of runs than any single station offers on its own. Each resort keeps its own character — Valle Nevado, the most modern and complete; La Parva, more residential; El Colorado/Farellones, the most traditional — but together they make an offering that strengthens the whole area as a ski destination.
This connected-domain model, also inspired by European experience, turned the Andean sector near Santiago into one of the most important ski hubs in the southern hemisphere, capable of attracting Chilean skiers and visitors from North America and Europe looking to ski during their boreal summer, when it is winter in Chile.
Since it opened, Valle Nevado has grown in infrastructure, lifts and hotel capacity until it established itself as the largest ski resort in the central Chilean Andes and one of the leading ones in South America. Its combination of good snow, a large ski area, slopeside hotels and proximity to Santiago made it an attractive destination for Chilean skiers and foreign visitors alike.
One of its great commercial assets is the calendar: being in the southern hemisphere, its winter season (June to September/October) coincides with summer in Europe and North America. That lets northern hemisphere skiers and professionals — including teams and coaches — keep skiing 'off-season', which has given Valle Nevado and the area an international profile.
Over the years, the resort has hosted international events and competitions: since 2003 it has staged a round of the Snowboard World Cup, and the Tres Valles domain hosts freeride competitions such as the Andes Freeride Week. In parallel, Valle Nevado has modernized its facilities and today, besides winter skiing, is seeking to diversify with out-of-season mountain activities. For travelers arriving in Santiago, Valle Nevado offers the chance to go, in a matter of hours, from the rhythm of a great capital to the high Andes, cementing its place as one of the great icons of winter tourism in Chile.
The story of Valle Nevado cannot be told without the road that leads to it. Access to the area's ski resorts is by the route to Farellones, which climbs from Lo Barnechea, in the east of Santiago, gaining height fast through a very long succession of hairpin bends popularly called the 'caracoles'. More than forty of these numbered bends climb the mountainside with ever-wider views.
This mountain road was, historically, the route that made the development of skiing possible at Farellones, El Colorado, La Parva and, finally, Valle Nevado. Its construction and improvements meant that the people of Santiago — and later tourists — could reach the snow within a few hours of the city, something uncommon among the world's great capitals.
The road also imposes its own logic: narrow and winding, in winter it requires chains or four-wheel drive and usually has traffic control and time restrictions for going up and down, in order to manage the flow of vehicles in snow and ice. That's why many visitors choose to go up by transfer or on an excursion. Beyond its practical function, the route of the 'caracoles' is a scenic experience in itself and a symbol of the bond between Santiago and its snow-covered cordillera.