Chile's Route 7 — the Carretera Austral — runs 1,240 km through some of the least-populated and most scenically extraordinary terrain on earth. Parts of it still require ferries. Most of it has no phone signal.
The appeal is precisely the incompleteness. The road was never finished in a conventional sense, which means it threads through places that only became accessible in the last few decades. Each section feels earned — river crossings, gravel stretches, and ferry hops between fjord systems.
The standout sections: the Queulat hanging glacier above the highway near Puerto Puyuhuapi; the marble chapels of Puerto Río Tranquilo from a kayak on Lago General Carrera; the trail network in Cerro Castillo. Budget real time — this road does not reward rushing.
In-depth guide
The Patagonia Adventure Guide
6 min read