I completed the W Trek in Torres del Paine with friends in January 2025, and it turned out completely different than expected. After years of rugged backcountry backpacking in the American West, this hut-to-hut trek felt more like a social hiking vacation than a wilderness expedition. Here's what the actual day-to-day experience is really like.

The Booking Reality

We learned this lesson early: signing up late meant we couldn't secure basic campsites for every night. Torres del Paine's camping system books out months in advance during peak season. Our solution? Spring for "luxury camping" options at a few sites—pre-set tents with proper beds, linens, and sometimes heating. These cost significantly more than bringing your own tent, but honestly, they were really nice. After a day of hiking in Patagonian weather, climbing into a warm bed instead of wrestling with a wet tent had appeal. Check out my complete preparation guide for booking timelines and campsite strategies.

The Glacier Kayak Add-On

At one campsite, we splurged on glacier kayaking at Grey Glacier. The experience itself was undeniably cool—paddling among icebergs with the massive glacier face looming above creates incredible photo opportunities. That said, I'm not entirely convinced it was worth the $150-200 USD price tag for 2-3 hours. You get up close to the glacier and ice formations are spectacular, but you're limited in where you can paddle. Would I do it again? Maybe not. Would I regret skipping it entirely? Probably a little. It falls into that travel gray area of "expensive but memorable." Views of Grey Glacier from the overlook are stunning on their own.

The Trail Community

One of the most unexpected aspects: the community that develops along the trail. Unlike many long-distance treks where hikers spread out, the W Trek's campsite system creates a natural cohort. Everyone books the same sequence of camps, departing around the same time each morning. This means you hike with roughly the same group for the entire trek. You see familiar faces at every refugio, share meals, swap stories, and by the end of five days, you've built genuine friendships with people from around the world. I met incredibly cool people—Australians, Germans, Argentinians, Americans, Chileans—all drawn to Patagonia for the same reason. The social aspect transformed what could have been just another backpacking trip into something more memorable.

The Hiking Days

Here's the reality for experienced backpackers: the hiking days on the W Trek are pretty short. If you're comfortable with distance and elevation gain, most daily segments feel manageable, even easy. We found ourselves finishing the hiking portion of each day fairly early—often by early afternoon. The trails are well-maintained, clearly marked, and follow logical routes. There's no bushwhacking, no serious scrambling, and no route-finding challenges. This meant we had a lot of downtime at camp. We slept in every morning (no alpine starts necessary), took our time packing up, and still finished hiking with hours of daylight remaining.

Refugio Life: Pizza, Beer, and Cards

With short hiking days comes long afternoons at refugios and campsites. This is where the W Trek diverges most dramatically from wilderness backpacking. Most refugios have restaurants serving hot meals—primarily pizza and pasta—along with cold beer, wine, and other beverages. We spent evenings eating surprisingly good refugio pizza, drinking Patagonian beer, and playing cards with trail friends until late into the night. It was social, relaxed, and honestly a lot of fun. But it's completely different from sitting around a backpacking stove eating freeze-dried meals in the backcountry. For some people, this is a downside—less "rugged" and "authentic." For others (including me, in retrospect), it's a feature, not a bug.

This Isn't Western Backcountry

I went into the W Trek with expectations shaped by backpacking in the American West—places like the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, and the Colorado Rockies. Those trips involve serious mileage, self-reliance, leave-no-trace camping, and often challenging navigation. The W Trek is different. It's managed, structured, and social in a way that American wilderness rarely is. There are designated campsites with facilities. You're never far from other hikers. You can buy meals instead of carrying all your food. This was my first hut-to-hut trek, and that's why the experience felt so novel. The European and South American model creates a different kind of adventure—more accessible and comfortable but potentially less wild. Neither approach is better or worse. They're just different styles of experiencing mountains.

Did I Enjoy It?

Despite different expectations, I loved the W Trek. The scenery is absolutely world-class—Torres del Paine deserves every bit of its reputation. The logistics of the hut system, while initially unfamiliar, ultimately made the experience more social and less physically demanding. Would I do it again? Maybe. Would I recommend it to others? Definitely, with the caveat that you should understand what you're signing up for. If you want rugged wilderness backpacking, this might not scratch that itch. If you want stunning scenery, achievable hiking, and a chance to meet awesome people while eating pizza at 4,000 feet in Patagonia, this is perfect.