Most Expensive Ski Hotel in South America? Hotel Portillo: What You Get
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- Опубликовано: 23 авг 2024
- Hotel Portillo in Chile is probably the most expensive hotel at a ski resort in South America. In 2024, prices for a single room are as high as $1,400 USD per night! That's a big increase from 2023 prices. Portillo is small ski and snowboard resort, but it has some of the most difficult in bounds terrain that I've seen in South America, and only one hotel - Hotel Portillo. So what do you get if you pay those prices?
Hotel Portillo is an all-inclusive resort. So while $1,400 is certainly a hefty nightly rate, you don't have to buy chairlift tickets. You don't have to pay for breakfast, lunch and dinner (except soft drinks and alcohol). So the effective nightly rate is significantly lower.
Let's start with the downsides. First, Hotel Portillo was built 75 years ago. So the walls are thin and the radiators occasionally make noise. So you may want to bring ear plugs for when you're trying to sleep. In the dining room, wherever you sit the first day -- that is where you have to sit for the rest of the vacation. So choose your table wisely. Some people may not like the check-in experience because everyone arrives on the same day at approximately the same time. I didn't find it to be that bad. If you prefer a quick lunch, you may not like the lunch option here because it tended to take me 1.5 hours, and I ate quickly. There are also no TVs in the hotel rooms.
Now the upsides. If you stay for a week, the hotel can provide a free transfer to and from the airport. There is one formal dining room, and the meals are surprisingly good for an isolated ski resort. It's not a Michelin star restaurant, but I was impressed by how good the food was. I never left the dining room hungry. The staff is very friendly, and if you don't speak Spanish like me, there were no problems because most of the staff spoke English. The rooms in the hotel have been renovated and are much nicer than what you may read about them in older online reviews. If you're traveling from North America or Europe, you'll arrive at the airport early in the morning and leave late at night, so you can squeeze in two extra days on the mountain compared to the average week-long trip in the northern hemisphere. The hotel has a lot of activities, and is great for kids. The view from the hot tub is unbeatable.
So is it worth the price? Well, for those who can't stomach paying such a high nightly no matter how many other costs are covered and therefore eliminated, it may never be worth it. For others, it may depend on how good the snow is, because in my opinion, Portillo is such a unique and special experience in and of itself that if you add tons of snow on top of that, it can easily be worth the price.
Man. You are one of my favorite ski RUclipsrs on the US side. Great information. Great view. Great narration and editing! No skier I know talk this fast. I love fast pacing because that’s what NY is like. It got ur own style.
Thanks so much for the wonderful comment! NY fast pace, haha!
Echo to other review! Great information! Thanks? ❤
Thanks!
Love to connect and feature you on SportsEdTV! Cheers, Roberto
Great review! Thanks!
Very Informative, Bravo !
Thanks so much!
Nice vlog from Portillo, fan of your content, since I have wanted to ski in Chile and found no reliable information, as you have presented in the video. This seems way high priced, better stick to sking in Europe I guess...
Thanks! Yes, Europe tends to be way cheaper than Portillo, with a lot more terrain. But if you want to ski Chile, Valle Nevado is much more affordable than Portillo.
Wow! Those prices are insanely expensive, especially for Chilean standards.
Yes, certainly by expensive by Chilean standards, and even by American and European standards!
If skiing is your goal and you are an advanced skier or better, Portillo is the place to go! The value for your money is way better than going to other ski areas in South America.
Portillo is like going to a snow cat or heli skiing lodge for a lot less money. You can stay at the Inca Lodge (the "backpackers" place) for 3 nights for $700, that includes 4 meals a day, four days of lift pass plus access to all the amenities of the Hotel. The ambience is very fun, live band in the bar every night where everybody ends dancing. And of course the best ski terrain of South America with never crowded lifts, even during weekends because Portillo limited the sale of daily pases to 2000 people.
Now how more much could cost anything like that in any of the well known ski areas of the west of USA?
R you going to catedral this year? There’s a TON of snow!!
I wish! But I'm actually going to Las Lenas, which also has a ton of snow, so I'm not complaining!
@@SkiBoyNY. yeah, ton of snow… I wish you booked piscis or any of the top hotels.. Las leñas was built in the 70s and NEVER updated :(.. don’t get me wrong it’s fun, but don’t expect new things.. we can say it’s Vintage…
@@GerDarioOtero I actually booked an apartment rental that looks like it has been renovated, but yes, I am expecting it to be vintage! I'm excited to visit because I learned about Las Lenas as a kid and it was the first time I realized that there is skiing outside of North America and Europe.
@@SkiBoyNY. awesome, I’m based in Buenos Aires actually, Las leñas is a different xp compared to any of the other resorts.. it’s above the tree level (~1700m), so no woods there, it’s an alpine like skiing.. specially for your snowboarding friend, get ready for some Poma lifts and Tbars..
I know there’s some good heliski there too!
That hotel cost, YIKES. 😲 Even though it is full board I guess I won't be going, as it'd cast more to go there then Japan, and Japan is to dear for me.
@@Puzzoozoo Yes, and the cost is even more obscenely high this year with the price increases. Japan is tough to beat. Portillo is so unique and in my view, so much more beautiful than Hokkaido (Niseko and Rusutsu at least), that if I were going to go 10 times to Japan, I switch to 9 trips to Japan and once to Portillo. At current prices, I'm not sure I could justify more than once to Portillo since the snow is far less consistent than Japan.
You won't go skiing to Japan in summer.