If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD147.03), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Stood amid a 35,000 hectare reserve in the Patagonian Andes, Futangue Hotel & Spa offers unfettered access to the splendour of southern Chile. The low-slung buildings are a reimagining of the region’s barns and stables, using native timber, volcanic rock and traditional textiles to create interiors at once rustic and modern. All this is just a frame for the windows, however, which look out across flower-flecked meadows, ancient forests and rugged volcanic mountains. As you’d expect, the vast Parque Futangue is the focal point from which everything stems: from the inspired dishes in the restaurant to the herbs used in the spa, everything is a showcase of the Valvdivian landscape. There’s a full programme of expert-led excursions, too, including horse riding, mountain biking, hiking and fly fishing.
12 noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £117.74 ($147).
More details
Rates include breakfast, a buffet with fresh fruit, muesli, home-baked bread, pastries, juices and honey produced on the estate. On the all-inclusive rate, you also get excursions, all meals and drinks (excluding some wines and spirits) and return transfe
Also
The hotel’s organic bath products are made with Valdivian flowers and berries including the maqui, a superfood that smells a bit like blackcurrant.
Hotel closed
The hotel is closed from 1 May to 30 October.
At the hotel
Vast national park, lakes, beach, WiFi throughout, laundry. In rooms: free bottled water, blackout curtain.
Our favourite rooms
Clad from floor to ceiling in native timber, the rustically minimalist rooms look like a cross between an Alpine chalet, gaucho hut and Californian beach house. Every room has picture windows with uninterrupted views of the oak-dotted gardens, meadows and distant mountains; a wooden sill runs beneath each window, creating the perfect place to pen a postcard. The Exploradores Rooms, housed in a separate block about 120 metres from the main building, have views of the Rupumeica granite towers. For extra legroom, go for one of the suites, which have living areas with cowhide lounge chairs.
Poolside
There are two: an indoor pool in the spa and a larger unheated pool outside. The outdoor pool thrusts out into the meadows that begin just beyond the decked terrace. As you swim, you’ll be looking at fields of wildflowers, forest-swathed hills and craggy mountains.
Spa
Dressed in native woods and volcanic rock, Triwe Spa channels the placid beauty of the Valdivian landscape. Its light-flooded spaces look out across oak-studded fields towards an amphitheatre of mountains, where medicinal plants grow and crystal-clear streams are abundant. The treatments feature native herbs, berries and oils which are completely organic and responsibly sourced. The menu includes facials, wraps, muscle-soothing massages and treatments designed to release specific tension and stiffness. Alongside the treatment rooms, the spa has a sauna, relaxation area and an indoor/outdoor pool with a sun deck.
Packing tips
Don’t forget your waterproof. This region of Chile gets a healthy dose of rain – that’s what keeps the landscape so lush and green.
Also
The hotel is one floor, making all of the public areas – including the spa – wheelchair accessible. There are dedicated rooms for guests who are less mobile and one room with a wheelchair-adapted bathroom.
Children
All ages are welcome, although the hotel isn’t designed with children in mind. Suites can fit a cot or an extra bed.
Request a table close to the windows, which have views of one of the highest peaks in the region.
Dress Code
There’s no dress code, but guests tend to slip into something a little smarter for dinner – cashmere sweaters, casual shirts and midi dresses will hit the mark.
Hotel restaurant
Mesón del Caulle is a love letter to Northern Patagonia. Chilean chef Karime Harche has created a menu that makes the most of the Valdivian rainforest, using native herbs, fungi, potatoes and berries. When it comes to produce, she likes to keep things in-house as much as possible: most of the vegetables are grown on site, and the meat and fish come from local farms or Valdivian waters. You’ll have the chance to sample one-of-a-kind herbal spirits and homemade ice creams using ingredients that won’t be found outside of southern Chile. Expect entrées like veal sweetbreads confited in herbs and served with fresh avocado tartar, Chilean olives and parsley. Mains are hearty but equally rooted to the local culture – dishes such as grilled skirt steak with sauteed native potatoes, mushrooms and roasted cabbage marinated in a creole chimichurri.
Hotel bar
Attached to Mesón del Caulle, the bar is just as much a showcase of the park’s natural bounty. Go for one of the signature cocktails, which are made with infused spirits and ingredients found in the local forests. This being Chile, the wine’s an equally solid bet.
The hotel is in Futangue Park, a 13,500 hectare reserve in the Chilean Lake District. The hotel stands on a fertile canyon bed carpeted with meadows and bordered by volcanic mountains. Lake Ranco, which is dotted with verdant islands, is a short hike away
Planes
The closest airport is Osorno. It’s served by at least one flight a day from Santiago de Chile, the country’s main international airport. It takes around 90 minutes to drive from Osorno to the hotel; the hotel can arrange transfers for up to four passengers (depending on luggage) for US$210 each way. Larger vehicles are available for an extra charge.
Automobiles
Many guests do without a car, but if you do decide to hire one, there’s free parking at the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
With 13,500 hectares of natural splendour on the doorstep, you won’t be running out of things to do. The hotel has a team of expert guides who lead seasonal excursions to some of the most beautiful areas of the park. You can hike through forest of mountain pine, ride on horseback through wildflower meadows, go fly fishing on placid lakes and descend from rocky peaks on a mountain bike. For something a little more easygoing, combine a short hike with a lakeside barbecue, complete with prime Chilean beef and fine wine. Another guest favourite is a late-afternoon picnic at the Riñinahue Waterfalls, a location for Red Bull’s cliff diving world series. Don’t worry, you won’t be expected to perform a high dive: this is an excellent spot for wild swimming, too…
Local restaurants
There’s not much in the local area – that’s what makes Futangue so special. Most guests have all of their meals in the hotel restaurant or out on excursions. If you’re set on eating out, the two best places in the local area are Laurel, where the dishes have a Mediterranean lean, and De Pellin y Coigue, a Chilean steakhouse overlooking Lake Ranco and the mountains beyond.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this mountain-ringed lodge in the Chilean Lake District and unpacked their honey from the hotel’s own hives, a full account of their Northern Patagonia break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Futangue Hotel & Spa in the Chilean Lake District…
There are many beautiful pockets of the Chilean Lake District – but even to those familiar with it, it’s not hard to see why Futangue Hotel & Spa is a coveted secret. The hotel and namesake reserve take their name – futangue – from the Mapuche word for canyon. And what a canyon. The hotel is built on the valley bed, dotted with vast oak trees and swathed with grass that sustains the herds of Angus cows. A short hike west brings you to the shore of Lake Ranco; head towards the hills and the meadows are soon replaced by Valdivian rainforest teeming with indigenous species. It’s a Darwinian dream, no less.
An architectural take on a Chilean barn, the hotel has just 16 rooms, each one sporting timber-panelled walls, wood-beam ceilings and picture windows with views worthy of an Apple screensaver. Throughout the hotel, local timber and volcanic stone keep things rooted to the landscape, and the fabrics, furniture and textiles recall the indigenous craft trade. The most exciting tribute to the region is the restaurant, however, which is unrivalled in the area. Here, you get a true taste of southern Chile; prime meat and line-caught fish are prepared with homegrown vegetables and indigenous fruits and herbs, some of which you’ll be encountering for the first time. This is what Futangue is all about: desomonstarting, through all the senses, why this landscape is so worth preserving.
