4 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.
Crime is essentially absent; the weather is the entire risk and it is not a small one. Wind regularly exceeds 100 km/h, four seasons pass in an afternoon, and hypothermia is the real danger even in January. Register at every checkpoint, carry layers you think you will not need, and turn back when told to — CONAF closes trails for good reason.
Comfortable: Puerto Natales · Torres del Paine National Park
Wind, which reaches 120km/h and blows people off the trail
Lighting any fire outside a designated stove, which has burned a fifth of the park twice
Setting out on the W or O circuit without booking refugios, which is now enforced
One of the safest places anyone can travel: a community of 8,000 where everyone knows everyone. The rules that matter are about the site rather than about you — never walk on an ahu platform, never touch a moai, stay on the marked paths, and be aware that these are graves and sacred ground rather than sculptures. Fines are substantial and enforcement is serious. The sea is powerful and there are no lifeguards.
Comfortable: Hanga Roa · Rapa Nui National Park
Touching or climbing on a moai, which is a serious offence and has resulted in prison
The coast at Ovahe and the north shore, which has no rescue at all
Riding a scooter on the unpaved roads, which is how the island’s clinic fills
Crime is close to nil. The altitude is the whole risk: San Pedro is 2,400m, the geysers are 4,300m, and the Bolivian border crossings are higher. Arrive and do nothing for a day. The sun at this elevation burns in twenty minutes and the temperature falls 25°C after dark.
Comfortable: San Pedro de Atacama · Calama
Altitude, which is the whole risk here — San Pedro is 2,400m and El Tatio is 4,300m
Calama — after dark, which is a mining town rather than a tourist one
The sun at this elevation, which burns in twenty minutes, and the 25°C drop after dark
Driving the Bolivian border roads without a guide or a spare tank
Comfortable in the eastern and central neighbourhoods and far less so around Estación Central, Plaza de Armas after dark and the Alameda west of it. Phone snatching is the defining crime and has risen sharply — do not walk with one in your hand. Protests around Plaza Baquedano recur and are best avoided rather than watched.
Phone snatching, which is the defining crime here and has risen sharply
Plaza Baquedano — during protests, which recur and are not a spectator event
The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.
