We stayed at the Hosteria for four nights in March, 2008. The place was chosen by our tour company, Fantastico Sur, which specializes in birding tours. We had a car with driver and a very good naturalist guide. We spent one day fully in the gorgeous park proper and two others driving in the extreme east end of the park and outside it to the east because we were interested in seeing both birds and different scenery.

We were in a "superior" room (210) which was very clean and very small with twin beds and a tiny bathroom with excellent tub shower. The lodge has several large public rooms. The restaurant is in a separate building with nice views all around. The buffet food is plentiful, varied, and good but not meant to be great. The same for breakfast.

The last 7 km of road in to the Hosteria is solid washboard and/or rocky and took us 20-25 minutes each time, each way. Unless you are hiking from the Hosteria, you have to do this road each day but the scenery was great and one shouldn't be in a hurry in such a fabulous place. It's about a two hour drive to Lago Grey at the other side of the park, although anybody in their right mind would take much longer to drink in the views.

I made a reservation for four nights. To confirm my reservation I sent them my credit card number. When I arrived there I realized that the hotel doesn't have TV and fridge in the room. It's really a very simple room, although it costs from U$ 190 to U$ 300 per night. Internet also doesn't have and phone calls costs about U$ 3/minute. You can't find any store, supermarket or restaurant in more than 30 km around. So you can only have a meal in their own restaurant where you have to pay more than U$ 50.00 per person for a simple dinner, without wine. So I decided leave the hotel after 2 days. They charged me 4 days even I had stayed there just for 2 days. They do this because they know that to have your money back you have to spend more than what they have stolen you. So, take care, you can be cheated there."

A generally good looking Hosteria in a beautiful location, but, for us a poor choice for a stay in the Torres del Paine National Park.

We stayed in the family room with our children (9 & 8 years old) - 2 interconnecting rooms with a bathroom. Very disappointed with the (standard) rooms - cramped, thin walled, poorly furnished and in a not particularly good state of repair. Not at all as featured on the website.

We elected for Bed and Breakfast, but with a lack of alternative facilities were also obliged to take evening meals in the Hosteria. In the restaurant the buffet meal was very expensive for such poor quality. Bar food was a better option however the children were not allowed in the bar area so had to have the meal elsewhere.

In summary, very poor value for money. Would not recommend Hosteria Lass Torres.

After a lot of research of options to stay within the park, I wanted to do all inclusive. Explora was full - and twice the price of the all-inclusive at Hosteria. So I decided to do the all inclusive at Hosteria despite the mixed reviews on TripAdvisor.

You do need to remember that you are about a 5 hour drive from Punta Arenas... which means everything has to travel a few thousand miles to Punta Arenas then get trucked into the park. Thus - everything is hard to get and very expensive.

With the all inclusive, our guide picked us up at the airport in Punta Arenas - and was with us the entire time until she dropped us off at the end of our stay. It made everything in the park so much less stressful! For example - hiking to Glacier Gray included a 45 minute drive to a 30 minute ferry and a 15 mile hike - which you had to get back to the ferry by 4:30 - or you weren't going to make it back to the hotel that night. I would book the all-inclusive just to not have to worry. One screw up with logistics - and you'll be camping overnight somewhere. I also liked that we didn't have to worry about food either - our guide made sure we had everything we wanted whenever we wanted it.

Yes there are somewhat rudimentary bridges, but you're in a park in a remote corner of South America - it is what you should expect! The same with the hotel/rooms. They are clean, but pretty dated since they are so far off the beaten path.

The food was fine - it's not a five-star culinary experience, but you will find something to satisfy you and is comparable with most hotels in Chile. As part of the all-inclusive, they give you a bag lunch - which was great.

As for the expense, I added up what it would have cost us to do the trip without the all inclusive and it was almost the same... plan on $1,400 per person for three days in this park is not unreasonable. (Don't forget your car, gas, hotel, food, etc..) It was also nice that we were at the park half-way through our trip - and laundry was part of the all inclusive package - so they did that for us as well!

The staff was good - but the guide was excellent. Chileans are pretty laid back and things move relatively slow. Thus a lot of the Europeans had a hard time with the slow pace - particularly at checkout. So please understand that you are participating in thier culture and you just have to go with the flow.

I will go back to Torres del Paine - and I will stay at the Hosteria del Torres again. I just hope Fani will still be working there to be our guide!