Portillo is South American skiing in its purest form: a single bright-yellow hotel on the shore of Laguna del Inca, 145 km north of Santiago and 2,880 metres up the Andes. Host of the 1966 World Championships, it still runs on its original Saturday-to-Saturday rhythm, with seven lifts and almost no day-trippers.
Run counts and piste kilometres are indicative. Green runs only exist in France, Spain, Andorra, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, the United States, Morocco, Algeria, Lesotho, South Africa, Egypt, Canada, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Chile; Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany start at blue. Indicative average snow depth near the top of the resort, in cm.
A handful of well-rated hotels in and around the resort. Pick one, then compare live prices across Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com.
Excellent · 5.8k reviews
Strong value for Portillo, with a high guest rating that punches above its nightly price.
Guests rate this hotel as excellent (4.6/5 from 5,849 reviews). It sits about 700 m from the slopes. A mid-range option for Portillo, with live nightly rates shown for your exact dates so you always see the best price.
Ratings from Google, prices indicative per night. Live availability and rates via our booking partners.
Portillo is the truest ski-in ski-out in the Americas: the yellow Hotel Portillo, the Octagon Lodge and the Inca Lodge all sit on the snow, with lifts loading just steps from the door. You walk out in boots, you walk back in for lunch.
Almost nothing about Portillo is conventional. There is no town, no condos, no day pass: you book a week at Hotel Portillo, you ski Saturday to Saturday, and you share the mountain with around 450 other guests. The drive from Santiago takes roughly two hours up through fruit valleys and into the Los Libertadores tunnel that crosses into Argentina, with the resort appearing just before the border, framed by the jagged Aconcagua range. The 1966 Alpine World Championships, the only ones ever held in the Southern Hemisphere, gave Portillo runs like Roca Jack, Garganta and Plateau, still legendary today for their steep, sustained pitch and the quirky Va et Vient slingshot lifts that fire skiers up impossibly tight couloirs. The US, Austrian and other national ski teams come for July-August summer training, which means you often share lifts with Olympians. Beyond the lift-served terrain lies a vast playground of high alpine ridges and powder bowls. Evenings are unmistakably retro: cocktails in the Bar de la Cumbre, four-course dinners in the dining room, movies and dancing at the disco. There is no other ski week quite like it on Earth.
Hotels and apartments around the lifts. Compare prices on Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com.
Portillo offers 35 km of pistes across 7 lifts, from 2,880 m to 3,322 m. Whether it suits beginners depends on the dedicated learner zones at the base of the slopes, so check the local ski-school options for green and blue run access.
The season runs from Jun 20 to Sep 30, with a snow score of 87/100. The best conditions are usually from late January through February, while spring skiing in March and April brings longer days and softer afternoons.
Portillo is the truest ski-in ski-out in the Americas: the yellow Hotel Portillo, the Octagon Lodge and the Inca Lodge all sit on the snow, with lifts loading just steps from the door. You walk out in boots, you walk back in for lunch.
Portillo has 35 km of marked pistes served by 7 lifts, between 2,880 m and 3,322 m of altitude.
Portillo counts about 14 marked runs in total. The colour breakdown above shows how they split by difficulty, a good guide to whether the resort fits your level.
Similar style, different mountain.
Andes
Andes
French Alps
French Alps