Chile won four World Travel Awards 2026: what it means for your trip

On 11 October, at the South American World Travel Awards ceremony held in Jamaica, Chile took four awards: Best Adventure Tourism Destination, Best Cruise Destination, Best Green Destination and Best Tourist Board in South America, the last one going to Sernatur for the first time.

The World Travel Awards have run since 1993 and are voted on by industry professionals and the general public. They are not a technical ranking or a satisfaction survey: in practice they are the most closely followed reputation award in the industry. They tell you which destination currently has the strongest image, not which one has the best trails.

That said, one figure does mean something: Chile has won the adventure category every year since 2015, twelve editions running. A streak like that is not sustained by marketing.

What sits behind each award

Adventure tourism. The most repeated and the easiest to verify on the ground. Chile is 4,300 kilometres long and averages 180 wide: one country holds the driest desert on the planet, a mountain range with ski resorts two hours from the capital, snowmelt rivers, and Patagonia. The adventure offering is not concentrated in one region, which is the unusual part.

Near Santiago that becomes specific: rafting in the Cajón del Maipo from September to April, and skiing at Valle Nevado, Farellones or El Colorado from June to September.

Cruise destination. Chile retained the title it already held in 2025. The southern season carries it, with departures to the fjords and Antarctica from Punta Arenas and Puerto Williams, plus Valparaíso and San Antonio as ports of call.

Green destination. Also retained. More than a fifth of Chile's territory is under protection between national parks and reserves, and much of the tourism in the south happens inside those areas, under the rules and quotas each administration sets.

Best tourist board. The new one, and the only award that is about management rather than landscape. It went to Sernatur, the body that regulates and promotes Chilean tourism and maintains the register of licensed operators.

The Chilean companies that also won

This part usually gets left out of the news and is the most useful if you are planning a trip, because these are places you can actually book:

• Tierra Patagonia, best adventure hotel.
• Explora, best expedition company, and Explora Patagonia National Park, best lodge.
• Hotel Las Torres Patagonia, best green hotel.
• Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve, for responsible tourism.
• Concha y Toro's wine centre, best wine tourism estate, under an hour from Santiago. If that is your angle, the wineries near Santiago covers which visit suits what.
• LATAM Airlines, best airline in South America.

What comes next

With these awards Chile reaches 45 wins since 2015, counting world and regional titles. It now competes in eight categories of the world final: adventure, cruises, green destination, nature, tourist board, Santiago as best city destination, the Atacama Desert as most romantic destination, and Pucón as best regional adventure destination. Voting is open until the end of October.

How this translates if you are planning to go

An award does not change the weather or the prices, but it is a good excuse to look at the calendar properly. What really shapes your trip is the season:

• June to September: snow in the central Andes. What to do in Chile in winter.
• October to April: rivers, coast and the north. In the Atacama the window is wide, and it is worth checking when to go and what to do.
• All year: Santiago, the wineries and the coast.

And if you are starting from scratch, the complete guide to travelling in Chile covers documents, budget and routes.