Chile
Termas de Chillán
Ski a volcano by morning, soak in sulphurous hot springs carved from its slopes by afternoon.
Sulphur catches in your throat as you step from the ski lift into air thin enough to feel. Below, steam curls from outdoor pools carved into the volcanic slope, their water heated to 82°C by the mountain itself and cooled to 40°C by the time it reaches you. Snow falls on your shoulders while the water burns your legs.
Termas de Chillán is a ski and hot springs resort in Chile's Ñuble Region, set across two volcanoes with 3,500 hectares of terrain and 29 pistes — the largest ski area in South America outside Argentina. The natural hot springs are fed directly by Chillán's volcanic system, heating water to 82°C before it is cooled to 40°C in the outdoor pools. From December to March, a chairlift and two-hour hike gives summer access to the active volcanic craters at 2,212 metres, where fumaroles still exhale volcanic gas. The valley below produces merquén, Chile's indigenous Mapuche smoked chilli pepper, available fresh from roadside stalls in a form found nowhere else.
Couple
Ski together in the morning, soak together in volcanically heated pools by afternoon. The contrast of cold slopes and hot springs — with Itata Valley wine by the lodge fire — is built for two.
Friends
Twenty-nine pistes across two volcanoes give a group enough terrain to split and regroup. The hot springs afterwards are where the day's stories get traded, longaniza de Chillán in hand.
Family
The combination of skiing and hot springs in one resort simplifies a family mountain holiday. Children ski in the morning and soak in geothermally heated pools by afternoon — no transfers, no logistics.
- The ski area covers 3,500 hectares with 29 pistes across two volcanoes — the largest ski resort in South America outside Argentina.
- The natural hot springs are fed by Chillán's volcanic system at 82°C and cooled to 40°C in the outdoor pools — geothermally heated regardless of outside temperature.
- Summer access to the active volcanic craters at 2,212m runs from December to March — a chairlift and 2-hour hike delivers you to fumaroles still exhaling volcanic gas.
- The valley below the resort produces merquén — Chile's indigenous smoked chilli pepper — available fresh from roadside stalls in summer and nowhere else in this form.
Longaniza de Chillán — the smoked pork sausage that's an institution, grilled and split in bread.
Vino tinto from the Itata Valley, Chile's oldest wine region, tasted at the lodge fireside.
Cazuela de ave (chicken stew) at the resort restaurant after a day of volcanic skiing.
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