These Are the Best Things to Do in Tres Valles, Chile

I’m carving turns through the pristine snowfields of La Parva, a ski resort 55 kilometres north-east of downtown Santiago, when I notice a 22-metre-tall statue of the Virgin Mary piercing the cloudbank. Her pale silhouette rises from a hilltop above the Chilean capital, a reminder of just how close I am – a little over an hour by ski transfer – to the metropolis of almost seven million people. Up in the bald-faced Andes – 3630 metres at La Parva’s skiable peak – oxygen thins, infrastructure fades and silvery mountains glimmer in sunbeams. It feels incredibly remote. Yet, here I am a few hours later, having lunch at La Cocotte, the resort’s new slope-side bistro, pairing wines from the nearby Maipo Valley with mussels from the not-too-far-away Pacific.

La Parva is one of three ski centres in Santiago’s Tres Valles. There’s Valle Nevado (the largest), El Colorado (home to the biggest snow park) and La Parva, which has a reputation for being the most exclusive. With 40 speed-friendly runs – most of them kilometres-long and ideal for intermediate to advanced skiers – La Parva is a favourite among affluent Chileans and European ski teams.

“Historically, we catered to people who were born with skis on their feet,” says Victor Gonzalez, who considers himself one of them. As the head of marketing, he’s rebranding La Parva to appeal to a younger, more global crowd with lower lift prices (as minimal as $24 a day pre-booked) and better connectivity. This turnabout started when Colorado-based company Mountain Capital Partners (MCP) became the majority owner of Valle Nevado in 2023, the sole owner of La Parva in 2024 and then linked the two with joint passes. This year more than $6 million has been invested in modernising the ski lifts, expanding snowmaking efforts and renovating lodgings and amenities.

It may be one of Chile’s largest mountain towns but La Parva doesn’t have a single hotel so I stay at the Hotel Puerta del Sol (above), one of Valle Nevado’s three ski-in, ski-out properties that’s known for its sharp, glass-like angles and rustic wooden design. I ski over to La Parva on a newly groomed path at the top of Valle Nevado’s high-speed Andes Express lift and also revel in Valle Nevado’s 9300 hectares of skiable domain.

Hotel Puerta del Sol, Valle Nevado, Tres Valles, Chile

When the sun sets each evening, DJs spin by the hotel’s heated outdoor pool. Up above, guests step out onto the symmetrical balconies to kick off their après-ski. Soon, everyone heads for the area’s four restaurants – the best of which, Sur, does Chilean staples such as caldillo de congrio.

In July, MCP announced plans to become the controlling shareholder of El Colorado, where the slopes are so close I can see them from my balcony. If approved by Chilean regulators before the 2026 season, visitors could ski across all three resorts on a single pass, making the Tres Valles not only the largest lift-served mountain resort in the Southern Hemisphere but also one of the biggest ski destinations in the world.