Refugio and Camping Francés — Attraction in Torres del Paine

We found the restaurant/refugio Los torres staff at Camp Frances to be some of the rudest people any of us have ever encountered.

We had an incredibly long day 3 and my 2 friends arrived at 8pm and asked about dinner (we knew it wasn’t included we wanted to buy it anyway) they were told the kitchen closed at 9pm.. Happy with that they dropped their bags off to the dorm and quickly changed and went back and when they tried to order at 8:20pm they were told they could only have pizza…not the 3 course dinner they wanted. Frustrated but starving, they accepted and ordered from the girl at the payment desk. Then a few minutes later a man called Leandro G told they had to have it as take away they were not allowed to eat in the dining hall.

I then arrived at 8:30pm after a difficult walk in the dark and was told the same thing – only pizza. I’m allergic to tomatoes so I couldn’t eat it but they reluctantly agreed to give me Quesadillas.

While we were waiting there was another older lady at the table who was eating her pizza already, she had arrived at 7pm and was told to back at 8pm for Pizza which she did, she received it around 8:20pm and was eating it when Leandro G came up to her as she was literally holding the fork to her mouth eating and he told her she had to pack it up and leave. We were all in disbelief at this and we tried speaking to Leandro on her behalf about how rude it was to do that and he kept disagreeing with us, asking what was our problem and just dismissing anything we said. He was getting angrier and ruder with us but eventually just said “do what you want” and walked off.

I worked in hospitality for many many years and even as a customer throughout my life I’ve never seen anyone treat customers with such distain as he did. We then ate our food there as everyone in the dorm was already asleep and we were starving and it transpired that it was a staff members birthday party and that’s why they wanted to kick every guest out of the dining room which is wholly unacceptable.

Afterwards we spoke to other guests in our dorm and they all had issues with the staff being rude and kicking them out or refusing to serve people that had paid for all inclusive. The refugios and the packages are very expensive as it is and there’s absolutely no justification for that behaviour from the staff. It may be end of season and they’re fed up or on holiday mode or whatever but a basic level of respect for fellow humans who may have pushed themselves to their limits, gotten lost, gotten injured or are just tired and in pain isn’t too much to ask for.

I would not be recommending Los torres camp Frances to anyone doing the trek going forward, even if it was the only...

This is one of the main areas to spend a night if you are doing either the W or O Trek within the Torres del Paine National Park. This camp is managed by Fantástico Sur, which operates under the commercial name of Las Torres, where you can book a night of accomodation in an elevated tent for $100 USD, one of the domes' bunk beds and also book the dinner, breakfast and lunch box, all of them together called Full Board for $100 USD. You can also book a platform to set your own tent on, you cannot just pitch the your own tent wherever you want; the Park management, CONAF, only allows camping in the allocated spots. This is one of the stops in the central area of the W Trek, together with the refuge/camping Los Cuernos, also managed by Fantástico Sur. You'll probably book Francés or Cuernos based on availability and if both available you'll chose whatever better fits your hiking purposes. Overall the experience is great, the check-in area for both the domes and the tents/platforms is shared in a little cabin in the middle of the camp, and where the main trail goes through. This camping area is pretty hilly, that's why there are not just flat ground spots where to put your tent, it is all based on platforms or renting the elevated tents. If you bring your own meals to cook, you'll be able to grab water to boil, but your little stove will have to be operated on some wooded/clear vinyl cabins distributed around the camping area. If you book the meals, you'll go down to the main restaurant building to eat it, at the time agreed during your check-in. If you don't bring any food or book any meal, don't worry, you still can go to the restaurant building and order sandwiches or pizzas, pay by cash or card and have them on the arranged time with the personnel there, which will be outside the time when the scheduled meals for the people who book them take place. For reference, a small size meat or salmon pizza is CLS 20000 ($23 USD). The bathrooms area is very good, one of the best ones I've seen in all the campsites I stayed, with real hot water and enough pressure. Plan your footwear accordingly as the hilly campsite will run streams of water down the main path with little rain, and that can make it all pretty messy all the way down to the restaurant building. The best area is the western elevated tent area, where all the paths to the elevated tents are wood planks so even the paths are elevated, but unfortunately you won't chose the tent assigned to you, they'll do at check-in time. Check-out in the...

This camp sector lies in the w- trek path. This was our 2nd Refugio. Getting to this place from Las Torres was very very long and one thing that none of the blogs mentioned anywhere (at least the onces I checked) were the amount of rocks you encounter on this trek. Anyways, back to our experience here. We were 2 family with kids, so a party of 8. We reached this location after a very very long walk. The kids were so done. The staff here were the best we have ever encountered, they saw the kids, and we reached here on Christmas Eve, they had a table of desserts set for for dinner, and the staff just allowed the kids go happy on those table. This relayed helped them with their energy and mood. The food here was the best we had all 4 days on this hike. Dinner, breakfast, and lunch were just amazing. We have 3 vegans, 3 vegetarians, and 2 people who eat meat. We all found our meals to be very tasty.|The rooms : I am keeping in mind that this is a remote location and in the middle of no where, given that: |1. the dome were well kept and clean.|2. one of the 2 bathrooms didn't drain water. Apparently they knew this, but for whatever reason it wasn't fixed - the reason I am taking a star away. |3. Rooms/beds have USB cable to charge your phones.|4. Beds are old, so aren't the best, but nothing to really complain about either.||*|Things to be aware of:|1. This is a remote location, so don't expect the same rooms you might have seen at Los Torres Hostel.|2. Same as above, the bathrooms are clean, BUT are very very small, so not the same as Los Torres Hostel.|3. This is a camp site, so if you are like us to end up in a dome close to the reception (which is also their bar and social gathering location) it will be loud, since it was Christmas eve, we had a people partying and being loud till 1am. I wouldn't have minded it at any other time, but that night I was so tired from the hike, I wasn't really thrilled :( and having my ear plugs on didn't help either. ||Overall, totally will stay here again and recommend this place. Once again, kudos to the staff who work here, that really make a huge difference in the...