# Visiting Puerto Varas, Chile: Top Sights on Foot **Things to do in Puerto Varas: what to see around the lake** The best things to do in Puerto Varas include discovering its historic churches and museums, looking out across Llanquihue Lake and exploring the volcanic landscapes of southern Chile. The city is also a useful base for seeing places such as Todos los Santos Lake and Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park. Neywo has a free audio guide for Puerto Varas with 10 narrated places, available in 11 languages. Puerto Varas lies in Chile’s Los Lagos Region, within Llanquihue Province. Its heritage reflects the influence of German settlers, while its setting brings together lakes, volcanoes, rivers and national-park landscapes. For more ideas across the country, see the guide to [Chile](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile.md). ## What to see in Puerto Varas and its surroundings ### Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús The Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús is a historic Roman Catholic parish church and one of the most representative examples of southern Chile’s architectural style. Its distinctive design and prominent position make it one of Puerto Varas’s essential landmarks. ### Templo luterano de Puerto Varas On Avenida Vicente Pérez Rosales, in the historic Puerto Chico sector, the Lutheran Temple of Puerto Varas brings a neo-Gothic presence to the city. It was built between 1923 and 1924 and inaugurated on April 6, 1924. The avenue marks the beginning of the neighbourhood, making the church a useful point from which to appreciate this part of Puerto Varas. ### Museo Pablo Fierro The Pablo Fierro Museum occupies a former machine house on the waterfront along Avenida Vicente Pérez Rosales. The Municipality of Puerto Varas made the building available to the artist, Pablo Fierro, whose paintings and personal objects form the museum’s collection. Its free admission makes it an easy stop while walking beside the lake. The museum also connects Puerto Varas’s working past with its artistic present: an industrial building has been given a new role as a space for art and local character. ### Llanquihue Lake Llanquihue Lake is the defining natural feature of the Puerto Varas landscape. Covering roughly 860 square kilometres, it is Chile’s second-largest lake, after Lake General Carrera. Its fan-like shape was formed by successive piedmont glaciers during the Quaternary glaciations; the last glacial period is known as the Llanquihue glaciation, named after the moraines around the lake. Puerto Varas is one of several towns on its shores, alongside Frutillar and La Ensenada. The lake also offers views of Volcán Osorno, with beaches including Playa Maitén, Playa Maquis and Playa Venado, as well as headlands such as Punta Cabras and Punta de los Ingleses. Streams including the Río Blanco, Río Colorado and Río Tepú feed the lake. The area around Llanquihue Lake may also have been within the range of the ancient Chono nomadic peoples, adding a longer human history to this glacial landscape. ### Capilla Punta Cruz In the Río Pescado area of Puerto Varas, Capilla Punta Cruz offers a quieter setting than the city’s central landmarks. This small chapel is a place to include when exploring the wider Puerto Varas area. ### Antonio Felmer Museum The Antonio Felmer Museum, also known as the Museo Alemán, is in Nueva Braunau, within the commune of Puerto Varas. It explores the German heritage of the local community, which has deep roots in the area. Antonio Felmer Niklitschek established the museum in 1975 after collecting donations from German families in Nueva Braunau and the surrounding area. By 2011, its exhibition had grown to about 3,800 objects, including household items, tools and other cultural pieces. Together, they offer a detailed view of the everyday life and traditions of the German settlers who helped shape the region. ### Cerro Tronador Cerro Tronador rises on the border between Argentina and Chile. At about 3,491 metres above sea level, it is an extinct volcano and the highest point in the surrounding Andes. Mountaineers are drawn to the peak, while its name refers to the booming sound of seracs breaking from its glaciers: Tronador means “Thunderer” in Spanish. The volcano’s activity began in the Pleistocene, roughly 1.3 million years ago, and ended around 340,000 years ago. Its glaciers and high-Andean setting help explain the dramatic mountain scenery around Puerto Varas. ### Lake Todos los Santos Lake Todos los Santos, or All Saints Lake, lies within Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park and forms part of the Petrohué river basin. It is about 76 kilometres east of Puerto Varas, at 190 metres above sea level. The lake extends roughly 20 kilometres from north to south and 32 kilometres from east to west, covering about 179 square kilometres and reaching a maximum depth of 337 metres. Ancient glacial and volcanic forces shaped its present form. The lake’s name translates as “All Saints”, an apt description for a landscape with a peaceful, almost solemn atmosphere. ### Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park Chile’s oldest national park, Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park covers roughly 2,530 square kilometres in the Andes of the Los Lagos Region. It includes Lake Todos los Santos and much of its watershed. At Petrohué, the lake’s outlet becomes the Petrohué River, which runs through waterfalls before passing the slopes of Osorno, Puntiagudo and Tronador. The park was created in August 1926 and named after Vicente Pérez Rosales, a political figure and agent of German colonisation in southern Chile. It is the second-oldest national park in South America. Petrohué and Peulla are small settlements within the park and serve as gateways to its lake, river and volcanic landscapes. The climate is cool and wet. The park’s average temperature is around 5 °C, with February highs near 14 °C and June lows reaching –2 °C. Annual rainfall exceeds two metres, with the wettest conditions in June and less rain in November. ## Explore Puerto Varas with Neywo Neywo’s free audio guide turns a visit to Puerto Varas into a self-guided experience with 10 narrated places. There are no scheduled tours listed for this destination, but the app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages. Download Neywo and explore Puerto Varas while walking between its churches, museums, waterfront and lake landscapes. If you are continuing through Chile, you can also discover [Puerto Natales](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/puerto-natales.md), [Punta Arenas](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/punta-arenas.md), [San Pedro de Atacama](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/san-pedro-de-atacama.md), [Santiago](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/santiago.md) or [Hanga Roa](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/valparaiso/hanga-roa.md). ## Places with an audio guide in Puerto Varas 8 places in Puerto Varas with a Neywo audio guide. Each one starts telling its story as you reach it. - Antonio Felmer museum - Templo luterano de Puerto Varas - Llanquihue Lake - Tronador - Llanquihue Province - Museo Pablo Fierro - Capilla Punta Cruz - Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, Puerto Varas ## Walk Puerto Varas with Neywo Neywo turns Puerto Varas into a self-guided audio tour. Stories arrive as you reach the place they belong to, and the route reshapes when you wander off it. ## More in Chile - [Punta Arenas](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/punta-arenas.md) - [San Pedro de Atacama](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/san-pedro-de-atacama.md) - [Santiago](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/santiago.md) - [Puerto Natales](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/puerto-natales.md) ## Elsewhere in Chile - [Hanga Roa](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/valparaiso/hanga-roa.md) — Valparaíso - [Valparaíso](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/valparaiso/valparaiso.md) - [Viña del Mar](https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/valparaiso/vina-del-mar.md) — Valparaíso --- HTML: https://neywo.com/destinations/chile/puerto-varas App: https://app.neywo.com Español: https://neywo.com/es/destinations/chile/puerto-varas.md Français: https://neywo.com/fr/destinations/chile/puerto-varas.md Deutsch: https://neywo.com/de/destinations/chile/puerto-varas.md