Over the Pacific Ocean

It’s 2 a.m. aboard Qantas Airways Flight 7 from Sydney to Dallas. The sun is rising. Time for a quick stretch, then a couple of episodes of “30 Rock.” Are we there yet?

Five hours remain on the 15-hour trip, the longest flight in the world with a coach cabin. It’s an eternity when shoehorned into space with a mere 16 inches of hip width inside the armrests.

Nonetheless, long-haul nonstop flights like this one are increasingly popular among business travelers and high-end tourists who are willing to pay about 20% more to avoid a layover.

Airlines are adding longer and longer non-stop flights but 15 hours in the air can be painful. McCartney on Lunch Break discusses his ride on one of the longest flights in coach and how many episodes of “30 Rock” a person can watch in one sitting.

Qantas launched its Sydney-to-Dallas nonstop flight last year four times a week and will move it to daily service this summer. Delta Air Lines offers Johannesburg nonstop from Atlanta, offering an alternative to European connections. Emirates is expanding its fast-growing network geographically, reaching Los Angeles from Dubai nonstop, for example, and Dallas next month.

“There are a certain amount of people in long-haul markets willing to pay extra to get there quickly, even though it takes a long time,” said Bob Cortelyou, Delta’s senior vice president of network planning.

The nonstops are possible as more commercial airlines add more ultra-long-range jets to their fleets. The latest offerings from Boeing and Airbus all can travel more than 9,000 miles before stopping for gas. And older models have extended range with strengthened bodies and bigger landing gear and wheels to carry the weight of more fuel. Qantas bought a few 747-400s from Boeing Co. specially fitted with extra fuel tanks to extend their range by about 500 miles, making it possible to reach Dallas from Sydney.

Likewise, passengers are prepared for the long haul.

“You have to know how to pace yourself,” said architect and interior designer Beatrice Girelli. For her, the Los Angeles to Singapore 18-hour nonstop she takes about six times a year on Singapore Airlines is like a “spa day.” Working long hours on the ground, she finds that time spent six miles above Earth becomes her escape: She sleeps, relaxes, avoids work and enjoys three meals plus Italian or French movies.

Real-estate executive Gerald Giannini, another regular on Singapore Air, has his own routine. Dinner after departure from Los Angeles is followed by a sleeping pill. He wakes up after a full eight to nine hours of sleep—something he never gets even on 12-hour trips to London.

“People hear 18 hours and they freak out. Once you’re on it, you understand,” he said. “It’s a lot less wear and tear on my body than the old way.”

Singapore Air pioneered ultra-long nonstops when it began flying 18 hours from both Newark, N.J., and Los Angeles to Singapore seven years ago. Most Singapore Airlines flights stop in Tokyo or Frankfurt to get from the U.S. to the other side of the globe, but the nonstops have found a devoted following among frequent travelers.

The airline launched nonstop U.S. flights offering both business-class and a premium-type coach cabin. But demand for business class tickets was much stronger. For the first time in the airline’s history, business class saw higher percentages of seats filled than coach, said Singapore spokesman James Boyd, so the airline switched to a luxurious all-business-class configuration, with 100 lie-flat beds on a plane big enough to carry more than 300 passengers.

Singapore said it charges, on average, about a 20% premium for the nonstop flight over one-stop trips. The flights save about four hours over flights with a Tokyo or Frankfurt stop.

For a trip at the end of this month, for example, the business-class fare from Newark nonstop to Singapore was priced at $8,446 round-trip, while business-class from New York’s Kennedy Airport with a stop in Frankfurt for the same dates was $7,446.

The convenience has overcome passenger fears of being airborne so long. Some travelers worried about the safety of flying 15 hours or more. Others worried about dehydration in arid airplane cabins and the risk of blood clots from deep-vein thrombosis.

“Ten years ago, people were hesitant or fearful. Now they’re going more and more long-haul. We are seeing more and more acceptance, and fewer queries on the phone” with concerns, said Singapore Air Vice President Mohamed Rafi Mar.

Delta loads up extra water, drinks, snacks and two full meals for passengers on its Johannesburg flights, which actually cover a shorter distance than the Qantas Dallas-to-Sydney flights, but take longer because of wind differences. Also, the cruise speed of the twin-engine 777 is a bit slower than the four-engine 747. The Delta flight is the longest in the world on a plane with two engines.

Flight attendants get two 2½-hour breaks during the flight; pilots work half the flight. Crews have bunks in the ceiling of the 777.

Qantas has six 747s with extended range of about 8,800 miles (7,670 nautical miles) and uses them to fly to Buenos Aires as well as Dallas. The planes take off at speeds 5 knots faster than regular 747-400s because wings have to produce more lift for the heavier plane. Flights from Sydney to London still have to make a stop—no commercial airliner can yet do that without making a stop.

Adding the Dallas flight let Qantas tap into the huge hub of its partner, American Airlines, adding 59 additional routes to the Qantas network. As a result of all those connections, the flights have been performing well since they started in May, said Stephen Thompson, executive manager of global sales for Qantas. Round-trip fares on that route typically cost $1,500 to $2,000. For a trip in early February, for example, a nonstop flight from Dallas to Sydney and back cost $2,052, while connecting service through Los Angeles cost $1,692.

Because of headwinds going back to Australia, the Qantas 747 has to stop in Brisbane for fuel. When weather has been bad, flights have had to make occasional fuel stops, but Qantas said it hasn’t been any different than other long routes.

Mr. Thompson said service on the ultra-long flight is much the same as on 12-hour trips to Los Angeles. “The key is to entertain people and get them to relax,” he said.

On board the trip in November, Mary Paulus of Okeechobee, Fla., curled up in two seats in coach to sleep. She paid $40 extra to reserve an aisle seat, then had an empty middle seat next to her. She slept, ate and still had time to watch three movies.

“What are you going to do? You know when you get on it’s going to be long,” she said.

Still, Earl Russell, like so many other passengers, was restless. After being airborne for 12 hours, it seemed well past like time to land, but there were still three hours to go. Mr. Russell, a government employee on his way home in Leavenworth, Kan., tossed a blanket over his head and tried to go back to sleep.

“It’s just a very long flight,” he sighed.

Write to Scott McCartney at middleseat@wsj.com

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts

Carlyle

THE TOUR

FilmMagic/Getty Images

Zac Posen

Money may not buy you taste, but it can get you access to those who have it. Case in point: The New York Fall Fashion Week package being offered by the Carlyle hotel.

The three-day whirlwind includes invitations and backstage access to the J. Mendel and Joanna Mastroianni runway shows at Lincoln Center; lunch with Donna Karan; cocktails with Zac Posen at his studio; Champagne with Sophie Theallet; a private dinner in the Cartier mansion; a viewing of the jeweler’s archives; and more. For Feb. 15 to 18; $6,000 per person, including meals, events and car service; rooms from $795 per night, rosewoodhotels.com

—Sara Clemence

Por GEOFFREY T. SMITH, de Davos, Suíça

Os papéis de dívida emitidos em conjunto, ou eurobonds, são uma parte inevitável da solução para a crise da dívida soberana da zona do euro, pois a região não pode resolver seus problemas apenas por meio de reformas estruturais, disse o investidor veterano George Soros na quarta-feira.

Em um almoço informal durante o Fórum Econômico Mundial, Soros disse a jornalistas que as autoridades europeias “fizeram tudo errado” ao reagir à crise financeira que se abateu em 2007, dando uma resposta política confusa que deixou transparecer uma ignorância generalizada de como funcionam os mercados financeiros.

“A austeridade que a Alemanha quer impor vai empurrar a Europa para uma espiral deflacionária de dívida”, advertiu Soros, acrescentando que a desintegração política da União Europeia vai se seguir inevitavelmente caso a economia fique fora de controle.

“As reformas estruturais por si só não vão bastar”, disse Soros. “Será necessário haver estímulo fiscal, e esse estímulo fiscal terá de vir da UE, garantido em conjunto e individualmente pelos estados membros. Os eurobonds são necessários, de uma forma ou de outra.”

Soros apelou às autoridades para adotar um plano lançado pelo falecido Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, do banco central italiano, em que o Fundo Europeu de Estabilidade Financeira compraria notas do Tesouro de curto prazo a juro baixo de países com pesadas dívidas públicas.

Ele observou que embora as mais recentes operações de refinanciamento de longo prazo do Banco Central Europeu tenham reduzido, no curto prazo, os custos de financiamento para países como Espanha e Itália, esses mercados de títulos continuam “perigosamente expostos”. O plano de Padoa-Schioppa ofereceria um alívio orçamentário imediato e urgente, e protegeria os dois países contra os riscos associados ao juro.

Um plano assim, acrescentou ele, “fortaleceria o governo” na Itália, ao deixar claro ao povo italiano que há benefícios em adotar o tipo de reformas apresentadas pelo primeiro-ministro tecnocrata Mario Monti na semana passada.

Soros destacou a necessidade de o BCE reagir agressivamente aos riscos de deflação, bem como aos de inflação, advertindo que a opinião política alemã, em particular, está cega de um olho, ao concentrar-se apenas nos riscos de inflação. Mesmo assim, ele afirmou que a Alemanha agiu de boa fé durante toda a crise, dizendo que os alemães “realmente acreditam” nas medidas que estão recomendando.

Mas Soros se mostrou pessimista quanto às perspectivas para Grécia, “patentemente insolvente”. Ao não chegar a um acordo sobre a reestruturação da dívida com seus credores privados, disse ele, o país está aumentando a probabilidade de uma moratória.

“As chances estão indo nessa direção”, disse Soros, acrescentando que a situação ainda é dificultada pela pressão de representantes do comércio grego, que prefeririam pagar seus impostos atrasados usando a dracma, que seria reintroduzida e desvalorizada, e não em euros.

Ele também observou que a presença dos dois principais partidos políticos no governo grego constitui mais um problema, à medida em que “eles estão se preparando para as eleições, portanto há no momento uma dinâmica política muito desfavorável”.

Soros disse ainda que essa é uma das principais diferenças entre a situação grega e a italiana.

By DARRELL HARTMAN

Alexander Mustard

DIVE JOINT | The U.S.S. Kittiwake in Grand Cayman.

Underwater diving trips have a way of taking on the slip-away quality of a dream. That’s especially true if you’re inexperienced, as I am—but also when a foray unfolds as easily as a vision.

After a five-minute boat ride from Seven Mile Beach, on the western coast of Grand Cayman, I splashed into Kool-Aid-blue water. In moments I was in a flurry of silver bar jacks, with the shimmering fish swirling all around me. When the cloud of marine life cleared, my breath stopped. Just 50 feet ahead was a mighty ship at rest on the seafloor, as clear and whole and well-lit as a museum specimen.

The U.S.S. Kittiwake, a 251-foot submarine rescue ship, plied the seas between 1945 and 1994. It once “shouldered” a recalcitrant Greenpeace boat, and was the first support ship on the scene when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. After retirement the vessel could have been sold for scrap metal, but last January it was sent to sleep with the fishes in a scuttling that made international headlines. It was dramatic video footage, to be sure, but also the first time a U.S. naval ship had been re-purposed for diving outside the country’s waters.

Resting on the ocean floor, ironically, the Kittiwake may be at its most accessible. Grand Cayman is a 90-minute flight from Miami and a four-hour nonstop from New York; Seven Mile Beach is five miles from the airport. And because its upper decks are some 20 feet down in clear water, the wreck can be explored by beginner scuba divers and even snorkelers.

Clinging to one of the site’s anchor ropes for the first few feet, I descended with my DiveTech guide, Jeni Chapman. We finned along the port deck, passing through shoulder-scraping doorways and into the denuded galley and mess hall, recognizable by the topless table bases. Ms. Chapman pointed out an iron press the crew would have used to spiff up its uniforms. Though we didn’t need flashlights, there was a ghostly feel in the cramped, dimmer quarters where my exhalations created masses of wriggling bubbles on the ceilings. When I caught sight of my own arm in a rusty mirror, my heart jumped.

But there was life there, too. We found a spindly-legged arrow crab wedged into a corner of the pilothouse. An orange squirrelfish flashed its spiny fins as it darted behind a bollard. Horse-eyed jacks circled the mast like creatures on a child’s mobile. A dozen or so snorkelers kicked across the surface above.

Most wrecks don’t become popular dive sites right away—it can take years for colorful sponges, fans and corals to appear, as well as the fish that like them. But the Kittiwake was an almost instant hit, surprising even the local dive operators who led the charge to acquire the ship from the U.S. Maritime Administration.

“People were telling me they’d dive it in a few years,” said Stephen Broadbelt, owner of Ocean Frontiers and part of the Kittiwake committee. “Then they go to the website and see the videos, and they’re saying they’re going to dive it every year.”

By our second dive, some 45 minutes after we’d surfaced from the first, the sun was behind the clouds and the snorkelers had left. I got no greeting from giddy fish. Instead of going deep, I drifted over the ship’s smokestack, whose depths are perhaps the one part of this stage-lit wreck that is completely devoid of daylight.

Gazing into that void, I could feel how gutted the Kittiwake was. In time, though, the emptiness should become rich profusion: Lobsters and octopodes will move into shadowy nooks, cleaning shrimp will set up work stations where sailors once did, extending an invitation of sorts to hungry garden eels and the eagle rays that eat the eels. The Kittiwake will become a coral-encrusted possession of the sea.

The Lowdown: Grand Cayman

Getting There: You can fly direct from many major U.S. cities to Grand Cayman’s Owen Roberts International Airport.

Staying There: Cobalt Coast, on the northwest shore, is a low-frills resort with tidy oceanfront rooms and an outdoor restaurant; it’s also home to DiveTech (from $230 per night, cobaltcoast.com

). The six-year-old Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman is a plusher alternative on Seven Mile Beach (from $299 per night, ritzcarlton.com
).

Diving There: More than 30 operators offer Kittiwake excursions. DiveTech’s owner led the effort to create the wreck site ($120 per person for a two-tank trip, divetech.com

). Ocean Frontiers, in the secluded East End, runs a weekly trip for $95 per person (
oceanfrontiers.com
).

Por ASHBY JONES

Quando se trata de cores que distinguem uma empresa, o marrom pertence à empresa de entregas United Parcel Service Inc., ou UPS, e a Tiffany & Co. domina o azul- claro.

Na terça-feira, a famosa grife de sapatos francesa Christian Louboutin SA entrou foi a um tribunal de recursos em Nova York para defender seu direito exclusivo de usar o vermelho — a empresa chama essa tonalidade de “Vermelho China” – para revestir a sola dos seus sapatos de salto, populares entre as consumidoras apesar do alto preço.

Diante de um público numeroso e visivelmente bem-vestido — incluindo várias mulheres com sapatos de sola vermelha — os advogados de ambos os lados apresentaram seus argumentos.

“A Christian Louboutin criou uma das marcas mais icônicas do século 21″, argumentou o advogado Harley Lewin, diante de um painel de três juízes. “A Louboutin transformou um objeto pedestre em algo cheio de beleza.”

Lewin e seu cliente estavam no tribunal na esperança de reverter uma decisão de primeira instância, que parecia sugerir que a Louboutin não deveria ter o direito de possuir uma marca registrada para os sapatos de sola vermelha. Nos últimos anos, estes vêm aparecendo nos pés de toda uma lista de celebridades, de Scarlett Johansson e Halle Berry até Beyoncé e Christina Aguilera.

Em agosto passado, Victor Marrero, juiz federal de Manhattan, negou o pedido da Louboutin para impedir outra lendária casa de moda francesa, a Yves Saint Laurent, de vender uma linha de sapatos inteiramente vermelhos, na parte superior e na sola.

“A exigência da Louboutin lançaria uma nuvem vermelha sobre toda a indústria das moda, restringindo o que outros designers podem fazer, enquanto permitiria à Louboutin pintar com uma paleta completa”, escreveu o juiz Marrero, em sua sentença. “Dessa forma, a Louboutin poderia vender um traje totalmente vermelho, enquanto outros designers não poderiam fazer o mesmo.”

David Bernstein, advogado da Yves Saint Laurent, argumentou na terça-feira que os juízes devem sustentar a decisão do juiz Marrero.

“Os artistas desse tipo precisam da paleta completa das cores disponíveis. Para poder competir, e competir de forma justa, precisamos do vermelho”, disse Bernstein. “Não queremos ser informados de que podemos fabricar sapatos verdes, azuis, roxos… mas estamos proibidos de fabricar sapatos vermelhos”.

Em 2008, a Louboutin conseguiu uma marca registrada para usar o vermelho nas solas dos sapatos. Mas em sua sentença, ao negar a liminar de Louboutin, o juiz Marrero sugeriu, com veemência, que conceder esse registro foi um equívoco.

O juiz reconheceu que é possível conceder marcas registradas para cores de produtos, sobretudo quando uma única cor é usada apenas para identificar ou anunciar uma marca.

Mas o juiz Marrero questionou se uma cor poderia ser uma marca registrada para uso na moda, onde “a cor (…) realiza uma função criativa; ela tem a meta de agradar ou ser útil, e não identificar e anunciar uma dada origem comercial”.

Durante a audiência, os juízes do tribunal de recursos lidaram com duas questões principais: saber se o juiz Marrero interpretou corretamente as leis sobre marcas registradas, e se o processo deveria voltar para ele para mais esclarecimentos, como saber se haveria um “risco de confusão” entre as duas marcas de sapatos.

Susan Scafidi, professora de Direito da Fordham University e especialista em direito e moda, que vem acompanhando o caso, disse que espera que o tribunal de recursos corrija a sentença do juiz Marrero, o qual, na sua opinião, “colocou tinta bem fora dos limites” em sua decisão.

“Há questões mais amplas levantadas por este caso, entre elas se o design de moda realmente não tem nenhuma proteção”, disse ela. “A indústria da moda vem tentando fazer isso há 100 anos, mas as leis da propriedade intelectual continuam parando bem na porta da moda.”

By SARA CLEMENCE

Singular Hotels

SOUTH SCENES The view of Last Hope Sound from a guest room at the Singular Patagonia

They say that at the bottom of South America, you experience all four seasons in one day. They’re wrong.

It’s true that the weather changes quickly and dramatically, but in what summer do you go scouting for glacial ice to put in cocktails? What’s the right time of year for bees the size and color of kumquats? What weather pickles the hide of a giant sloth, making it last for 10,000 years?

Maybe, in addition to winter, spring, summer, fall, there should be a season called Patagonia.

It hardly needs to be said that lower Patagonia is one of the most storied and remote places on earth. The Chilean side (it spans part of Argentina as well) was almost exclusively home to indigenous tribes until the mid-19th century, when some hardy Europeans started arriving to raise sheep and cattle. In the 1970s, when British novelist Bruce Chatwin wrote his defining book, “In Patagonia,” he described a land of icy fiords and mysterious caves, still the preserve of adventurers and misfits.

Even today, Patagonia feels otherworldly, untamed and quite strange, even—maybe especially—from the comfort of a super-luxurious hotel.

My husband and I went deep into Chilean Patagonia in January, the height of summer in the Southern Hemisphere, to experience its raw beauty—and to counteract our urban existence by taking on as many adventure activities as possible in four days. I planned to see my first glacier, ride horseback and summit a set of granite spires in Torres del Paine National Park. We’d be aided by the sun, which at such low latitudes stays aloft for some 17 hours a day.

The trip required two flights from Temuco, a city about halfway down the length of the country, and a long drive on a rutted highway, past shrub-filled valleys and craggy mountain ranges. After three hours, we came over a hill to Seno Última Esperanza—Last Hope Sound. The fierce wind that had been shoving our vehicle into oncoming cars was whipping the deep-blue fiord into a frenzy. The van pulled into a long, dim warehouse with a worn tin roof, part of a former slaughterhouse complex.

“Is this where they dump the bodies?” I whispered to my husband.

“We’d gone from a scenic western to a bleak murder mystery to a real-world version of ‘Myst.’”

At the end of the emptiness was a room framed in glass and steel. A bellhop ushered us into a tiny, clear-sided funicular that glided down the slope and into the brick lobby of the Singular Patagonia hotel, which late last year unveiled its imaginative overhaul of a historic sheep processing plant. In 20 minutes, we’d gone from a scenic western to a bleak murder mystery to a real-world version of the ’90s videogame “Myst.”

It was late afternoon and flushed, excited guests were starting to return from the day’s kayaking, hiking and boat trips. As distinctive and inviting as the hotel was—our room had a full wall of glass overlooking the sound; the industrial-chic dining room boasted brick walls, funky brass lamps and cushy leather seating—we wanted to get moving. We borrowed a couple of shiny mountain bikes to ride three miles to the nearby town of Puerto Natales, but the 30-mile-an-hour gusts beat us into retreat.

Andrew Sanocki

The Singular’s dining room

Instead, we walked in 8 p.m. daylight around the “neighborhood,” a half-dozen modest houses clustered on a point overlooking the sound. It was a chance to focus on the breathtaking scenery, which in Patagonia changes constantly along with the weather. Mists part, waters roil, mountains silently appear and disappear from view. Look away from a mirror-flat fiord reflecting a mound of clouds, and when you turn back there may be milky waters below a snow-capped mountain streaked with sunlight.

We proceeded almost reverently; there were so many layers of landscape to take in. Horses grazed in fields marked with rough posts, oblivious to the mountain ranges behind them. The wind made feathery grass undulate like a golden sea. A friendly mutt accompanied us down the road until a large, speedy gray hare appeared in some brush.

The next morning we were determined to be less leisurely, and piled into a van for a half-day hike in Cueva del Milodón Natural Monument. In the late 19th century, explorers found, in a 260-foot-deep cave, the hide of a huge, hairy creature. The skin looked so fresh the animal was thought to have recently died, but it turned out to be the 10,000-year-old remnants of a mylodon, an extinct 10-foot-tall sloth.

Sara Clemence/The Wall Street Journal

A guanaco at rest

Our guide led us along a pleasant and sometimes hilly path; we paused to examine a delicate porcelain orchid and to gasp at views. In one cave, we donned headlamps and got a thrill squeezing through a low passage to a rear chamber. But in the main cave there was something more exciting: dozens of light-brown hairs bristling out of a patch of ground. There were no scientists around to confirm it, but we think we touched the fur of a long-lost beast.

The food served at the Singular may be some of the best in Chile (the service is warm but a little disorganized). Menus change daily and include indulgences like lamb prosciutto and beet gnocchi, served with wine or Ferran Adrià’s gastronomic beer. A three-course lunch was just what we needed for fuel—we spent the afternoon on horseback in nearby hills, crossing small creeks, picking through yellow-flowered shrubs and urging the horses up rocky hillsides. All around, always, was a huge sky and the ever-changing vista.

The sun signaled that we had time for more fun—specifically, dual massages and a swim in the hotel’s indoor-outdoor pool. We dove under a glass partition and sat outside wet-haired, close to the edge of the fiord.

Sara Clemence/The Wall Street Journal

A glacier at Bernardo O’Higgins National Park

I was light with anticipation the third day—I’d wanted to see a glacier for years, and when wildfires in the area had threatened to derail our trip, my stomach ached with disappointment. But conditions were ripe for a boat trip to Bernardo O’Higgins National Park. Speeding through Last Hope Sound, we passed cliff walls with swirling rock patterns and narrow glacial waterfalls. Far off, we could see pale patches that marked the edges of ice fields. Then, rounding a bend, we came squarely upon a bright glacier that seemed to pour from the top of a ridge down to the water, framed by dark crags.

Pulling up to a silent dock, we disembarked for another hike, spotting buttercups the size of pinkie nails and the aforementioned bee, which our guide described as “friendly.” He pointed out blue calafate berries; local lore says that if you eat one, you will someday come back to Patagonia. Our trail ended near the foot of a turquoise glacier. The balmy weather encouraged lingering—long enough to hear the deep booms and crashes that signaled the glacier was calving, and to catch the rare sight of a huge tooth of ice toppling over and smashing before it vanished into a crevice. Before he turned the boat home, our captain circled the inlet looking for tiny icebergs to cool our drinks.

There was one big item left on our list, so after another decadent lunch we hustled to Hotel Las Torres, at the base of the national park’s trademark spires. But Patagonia is huge; we got there around 7 p.m., and had to leave early the next day for a six-hour ride to the airport.

The consolation prize was a 90-minute hike to a lagoon. Around 9 p.m., having clambered down boulders, slogged up hills and marveled that we were the only people in sight, we arrived at the sapphire-blue lake. It was so much, yet not enough. We told each other that the towers were slathered with mist anyway. And at least, we said, we’d eaten the berries.

The Lowdown: Chilean Patagonia

Planning: Santiago Adventures handled most of our logistics; agents can get cheaper airfares in Chile, and they helped us change plans when wildfires hit Patagonia (santiagoadventures.com).

Getting There: Punta Arenas’s Presidente Carlos Ibáñez International Airport receives flights from Santiago and a few other Chilean cities. It takes at least two hours to drive to Puerto Natales and five hours to Torres del Paine.

Staying There: The Singular has 54 rooms and three suites; service isn’t as consistent as it should be at these prices (a front desker got ratty when we didn’t understand her rapid-fire Spanish), but may improve over time. Rooms can be booked with breakfast or all-inclusive, which covers the excellent meals, drinks and excursions (from $660 per night for two, thesingular.com). Hotel Las Torres, in Torres del Paine National Park, is family-friendly and less expensive. But it can feel a tad backpacker-y, and food choices are limited (from about $230 per night for two, lastorres.com).

What to Do: Guided excursions include horseback riding, hiking, kayaking, boat trips and more. You can do some activities on your own—hiking from Hotel Las Torres, for example.

What to Pack: Layers are crucial; even in summer, temperatures can veer from the 40s to the 70s. Bring hiking shoes, a hat, sunscreen and a sleep mask, since the sun is up before 6 and sets after 10.