Coyhaique is a city in Aysén. It is the main and largest city in Northern Chilean Patagonia with a population of 55,000 (2012). A handsome city surrounded by dramatic mountains, it is the jumping-off point for visitors who want to travel through some of Chilean Patagonia's most beautiful and unspoiled landscapes, on the Carretera Austral.
The modern tourist information office is in Bulnes Street, north of the Plaza de Armas.
The nearest larger airport is Balmaceda 55 km away. JetSmart serves Balmaceda from Conception. LATAM and Sky Airlines serve Balmaceda with at least a few daily flights from Santiago, sometimes stopping en route in Puerto Montt.
Numerous buses run along the Carretera Austral and stop in Coyhaique during high season. From the north, 2 buses/week from Chaitén (24,000 pesos, 12 hr), 1/day from La Junta, 1/day from Puerto Cisnes. Going north to Puerto Montt 3 buses/week at 15:00 (70,000 pesos) or to Chaitén (direct only M and Tu at 07:00 24,000 pesos) otherwise they go to Futaleufu and connection will be the following day to Chaitén for 2,200 pesos. Hitchhiking from Villa Santa Lucía is an option skip the stay in Futaleufu.
Navimag and Naviera Austral offer ferries to Puerto Chacabuco, the nearest port. Check their websites for current schedules and pricing. From Puerto Chacabuco, regular buses will drop you in Coyhaique.
Coyhaique is small; walking is the best way of getting around. The Plaza de Armas is pentagon-shaped in honor of the carabineros, but otherwise the city is laid out in a grid-like pattern. The plaza is in the northwest portion of the city; Coyhaique becomes more residential the farther away you get from the Plaza de Armas.
A 2018 study by the World Health Organization (WHO) looking at 4,357 cities in 108 countries worldwide showed Coyhaique to have the worst air quality in the Americas. This is mostly due to wood smoke from fires the residents light for warmth in the winter months of June and July. Because the city is located between two mountainous ridges, the smoke cannot be dispersed down the valley and away and heat inversion compresses it into a dense cloud of smoke.
Coyhaique's pentagonal Plaza de Armas has a free Wi-Fi hotspot.
2nd-order administrative division
Primary administrative division