Southern Chile How to rent a car

Probably the best alternative, if you want to explore the more remote areas of Southern Chile is renting a car. Public transportation is not bad at all. It is frequent, safe and most of the time reliable; however, you do have to fight to constantly get the proper information from the locals to find the right buses. Even in Spanish, Chileans have are not very good at explaining things; when giving directions, they are the worst.  Sometimes, it is more than a little difficult to get the right directions for those locations All Southern Chile would call “off the tourist map”. Thus, one of the best ways to get there in Southern Chile is to rent a car.

Chile has an excellent highway system built around toll road concessions. You will have to pay to use them, but you are insured a nice new highway with emergency phones on the side of the roads.

The dirt roads
The dirt roads in most of the country are in excellent condition. Even after rain, they are normally graded within a day or two. Obviously, the more remote the road the less it is maintained.

Maps
The best maps are the Government Turistel Guides and Road maps. They are mostly marked correctly. Most of the errors are related to a rapidly improving country infrastructure across Chile. Some of the “blue highways” on the Chilean map, might turn into freeways at any moment.

Sumer and Winter difficulties and differences
Expect rain across most of Southern Chile in the Winter. Accept in the more mountainous areas, snow that might make driving difficult is rare. Chains are required in mountain passes or four-wheel drive. It is not unusual to encounter check-points when snow is heavy in the mountain areas at which you must show your chains to the Carabineros (police) before being allowed to pass.  More remote dirt  roads should only be attempted with four-wheel drive in the winter or by a skilled driver ready to deal with mud and less maintained roads.

General requirements for car rental in Chile:
21 years old
International credit car (some places ask for a minimum credit available)
International drivers license or your local one (mostly all US and European countries)
Insurance
Contract written in Spanish. (Some companies have the English translation on their websites).

Some of the major rent a car agencies in Chile: