If you travel just over five and a half thousand miles South West, away from our home in the UK you’ll find a little slice of familiar landscape. Rolling green fields, patched together by thin blades of emerald-green grass complete with grazing cows. Still indigo waters scattered with canoes and keen swimmers. To anyone who had been dropped unknowingly in Frutillar you could forgive them for thinking they were in the English Lake District or Scottish Lochs.
Look a little closer and of course as with any place, Frutillar has its own distinguishing features. Beautifully individually crafted wooden houses, the soothing scent of Eucalyptus and monstrous wooden and steel structured barns that sprawl across the hillside. There is one unique feature to Frutillar that makes this sleepy town more than just another lakeside retreat. Standing imposingly yet serenely as a picture postcard backdrop to the crystal waters of Frutillar is a trio of huge snow capped volcanos.
Driving into Frutillar ’s lakeside promenade, you are nothing short of awestruck by the serenity and beauty of the backdrop. Children and their families shriek with joy as they run into the eye-watering cold waters, whilst teenage girls pose for selfies with the snow capped volcano as their backdrop.
The town of Frutillar is small and modest but beautifully formed. Alpine style wooden houses line the streets with the majority having been turned into hospedaje’s or offering private wooden cabins. Net curtains and manicured gardens come as standard here. There is a feeling this is a town for an older generation, a generation who have paid their due’s to the Chilean economy and have earned this picturesque retreat as their reward.
For £30 a night you can find yourself a lakeside private double bedroom with private en-suite including breakfast. Travel up the headland and away from the lake side and you can find a variety of luxury resorts where you can enjoy hot springs and lakeside hot tubs.
There really is nothing more to do in Frutillar than relax, whether that’s with a cold glass of wine on the National Theatre’s promenade or taking long rambles through the rolling hills. If you’re a keen cyclist Frutillar and it’s surrounding headlands is a must. The route caters for cyclists with pop-up cafe’s and eateries dotted along the headlands northbound to Puerto Veres.
The food here is good, simple but good. There is an exemplary Italian restaurant owned by an Italian. After spending his honeymoon twenty years ago in Frutillar, he made it his mission to return back and open and authentic Italian restaurant. He made his dream a reality and now serves buffalo mozzarella topped pizzas that would make Naples proud.
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