South America

Chile may be a slender nation, but it’s full of wild, varied and majestic landscapes. It takes a few hours to fly from the arid lands of the Atacama Desert in the north to Patagonia, towards the tip of South America.

You instantly feel the chill, rasping winds and even summer snow as you climb higher on epic treks. Torres del Paine is a territory full of rugged mountains, glacial lakes and craggy moraines.

The nearby town of Puerto Natales has a frontier feel to it, with its own otherworldly views and sunsets that last an age.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed with landscape photo opportunities here in a country of boundless contrasts – but this is one beguiling place.

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Distant Chile is the longest nation on Earth, snaking its way down the side of South America. Its geography is monumentally diverse, starting in the north with the Atacama Desert.

This is the most otherworldly and magical place on Earth that I’ve visited. Between the barren, mesmerising landscape there are vast salt pans inhabited by flamingos, geysers which only bubble into life before sunrise, and Martian sunsets cloaking lunar terrain. A photographic spectacle.

Visitors are looked after well in this at times inhospitable place – you can even have drinks to witness the sunset and a hot breakfast rustled out of nowhere to see off the freezing dawn.

It may be a long journey to Chile, but the rewards are there.