Chiloé Island off Chile’s southern coast is a land that time forgot; a mysterious landscape of ancient traditions, mist-shrouded Pacific beaches and wooden Jesuit churches.
It’s the architecture of the latter that inspired the exterior of Tierra Chiloé, a modernist style luxury lodge near the island capital of Castro, whose stilted houses also influenced the hotel’s elevated architecture. After a major expansion, the lodge has reopened with 12 additional rooms and suites, a new bar and an achingly cool new Uma Spa with indoor and outdoor pools looking out over the Pacific Ocean.
A team of designers and artisan were commissioned to create décor and furniture that reflect the local culture and landscape, using local materials, hand-made textiles and woodcarving techniques. Chilote mythology is honoured in a series of story windows running along the hallways, and the new El Mercado pantry displays some of the indigenous ingredients used regularly in local cuisine and the hotel kitchen.
Like its sister properties in Chile’s Atacama Desert and Patagonia, rates at Tierra Chiloé include all meals and beverages, as well as a full-day excursion for every night spent at the lodge; think sea kayaking in the Pacific, horse riding in the island’s pastoral interior, or a trip to discover remote islands on the lodge’s private boat, Williche.
