If you travel to Chile to ski or snowboard, should you visit Valle Nevado or La Parva? Or both? They are right next to each other, after all. In fact, you can ski or board between them on the mountain. However, if there is not enough snow, or there has been a major storm and they have not yet opened the connecting slope, you cannot ski or board from one to the other. So you may want to consider which one you would prefer to ski or snowboard in case you cannot go between them.
After 4 days at Valle Nevado and 2 days at La Parva, here are some factors that I identified that may help you decide whether to choose one or the other.
2:11 - 2:34 - The Road to Valle Nevado and La Parva: This factor actually applies to both resorts. The road from Santiago becomes one way during weekends and Chilean holidays. Generally, in the morning, the direction is uphill and during the afternoons, the direction is downhill. If you arrive in Santiago from a foreign country in the morning on the weekend, you may not want to wait until the afternoon to start heading to Valle Nevado or La Parva. And if you are leaving Chile in the morning, you may have to leave the resorts extra early to ensure that you arrive at the airport in time for your flight.
2:35 - 5:43 - Accommodations: Both Valle Nevado and La Parva have apartment rentals, but only Valle Nevado has hotels. The hotels are all inclusive, with meals and chairlift tickets provided. When there is sufficient snow, the majority of the accommodations at Valle Nevado are ski-in, ski-out or a short walk to the slopes. At La Parva, many apartment rentals are a significant walk to the slopes. Both resorts have free shuttles in case you do not want to walk to the slopes.
5:44 - 6:06 - WIFI: The hotels at Valle Nevado have WIFI. The apartment rentals at both resorts may or may not have WIFI, so pay attention to that point when you are booking a reservation if you want WIFI. My mobile carrier is T-Mobile, and I had no service without WIFI at Valle Nevado, but I was fine at La Parva without WIFI.
6:07 - 6:26 - Mountain Statistics: The vertical drop at Valle Nevado is 810 meters. At La Parva, it is 960 meters. Valle Nevado has 2224 skiable acres, while La Parva only has 988. So Valle Nevado wins on amount of terrain. For comparison to North American resorts, La Parva is comparable in size to Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada, and Valle Nevado is comparable to Snowbird in Utah. Both resorts are above the tree line, so you have completely wide open skiing.
6:27 - 9:05 - The Slopes: As a sample, I skied Sol at Valle Nevado and Barros Negros at La Parva, which are both red (advanced) slopes. Red is more difficult than an intermediate slope but easier than an expert slope. Both were groomed and, in my opinion, were perfect for a skier or boarder who is an experienced intermediate. A beginning intermediate should be fine, but may find certain portions steep.
9:06 - 10:00 - Chairlifts: If you do not like surface lifts like button lifts or T-bars, then you should seriously consider this factor before going to either resort. Chairlifts are less than half the total at both resorts. So you will need to take a surface lift at some point if you want to explore either mountain in its entirety. Valle Nevado has 14 total lifts, with 6 being either chairlifts or a gondola. La Parva has 15 total lifts, with 5 being chairlifts. When I was there in August 2022, one of the chairlifts at La Parva was not operating, so there were only 4. If you have the IKON Pass, you can use it at Valle Nevado, which is the only resort in South America that currently accepts either the IKON Pass or Epic Pass. However, if you book a hotel at Valle Nevado, you will likely already receive lift tickets as part of your package.
10:01 - 11:06 - Crowds: When I was in Chile during the first week of August 2022, there were no crowds at Valle Nevado during the week, and no crowds at La Parva on the weekend. I only rode a chairlift with someone else twice during the entire week at either resort.
11:58 - 12:52 - Santiago: If you have not been to Chile before, you may want to explore Santiago. It was larger than I expected with a lot to offer. There have been safety concerns the past couple of years with protests in certain parts of Santiago, but those issues seemed nonexistent when I was there.