Excursions to Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales from Frutillar can be arranged by your hotel with a company such as Alsur Expediciones or Aquamotion out of Puerto Varas. In Frutillar, spend an afternoon strolling the streets and enjoying the town's striking architecture. The town really gets hopping during the last week of January and first of February when it hosts, for 10 days, the Semanas Musicales, when hundreds of Chilean and foreign musicians come to participate in various classical music concerts. Call the administration in Osorno (tel. 65/421290); tickets are never hard to come by. The hulking building that juts out on a pier onto the lake in Fruttilar southeast of the center, the Teatro del Lago (tel. 65/339-2293), will be finished in 2010, though it's partly open and is already one of Chile's premier classical-music venues. Performances are held throughout the year. Check the website www.teatrodellago.cl for listings.
The two most-visited attractions in town are the Museo de la Colonización Alemana de Frutillar and the Reserva Forestal Edmundo Winkler. The museum (tel. 65/421142) is located where Arturo Prat dead-ends at Avenida Vicente Pérez Rosales. Admission is $3 (£2) adults, $1 (70p) for kids 12 and under; it's open from April to November daily from 10am to 1pm and 2 to 6pm, and from December to March daily from 10am to 1pm and 2 to 8pm. It features a collection of 19th-century antiques, clothing, and artifacts gathered from various immigrant German families around the area.
The reserva (tel. 65/421291) is run by the University of Chile and features a trail winding through native forest, giving visitors an idea of what the region looked like before immigrants went timber crazy and started chopping down trees. It's open year-round from 10am to 7pm; admission costs $2 (£1.30) for adults and $1 (70p) for kids. To get there, you'll have to walk a kilometer (a half-mile) up to the park from the entrance at Calle Caupolicán at the northern end of Avenida Philippi. You might also consider paying a visit to the town cemetery, which affords a panoramic view of the lake. To get there, continue farther north up Avenida Phillipi.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.
