Chile eSIM for Santiago, the Atacama, and Patagonia

Chile is 4,000 km long and most of it is reached by a domestic flight booked on the phone, from the Atacama in the north to Torres del Paine in the south. The best eSIM for Chile is the one added at home, on Wi-Fi, so the ride in from Santiago's airport and the flight to Calama or Punta Arenas are sorted before the bags arrive.

Below: how a Chile plan works, how to set it up before you fly, what to expect in Santiago and Valparaíso, in the desert, and in Patagonia, and which plan fits when Argentina or Bolivia is on the same trip.

A South American trip is usually long, and it usually crosses a border or two. KnowRoaming is built for that. You add the KnowRoaming eSIM, called KR.One, to your phone once, then add a plan per trip: Chile now, a LATAM plan the year the route runs through three countries, anywhere else after that. The eSIM stays; only the plan changes.

The plan's days start when you turn it on and connect in Chile, not at checkout. Buy it weeks ahead, add it at home, and a delayed flight costs you nothing. The full rule is in what plan validity means and when it starts.

Choose a fixed plan for a set amount of data at the lowest overall price, or an unlimited plan when you'd rather not count. Unlimited plans give you 5 GB a day at full speed, then a slower speed until the allowance resets the next day. If a fixed plan runs low, top up in the app and the extra data lands on the same eSIM.

See it in two minutes: Meet KR.One, iPhone setup with KR.One, or Samsung setup with KR.One.

Do this at home on Wi-Fi. It takes about a minute.

Before you leave

1. Get the KnowRoaming app (available on iOS and Android) and choose your Chile plan.
2. Tap Add. First time on this phone? The app adds KR.One and your Chile plan together. Already have KR.One? Only the plan is added, with nothing to scan.
3. Leave data roaming off on the KnowRoaming line until you land, and turn it off on your home line too so it doesn't run up charges in the background. Steps are in turning off roaming on your home line.

When you land

1. Turn the plan on in the app, then turn data roaming on for the KnowRoaming line. That setting lives in your phone, so the app can't flip it for you.
2. Give the phone a minute to find the network. If nothing happens, turn airplane mode on for 30 seconds and off again.

Prefer a QR code? The checkout page and your confirmation email both carry one; scan it from your phone's settings. Every tap, by device, is in adding your eSIM on iPhone, adding your eSIM on Android, and adding your eSIM on Samsung, or watch the iPhone QR walkthrough or the Samsung QR walkthrough. Still no signal after landing? Work through the no-signal checklist.

Santiago's airport is 30 to 45 minutes from the center by the official transfer buses, a booked taxi, or Uber and Cabify, which both work with the number you already have. The Metro runs on the bip! card, sold at every station, and cards are accepted almost everywhere in the city.

The peso is the currency, ATMs are plentiful, and cash is useful in markets and small towns. Valparaíso and Viña del Mar are about an hour and a half west by bus, the funiculars and the street art the reason; the Cajón del Maipo and the wineries of the Maipo and Casablanca valleys are the day trips.

San Pedro de Atacama, a two-hour flight to Calama and an hour's drive, is the base for the Valle de la Luna, the Tatio geysers before dawn, the salt flats and the flamingo lagoons, and the star tours that the world's clearest skies make possible. The town has 4G; the desert doesn't. Tours book the day before, in person or by message, and leave early.

San Pedro sits at 2,400 meters and the geysers at over 4,000, so the first day is slow and the geyser morning is cold; tours leave at four in the morning, and the phone's battery drains fast in the cold and the dust. Carry a power bank and keep the phone inside a jacket.

Punta Arenas is a three-and-a-half-hour flight south, Puerto Natales the bus beyond it, and Torres del Paine the reason for both. The W and O treks need campsite and refugio bookings months ahead, all online, and the park has no signal on any network past the entrance; the towns at each end have 4G. Download the maps, save the bookings, and agree a check-in for the days you'll be out.

The Lake District around Puerto Varas and Pucón, and Chiloé's wooden churches, are the softer south, well covered in the towns and thinner on the volcano trails.

The Andes crossing from Santiago to Mendoza and the Patagonian loops through El Calafate and Ushuaia make Argentina part of many Chilean trips; both countries are on the LATAM plan, 15 countries on one plan, switching networks by itself at the border. Bolivia, reached from San Pedro on the Uyuni tour, is not on the LATAM plan and needs its own, added to the same eSIM. A Chile-only plan stops at the border. Read do I need a new plan for every country? for the detail.

Easter Island, Rapa Nui, is five hours west by air from Santiago and a world apart, with the moai, the quarry at Rano Raraku, and a permit and registration process to complete before you fly. Coverage on the island is thin on every network, in the one town and little beyond; treat the trip as mostly offline and download everything in Santiago. Chile's summer runs from December to February, when Patagonia is busiest and the north is at its hottest.

Flights to Rapa Nui sell out in the southern summer and the island's few hotels with them; book both, and the park permit, months ahead from Santiago.

Your plan connects to Movistar on 4G LTE. There is no 5G on this plan. Coverage is strong in Santiago, Valparaíso, and the regional cities, and holds along the Pan-American highway and in the tourist towns north and south. Your phone picks the network automatically once the plan is on; there is nothing to choose by hand.

In Torres del Paine, the Atacama beyond San Pedro, the volcano trails, and on Rapa Nui, expect long stretches with no signal on any network. Treat those days as offline.

Most phones sold since 2019 support eSIM, including iPhone XS and later and most Android flagships from the same window. Check yours before you add a plan; it takes a few seconds. On iPhone, go to Settings, General, About and look for an EID or Available SIM. On Android, go to Settings, Network & Internet, SIMs and look for an option to add an eSIM. On Samsung, dial *#06# and look for an EID.

Your phone also needs to be carrier-unlocked. If you're not sure, carrier-locked vs unlocked: how to tell shows you where to look.

Adding a Chile plan doesn't touch your regular SIM. Calls and texts on your usual number keep working exactly as before. The new plan handles data while you're there, and most phones run both at once without you doing anything else. Bank codes and two-factor texts still arrive on your home number, as long as that line stays switched on.

For South America the alternatives are your home carrier's roaming rate, often unavailable outside the capital; a local SIM that means paperwork, a local number, and a queue; or hostel Wi-Fi that is fine until you're on a bus. A Chile plan added at home beats all three: one price agreed before you fly, live the second you land, and a LATAM plan if the route crosses borders.

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