Better than US, Canada ou Europe.
I wake up in the morning, have my bkfast and start ski in 10 minutes....
Great week for me and my kids....

If you are looking for a great ski-in/ski-out hotel experience, then I would recommend this hotel. Even though the skiing conditions weren't exactly spectacular during our stay, it was still worth the visit. With just the one hotel nestled in the middle of the ski runs, you have a sense that the lifts and the pistes are all your own -- no annoyingly long lift lines, no need to dodge out-of-control skiers and boarders during your runs, etc.

Unlike another individual traveling in my group, who has seen fit to give this hotel a negative tripadvisor review, I found the staff always pleasant, polite and helpful -- this goes for the front desk, to the housekeeping staff, to the wait staff, to the gentlemen working the ski check, to the boot check man. Generally, everyone was very friendly. I even caught some good-natured ribbing from some of the staff one day because I was wearing a soccer shirt from Argentina.

As for the rooms... Well, yes, they are a little on the small side. And yes, they are a bit out of style and could stand some up-dating and a decorator's touch. The bathroom, however, was new. My guess is that it was completely renovated within the last three or four years. The most important thing, however, is that both the room and the bathroom were quite clean and the house-keeping staff kept them that way throughout our stay.

One of the negatives of this hotel is the internet access. They have wifi in the building. The signal was often quite tenuous, which was strange because you could see base stations distributed throughout the building.

The restaurant is pretty good -- not overly-memorable, but still good. The service was pleasant, if not a little slow at times. (However, I found table service to be slow by U.S. standards in every restaurant that I went to in Chile.)

Overall, there is a very genial atmosphere to the hotel. Because of the hotel's isolation, it has a very cruise ship feel. They have events (both skiing & non-skiing things) scheduled throughout the day -- some of which are geared toward children and families. There is a bar, computer room, a small cinema, a small store, a couple restaurants/snack bars, a work-out room, etc.

Bottom line, if you want an enjoyable skiing/hotel experience in a ruggedly beautiful setting, then I would recommend this hotel.

The Hotel Portillo is a wonderful experience. The staff are amazing. I was shocked to read another recent visitor feel otherwise. To me, the staff at the Hotel Portillo is a very large part of the enjoyment of being there. The dining room staff take enormous pride in their work and strive to do the very best job that they can do. This was my third visit in the past nine years. It IS an older hotel and thusly, may not meet everyone's demands. The rooms are a bit simple although the bathrooms have been nicely updated since my last visit in 2005. The food is excellent with three meals (ordered from menu's) and Portillo's much loved 'tea time' at 5 pm every day. The skiing was not as good as normal due to a low snow year and it being a late season visit. Make sure to have lunch at Tio Bob's, even if the weather ISN'T sunny. They did a good job of keeping the runs open and while limited in terrain choices, it was a lot of fun to get back on the skis in September. The gym facility is excellent. The guy riding the stationary bike beside was on more than one occasion, a current member of the Austrian National DH team. The outdoor pools were kept hot enough and the views from the water, spectacular. Two friends who took ski lessons, loved their instructors. The fellows who check your skis and boots are characters who are always smiling. The boot check guy memorizes every guest by face and has your footwear out waiting for you before you even get to the counter. The elevator operators (old school machinery for sure) are cheerful and forgiving of my lack of simple spanish. The internet connection was pretty good for where you are on the planet. I look forward to getting back to Portillo again in the future. One of my favourite places to ski on earth. And largely because of the good Chilean people who work there.

When the North American winter ended this year in April, the beginning of the next ski season in December seemed too far to wait. I couldn't wait. I had to come up with some way to ski in summer, except that there is no snow in the summer.

Well, fear not, my wheelchair seated, skiing amigos, because in South America, it's winter when it's summer here. On a recommendation from a ski instructor from the, (BOEC) Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center, in Breckenridge, Colorado, I googled, “skiportillo.com.”

His name escapes me, but his story sticks with me. He told me of an idyllic place one hundred miles out of Santiago, Chile, high in the Andes Mountains. Where the world pauses, and crime and paranoia cease to exist. A place where you can leave your skis and baggage standing right outside, with no locks or concern. Where everybody there is like a family, and for one week at a time, just like your family. The only way to get there is a 2 day climb on the back of a donkey. Just kidding, I took a minivan. But you can take a helicopter in less than an hour.

Planning Portillo. (that’s Por-tee-yo)
Right from the start, the management at Portillo was an organized crew. Knowledgeable and forthcoming in their responses to all my e-mails as I planned my vacation, booked my room, my ski lessons, and my transportation to and from the mountain etc. We exchanged dozens of e-mails where I asked many questions. I wanted to know, in no uncertain terms that when I left my house and got to Chile, that there would be somebody there, like, with my name on a sign, to pick me up, gather my luggage, take me to the mountain, bring my stuff in, and get me back to the airport at the end of the week. And there was, with a sign and all. In execution, everything went as smoothly as in planning. Management did not drop the ball, not even once.

Getting to Portillo.
Honestly, the 10-hour redeye flight from Atlanta to Santiago wasn’t bad. The plane was nearly empty. I had three seats to myself, so I laid right down across all three and slept the whole way.

From the airport, the 3-hour ride was beautiful. And the bus driver was knowledgeable, courteous, and conversational. A proudly self-employed Chilean, he spends his winters shuttling people back and forth to the mountain, his summers taking people on vineyard tours. We drove straight out of the Santiago Airport, where there are actually palm trees, bypassed the city, and soon were out in the country passing farms and vineyards, with the ice capped mountains, our destination, in the distance. Eventually the mountains drew closer, and soon, we were in them. Very quickly, there were no more trees. We'd driven high enough that trees cease to grow at all.

Arriving at Hotel Portillo.
The hotel was beautiful. It was built in the 1940s, but has been extremely well maintained. It still has very much old world charm. In wheelchair terms, old world charm roughly translates to minor annoyances. I'll talk more about them later.

My room at Portillo.
It was small, but comfortable. High speed internet is free, and available throughout the hotel. I had comfy king size bed, with lots of soft pillows. And it was low enough and easy to get into. In some hotels in the States I find, the beds are about 8 inches higher than I would like, making it a real endeavor to get onto and off the bed, from my wheelchair, which seriously inconveniences me, because with a high bed, I am less likely to use the bed for anything other than sleeping. But when the bed is an easy transfer to and from the wheelchair, I can use it for dressing, resting, napping, stretching, doing pushups, reading, writing, and updating my Facebook. The bottom line, is that by 10 at night, I'm a lot more tired, if I've been confined to my chair all day because the bed is too high, than if I've several times been able to lay down for half an hour to stretch.

When I first arrived in my room, and began unpacking, and stowing my clothing, I realized, that the bar you hang your clothing on was way too high for me to reach. In typical Portillo style, they came down to my room, straight away with motivation and a drill and lowered my clothing bar so I could use it.

They also removed my bathroom door. Strictly speaking, my bathroom was not handicapped accessible. It was very small, and in order to get on my shower bench, I had to transfer from my wheelchair to the toilet, then from the toilet to the shower bench, the same in reverse. That was a pain, but not horrible. The charming old world, sink was also placed on a vanity that was too big for the tiny bathroom, meaning I had to bend and reach for water, and shave 5 feet from the mirror. Again, not ideal, but not a big deal either. The final problem in my room was that the shades were difficult to open and close myself. They just need oil, or new tracks or something. I somehow managed.

Overall, I was very happy with my room, and the chambermaids did a great job of keeping it very clean for me. One phone call to the front desk on day one, had the housekeeper enter my room each morning at 8am, and silently place a tray of instant coffee, cookies, hot water, and hot milk at the foot of my bed. How perfect is that? From what I could tell, they entered and straightened up at least 3 times per day, the final time to turn down my sheets and leave me chocolate. All week I lived as carefree as I do at home, leaving my Macbookpro, iPad, cameras, money, and all belongings unlocked, and unattended, and nothing ever came up missing.


Skiing at Portillo.
I booked a ski lesson ahead of time for every day from 12 to 4:30pm. This is about the same schedule I book at every ski resort because it allows me plenty of time to get up and ready in the morning, even if I fully indulged in the nightlife the night before. To be honest, I didn’t have a great week on the slopes there. One deficiency after the next with the monoski I was borrowing took time to iron out, and just as I felt we’d solved all the problems that needed solving, I fell on the ice, and separated my shoulder. It wasn’t horrible, not excruciating pain, but I knew enough to stop skiing, and now a full week later, it still hurts when I make certain moves, enough that I’ve not resumed playing tennis yet. I plan to resume cardiovascular exercise today, and tennis next Monday, but I have another drs’ appointment tomorrow, so I will know better.

Apres-ski in Portillo.
A workout room with lots of machines. Plenty of dumbbells. Bikes, elypticals, treadmills. All great for a walking person. No NuStep tho. For those who don’t know, a NuStep is like the latest, state-of-the-art stairstepper/exercise bike for a paralyzed guy. I use one at home almost daily, so I sorely missed my daily cardio workout on while on vacation. The good news is though, that very likely, I won’t have to miss it next time in Portillo, however, because I spoke with the general manager of Portillo, and he assured me he was looking into getting one. Try that at Hunter!

A swimming pool, and 2 huge Jacuzzis!
They are located down about 20 steps from the main deck. Obviously they eventually need to build an elevator, but that didn’t stop me from swimming nearly every day. In typical Portillo style, what they lack in infrastructure, they make up for in muscle and motivation. A 30 second phone call from my room explaining my desire to use the Jacuzzi always resulted in 3 Chilenos waiting for me at the top of the steps to carry me down. A nod and wave to the towel guy had them promptly return to carry me back up.



Dining in Portillo.
Cruiseship dining has nothing on Portillo!
There are 4 meals served per day. Breakfast was from about 8-10am, lunch, 12:30-3. Tea, and light foods, from 4-6, and dinner, from 8:30-11.

At Portillo, you get whatever you want. Myself, I'm a fan of the à la carte menu. I don’t want or need a buffet! There is no buffet at Portillo. My desires vary daily, but for an average breakfast, I'd like just 2 eggs scrambled, and ketchup, and a bowl of kiwi. A lot of kiwi. Like 2 whole ones. Keep the rest of the fruit in the mixed fruit. I just want kiwi, maybe tomorrow I’ll just want berries. 5 minutes later, there it is, just as I asked.

I’m usually not too hungry at lunch, sometimes I just wanted soup and crackers, but the turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich was a total hit. No matter what you want, it’s all included.

For dinner. Irresistibly fresh leafy salads always led the way with peas, and cucumbers, drizzled in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Throughout the week, we had duck, gnocchi, many fine fish, filet mignon. My favorite was the freshly de-shelled king crab. It was served on a black sesame wanton cracker. That was the only the appetizer. I had 3 in a row and called it dinner. I'm sure I could have ordered 5 if I wanted. The rule was, if you don't like your food, send it back. You could always get a steak, or burger, or spaghetti Bolognese.

Fresh fruits or sorbetto followed every meal, though most of my friends preferred the richer cheesecake, bricks of chocolate decadence, or other artisan quality deserts.

Timing and luck in Portillo.
I had originally planned to go skiing at Portillo in June, the last week of lower priced, preseason prices, but two days before I was about to leave, Portillo called me up and canceled my trip, because there wasn't enough snow. Instead of making me exchange my low, preseason week for an equally priced, low postseason week, they upgraded my vacation to the peak season for the same price, and let me pick any week I wanted.

I chose to go during, Chilean wine appreciation week. This was a good plan. Every night at 6:30, a different Chilean vineyard came into the hotel lobby, and set up wine tasting tables. They showed slideshows and gave speeches about how wine is made on their vineyard, and taught us about the wines they'd come to share. There were a lot of buckets, but I didn't notice any spitting.

I did not plan to, but I just happened to come to Portillo, during a special ski week for Chilean kids with disabilities. My ski instructor, Mario Fernandez, orchestrated the whole program about 10 years ago. He explained to me upon arrival, that being an independent man in a wheelchair, and having the means and the courage to leave my country and take myself skiing in theirs, means to those kids, that the same is possible for them in their futures. I was of course, invited to take part in some of their activities. So I did. The “EyeballNinja” attended and entertained at all functions. They had parties, and dances, and an awards ceremony. It was all very sweet and touching to see such a large group of adults coming together to bring so much joy into the lives of the 20 or so children involved. It is my goal to come back next year as a completely independent monoskiier, and to spend most of my week skiing with the kids, not monopolizing their chief instructor and event founder’s time.

Closing notes on Portillo.

How many vacations have you been on? How many times have you met the owner of the vacation place? I met the owner of Portillo. It went kind of like this… (and of course I’m paraphrasing, he was far humbler than this.)

Hi, I’m Henry. You see this hotel, and all these snow capped mountains for as far as you can see? Yep, I own it all. Now, Wayne, is there anything I can do to make your stay here better?

It was wholly un-American! Maybe it was Chilean? Unused to such treatment, I almost didn’t know what to say. I mean didn’t he want to just shake my hand, and refer me to some underling of his that I could email my complaints to, so they could then email them to him so he could ignore them like every other vacation place I’ve ever been to? Nope. Not at Portillo. The guy that owns the joint hangs out there, skis there, is recognizable, approachable, and American. In fact, once I explained the problem I was having with the straps on my monoski not being high enough or stretchy enough to grip my chest while I was skiing, he had two seamstresses find me, and measure me that night to craft an appropriate strap of Velcro and elastic to use the next day.

As well as meeting the owner of Portillo, I met the general manager of operations at Portillo as well. Another very approachable American, named Mike Rogan. Further proof that the best people in the world truly do come from upstate New York! He’s originally from Rhinebeck, right across the Hudson River, from where I grew up in Saugerties, so we had lots in common to talk about. He lives in the States from October to May, then returns to Portillo to live right onsite, and to run the show that is Ski Portillo from May to October. I could tell immediately that he takes a lot of pride in his work, and in keeping things running smoothly at his hotel when he asked me for a detailed list of changes Portillo could make to make it more accommodating to vacationers with disabilities. I happily emailed him a list. I can’t wait to see what he makes of it. I felt like such a part of their team!

In conclusion, I had one of the best vacations of my life in Portillo. I’ll be going back, hopefully, for the same week next year, and very likely, every year, after that. As a guy in a wheelchair, they provided for my every need and want for the entire trip. Wheelchair or not, I highly recommend Ski Portillo for your next vacation.