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Chile - Is it all that?



Barry Izbak

U.T.A.
Dec 7, 2005
7,310
Lancing By Sea
Off to Chile in December to meet up with my daughter and son-in-law who are spending six months "doing" South America. Nice "work" if you can get it.

I'm popping down there for a week at the beginning of the month, to see them and take a look at Santiago and Valparaiso.

In my experience, I find that the good people of NSC know a little bit about just about everything in the world, so I thought it well worth asking for your recommended do's and don'ts
 




graz126

New member
Oct 17, 2003
4,146
doncaster
only spent 1 day and night in Santiago but a ride on the cable cars is a must. Staying out until 9am drinking with a Chilean bar worker and an Argentine reporter might not be so advisable. Ended up in some very shady looking bars. About 2 mile of riggly tin city slums between the airport and city center is no go zone.
 


Commander

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Apr 28, 2004
12,787
London
Chile is great. Go to Pucon, it's amazing. Santiago isn't much to write home about, it's a big standard Latin capital city, spend as little time there as possible. Fabulous country, fabulous people.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


Yes Chef

Well-known member
Apr 11, 2016
1,815
In the kitchen
I've been to Chile a couple of times and quite like the country, but if I'm honest it suffers in comparison to Argentina. [MENTION=18183]big nuts[/MENTION] is absolutely correct about Torres del Paine, a wonderful place. The best thing I done was a "backpacker" cruise from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas, through the Patagonian Channels, ie the squiggly bits on the map. Santiago is great for partying, but hasn't got a huge amount going on otherwise, depends on your agenda. If you have the time and the budget I would definitely recommend the boat trip, or failing that a trip to the mountains and deserts of Atacama, and if you have a little Spanish then that would enhance your trip no end. Very jealous, I love South America, I hope you enjoy your trip.
 
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Lyndhurst 14

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2008
5,114
I went there a few years ago and loved it. Visited Santiago and Valparaiso. The locals are very friendly, there were a few dodgy areas in Santiago but no more than any other city. There is a bit of pollution in Santiago which I noticed on the first day.When you land there is an entrance tax if you are an American which really pissed off some of my friends, but Brits just show their passports and get in for nothing. Worth doing the bus top Santiago city tour, which is a hop on / hop off arrangement. We also hired a private guide to take us round some of the wineries etc. which worked out well. When you go to Valparaiso try and get to the Brighton restaurant with great views over the city. You’ll really enjoy Chile

Cafe Brighton.JPG
 


Hugo Rune

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Feb 23, 2012
21,498
Brighton
Patagonia is stunning. The best thing about it is the lack of human inhabitants. Coyhaique is my recommendation as a place to stay as it's a great base to trek and climb from.
 






scousefan

Well-known member
Apr 26, 2009
1,242
Liverpool
Flew all the way there and back for a 48 hour work trip. (It's a long way!) Therefore didn't see much apart from the University. My general impression was that it's an interesting place with very nice people. Maybe not as interesting as Argentina or Bolivia, but I'm
not sure about that...
 


Trufflehound

Re-enfranchised
Aug 5, 2003
14,104
The democratic and free EU
When you go to Valparaiso try and get to the Brighton restaurant with great views over the city. You’ll really enjoy Chile

View attachment 83209

Very much this. They sold a few decent beers there too, although I did have to get used to ordering Pale Ale as "Pallay Allay" in order to be understood.

Valparaiso is a great city. The only slight disappointment was the tourist bumf makes (made) a big thing of riding the dozen or so "elevadores" - inclined railways. Great, except only around three or four of them still worked (as of 2012). The others are all run down and broken.
 


McTavish

Well-known member
Nov 5, 2014
1,562
Santiago is a bit of a faceless American city and wouldn't be somewhere I would particularly want to go back to but the Cerro San Cristobal - a park in the north of the city - is worth a visit.
 




Biscuit Barrel

Well-known member
Jan 28, 2014
2,393
Southwick
I have spent a week in Santiago and a week in Valparaiso. I would not rush back to either. I spent 6 months travelling around 8 countries in South America and Chile was bar far the least enjoyable (only my opinion).

My favorite parts of South America was Peru and Argentina. Bolivia and Ecuador were also very nice.
 


knocky1

Well-known member
Jan 20, 2010
12,948
Great place. First tip is to bear in mind is that it is around 4,000 miles long and the south is (or was 10 years ago)only accessible by paved road by skirting over the Andes and driving through the Argentina.
Had a great 6 weeks there trekking round Torres Del Paine for a week, 3 day walks around the Lake District above Orsino, Pablo Neruda the poet's house in Valparaiso is worth a visit, Valle del Elqui in land from La Serena is not as far up as the Atacama but has a moneyed hippy feel and has incredible colours and skies. A day trip to Bariloche in Argentinian Lakes is a possible trip from Santiago and would you take you over the Andes and the snow capped volcanoes. Sea is a hot 12 degrees in December and the coast has a lot of fog and mist.

Have a good time!
 


DFL JCL

Well-known member
Jan 8, 2016
790
spent a few nights in Santiago as part of a couple of months in South America. We had a good time there, not quite as interesting as other spots but still worth a visit. Had a nice bite to eat @ this place https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta...as-Santiago_Santiago_Metropolitan_Region.html. Drinking is definitely something they do well in Chile, good wine, pisco sours cocktails and a melon con vino cocktail was particularly memorable. I forget the name, but the big park with the cable car up the hill gives nice views over the city and to the mountains.
 




brightn'ove

cringe
Apr 12, 2011
9,136
London
I was there 6 months ago.

Do the walking tour in Valparaiso - great history lesson about the city and Chile as a whole. The city has a really interesting naval past.

Santiago is just a capital city, but as previously mentioned definitely go up the Cerro San Cristobal, you get a 360 view of the city and it's bloody impressive with the Andes in the background.

The Elqui valley is one of the wine regions and is clear and sunny something like 350 days of the year, it's amazing for stargazing and a number of countries have observatories stationed there.

Drink lots of pisco sours.

It's a very VERY long country, so you might not get a chance to go very far with just a week there. For example it took 20 hours in a bus to get from the Elqui Valley to the Atacama Desert (which is also very impressive).
 


Barry Izbak

U.T.A.
Dec 7, 2005
7,310
Lancing By Sea
Excellent feedback from the source of all knowledge that is NSC.
My daughter and son in law have just hiked through Patagonia and are currently waiting for a 130kph storm to subside before they get their delayed cruise/cargo boat out of Puerto Natales on Tuesday.

I'm flying in to Santiago to meet them in a week's time and then we go out to Valparaiso.
Any more recommendations greatly appreciated.
 


SeagullRic

New member
Jan 13, 2008
1,399
brighton
Excellent feedback from the source of all knowledge that is NSC.
My daughter and son in law have just hiked through Patagonia and are currently waiting for a 130kph storm to subside before they get their delayed cruise/cargo boat out of Puerto Natales on Tuesday.

I'm flying in to Santiago to meet them in a week's time and then we go out to Valparaiso.
Any more recommendations greatly appreciated.

Make sure you have a Terramoto' (Earthquake) cocktail from one of the local bars. Grenadine syrup, white wine, pisco, egg whites, pineapple juice and a generous dollop of pineapple ice cream, so called as you're head feels like an earthquake the next morning and they say you only need one! Worth trying, agree about drinking lots of pisco sours also.

Chilean cuisine isn't as famous as Peruvian or Argentinian but have some ceviche whilst in Valparaiso, the fish should be fresh. In Valpo you can also get a tour of the bay pretty cheaply and get a really close up view of the sea lions lounging around on the buoys which is cool.

In Santiago I'd highly recommend the museum of human rights- free and with English headphones available, gives a really detailed account of the terror of Pinochet's rule.

Fantastic country, probably my favourite in South America- have fun!
 


Barry Izbak

U.T.A.
Dec 7, 2005
7,310
Lancing By Sea
Lovely warm day in Santiago.
Local beers not bad
Conger eel for lunch in the Central Fish market
Adios
 






Hamilton

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
12,393
Brighton
Off to Chile in December to meet up with my daughter and son-in-law who are spending six months "doing" South America. Nice "work" if you can get it.

I'm popping down there for a week at the beginning of the month, to see them and take a look at Santiago and Valparaiso.

In my experience, I find that the good people of NSC know a little bit about just about everything in the world, so I thought it well worth asking for your recommended do's and don'ts

My stepson went out there last year for about 6 months and absolutely fell in love with the place.
 



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