Santiago was the second destination in our South American vacation. After a full 4 days in Cusco, Peru, we were ready for a change of pace, and Santiago was just that! As much as we wanted to explore Patagonia, Valparaiso, and other parts of Chile, we just had two days and had to make the most of it in Santiago. Chile stretches over 4,000 miles of coastline…it’s takes a long time to fly from place to place in South America (not like Europe where everything is close)! We are big fans of wine, so we decided to spend one day on a wine tour, and one day exploring the major sites in the city. Grab your walking shoes and come along with us on this whirlwind weekend in Santiago!
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Here is a sample 2-day itinerary for Santiago, Chile based on our trip in April:
DAY 0: TRAVEL DAY
Since we were coming from Peru, we had two flights, a layover, and a 1-hour time change…we were basically traveling the majority of the day. We checked in to our hotel, Ola Santiago Hilton Tapestry Collection in Providencia, and then walked a few blocks from the hotel for dinner at Liguria. Liguria was recommended to us by the hotel and it was so delicious! We had great cocktails, a cheese appetizer, swordfish, and pesto ravioli…so good! The hotel checked all the boxes…lobby bar, really good free breakfast, and a full menu for lunch and dinner off of the lobby.
DAY 1: CASABLANCA WINE TOUR
Chile is currently in the top 10 for wine producing countries in the world. There are a number of wine regions around Santiago, so there are lots of options for tours. We prefer white wine which is most prevalent in the Casablanca Region, so we booked this tour in advance with Isto e Chile through Trip Advisor.
We were picked up from our hotel around 9AM, and then grabbed a few fellow tourists before we made the 40 minute drive to our first winery. There were 11 of us on the tour, plus we were joined by our guide Benjamin, and our driver Alejandro (both were awesome!). We visited three wineries where we had private tastings, and then ended the day with an amazing lunch at a fourth winery.
Each winery was unique…one was fully organic and was set on a farm with grazing alpacas, one was a beautiful villa that specialized in sparkling wine, and one had huge clay pots that were filled with fermenting grapes…really neat to see! This tour was really well run and was a perfect day.
We arrived back at the hotel in the late afternoon and decided to have dinner at the hotel that night after a long day of touring and tasting! If you’re traveling with kids or not a fan of wine, I’d suggest doing a day trip to the coastal town of Valparaiso instead.
DAY 2: TOURING SANTIAGO AND A VISIT TO THE SPA
We tried to hit as many of the highlights of Santiago as possible in this final day. For our first stop, we took an Uber from the hotel to La Moneda, which is the main government building where the President and his Cabinet sit (built in 1784). The plan was to catch the changing of the guard, which happens at 10AM every other day, depending on the month (check out this link for the schedule). Unfortunately, we waited and waited, but it never happened! It was still worth seeing the beautiful buildings and do some people watching while we waited.
Next we walked just a few blocks to Plaza de Armas to check out the buildings, fountains, and shops; there’s beautiful architecture here amongst the palm trees, and lots of activity happening here.
Then we walked over to Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, very close to Plaza de Armas. It’s a great little museum that contains artifacts not only from the Chilean people, but Central and South Americans in general. It’s very manageable to see everything in about an hour, and there’s a small cafe and gift shop there as well.
One of the must-do things in Santiago is to visit Cerro San Christobal (San Christobal Hill). It’s over 2,400 feet high right in the center of Santiago, with amazing views of the city. It houses a zoo, a wine museum, a giant statue of Mary at the top, restaurants, walking paths, and acres and acres of green space. We took the funicular up to the top (I definitely recommend doing this), and then took the gondola back down. You could easily spend an entire afternoon here.
Lunch place, Shadhar Spa
We had lunch very close to the funicular station before we headed up the hill. We ate at El Palacio de la Chorrillana, which was a great little find! We had the vegetarian chorrillana and ceviche….so good. Chilean Chorrillana is essentially fries loaded with cheese and other toppings. The traditional version has sliced beef, sautéed onion, and fried egg on top.
At this point in our trip, we had been traveling for a full week and had done a couple of high elevation hikes, so we were ready for a little visit to the spa! Spa services in Santiago are considerably less expensive in the US, so we did couples massages and facials at Shadhar Spa, not far from our hotel. We were able to make our reservation through WhatsApp (Travel Tip: you must download this app to use all throughout South America). The only odd part was that we had to pay in advance and could only do it through bank wire or PayPal…I was a little leery, but it all worked out fine and we had an excellent experience there!
That rounded out our time in Chile…it was quick, but we got quite a lot accomplished in two days. Our only regret was not getting to Valparaiso. We really enjoyed our time in Santiago…it’s a big city, but felt very manageable just staying around the Providencia neighborhood. It was very clean, scenic, and hospitable. Next…off to Argentina!