We have settled on a trip to Chile to explore the Atacama Desert and Valley of the Moon before S24 heads off to college this fall.
We figured we’d tack on a few days before or after to visit Santiago and nearby areas (hoping to avoid additional plane travel) but really have no idea what/where.
Does anyone have suggestions for things to see and do?
You might want to fly out to Easter Island. Longish trip, but fascinating. And you’ll be as close as you’ll ever be!
True. We’ve wanted to make this trip forever am I am so lazy about it lol. But as we fly into Santiago, I figured we should/could spend a few days in the area to help break up the trip.
Be very careful, our friend had his camera stolen out of his backpack! My H had his credit card stolen out of his pocket while lining up to purchase something.
However, we really like Chile; my H flew to Easter Island while I went home as I wasn’t interested.
Yes, we are aware of that stuff. What did you do/like on your visit?
Santiago is one of Latin America’s nicest and safest cities but it is fairly quiet and conservative. It’s not going to give you a “special” city experience although the mountains in the backdrop are spectacular. The coolest thing about Santiago is that it is 90 minutes to skiing and 90 minutes to the Pacific. It’s a bit like a Latin, stable yet emerging economy version of Salt Lake City, Catholic edition.
Haha. That is an interesting way to put it. I figure 2 nights in Santiago do decompress from the flight, a visit to the market, is more that enough. I did that 20 years ago on the way to Patagonia. This time, my first thought was to tack on a few days of skiing but I was shocked at the prices. For that amount of money, I will take Aspen.
This is particularly amazing if you consider how long it takes to fly North to South. Incidentally, crossing said mountains by plane from Brazil is one of the coolest flights I have ever taken. They appear so close to the very high airplane.
Besides the basic highlight tours of the city, I strongly recommend spending a day or two in Valparaiso, a very picturesque city by the sea.
Thanks. That’s what I was thinking but wasn’t sure if it was a good choice.
We loved Santiago. I could totally live there.
There are penguins up and down the coast of Chile. Humboldt penguins further north and Magellanic penguins near the south. If you make it to La Serena, north of Santiago, there is a Humboldt nature reserve, off the coast, where you can visit.
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