My girlfriend and I will be going to Chile in December for a wedding. The wedding is in Santiago, but we'd like to see some of the other parts of the country as well. Right now we're thinkign of spending about three days in the Santiago area and another four in Patagonia checking out glaciers, penguins, etc. Neither of us have been down there before. We're not hard-core hikers/campers but we'd like to see as much of the natural beauty of Chile as our wimpy bodies can deal with.

Does anyone have any "Must Sees" for us on our trip? Is flying into Punta Arenas and doing side trips from there the best way to appreciate the area? Is a visit to the deesrt areas of Northern Chile a bad idea for the summertime? Any other good sidetrips from Santiago?

Any logistical info would also be appreciated. We're currently planning to cash in UA miles for one LAX-SCL ticket and puchase another (hopefully upgraded with SWU) for the other. We'll probably just pay cash for our inter-Chile tickets.

Thanks in advance for any help!

cnk

Last December I had 5 nights in Chile outside of Santiago - 2 in Punta Arenas and 3 in Viña del Mar. I rented a car in each location (outside of Santiago). If you want to see glaciers, etc., you really need more than 2 nights in PUQ. I basically saw the city sights and drove up to see the pinguinos. I haven't been to the North, but I think I'd stay away in summer.

I see you are from LA. You will find central Chile to be remarkably similar in climate and topography to central California. Summer days are essentially late night and early morning low clouds along the coast, hot inland (Santiago). The coast is very pleasant. Viña or Valparaiso are decent developed places to stay if you want a semi-urban experience, or you can go further north. Valparaiso will remind you of Europe. The drive there is on a most excellent highway (toll) which will make you wish California had a highway that nice, and you go through vineyards and nice countryside, so you want to make sure at least one direction is during the day.

I had never driven a car outside of North America and was very hesitant about the experience, and wouldn't hesitate to drive there again (except for prices), outside of Santiago (which even that wasn't nearly as crazy as Europe).

As far as flying to PUQ, fares are usually semi-expensive, but its a 4 hour 1 stop flight from SCL, so you are actually travelling quite a distance. I found it impressive to be going down that far in a 767 (although most flights are on A320s, methinks). LAN is a very decent airline. (There are Diners lounges at SCL if you need some sort of lounge access and are DC cardholders or want to buy day passes).

More questions, just ask...

Thanks for the reply. I'm sure I'll have a bunch more questions, but here's a start:

1) How pricey are flights from SCL-PUQ? Travelocity shows nothing cheaper than $664, but lanchile.com shows $203. Wasn't sure if I needed to be a Chilean resident or anything for the LanChile price.

2) Travelocity shows only one car rental company in PUQ, Budget. And rates are $59/day. Is that pretty much par for the course down there?

3) I am a DC cardholder, but had never heard of a Diners Lounge. Can any cardholder use these? The only info I could find was on the DC site (http://www.dinersclub.com/airport.cfm). It doesn't list any lounges in SCL though.

4) Do you have any hotels or tour companies to recommend for PUQ? My friend's already arranged rooms for us at the Four Point in SCL, but we're on our own outside of Santiago.

5) Is Valparaiso doable as a day-trip from Santiago?

Thanks again for your help.

cnk

No particular order

(1) The DC lounge in the domestic terminal had just opened in December. I see it isn't on the wepbage. Hope they didn't disassociate themselves.

(2) I wouldn't hesitate to book on lanchile.com.

(3) PUQ has several "majors" - I rented from Hertz. They had the only automatic transmission in town. $59 is a very good price there. Hertz also has an in-town location so if you dont need the car the whole time, take a taxi to your hotel and rent from town.

(4) I stayed at the Finis Terrae (Best Western affiliated). Was a very decent property. I'd stay there again. Tour companies I can't help you with.

(5) While Valparaiso is "doable" in a day, I'd spend at least the night. If you drove there early in the AM, you could park by the harbor and then walk/take the funiculars, and so on and drive back. But what I would recommend (and it worked well for me) is when you fly back to SCL, rent the car at SCL and drive right to the coast. Then when you drive back, return your car to SCL and then cab it back to Santiago. This way you don't have to drive in the City. Mucho mejor...

1) How pricey are flights from SCL-PUQ? Travelocity shows nothing cheaper than $664, but lanchile.com shows $203. Wasn't sure if I needed to be a Chilean resident or anything for the LanChile price.


Been there, done that, worked out fine.

3) I am a DC cardholder, but had never heard of a Diners Lounge. Can any cardholder use these? The only info I could find was on the DC site (http://www.dinersclub.com/airport.cfm). It doesn't list any lounges in SCL though.


I am *almost* positive there is. There is certainly a RCC there, though, which is by all the other lounges. Needless to say, there is neither on the domestic side of the terminal.
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4) Do you have any hotels or tour companies to recommend for PUQ? My friend's already arranged rooms for us at the Four Point in SCL, but we're on our own outside of Santiago.


There are a lot of nice hotels in SCL, some very expensive. Obviously, I dont know what you are paying for the 4-pts, but more likely than not, you could get an apartment suite for the same money or cheaper. For example, the Alessandria is a decent hotel at $65 for a two bedroom apartment suite. It isn't the best, and can get noisy because it overlooks Ave. Apoquinda, but it is a good location and the people are great there, and it's miles better than any 4-pts I have ever been in. But the Las Condes/Providencia areas are stuffed with what they call Aparthotels.

The domestic side Diners lounge was opened late last year. I hope its still affiliated (and/or open). It doesn't show on the DC webpage or on the airport map. They have a couple of showers, which weren't all that great, but it was something.

I stand corrected. I do not remember there being a DC lounge on the domestic side.

Thanks again to the both of you for your help.

I think we'll probably go with a package tour for PUQ, since either car rental looks pricey and the sights are far from each other.

Renting a car from SCL after returning from PUQ to visit Valaparaiso seems like a great idea.

What are apartment suites? Are they like furnished apartments that are rented by the day?

Yes, that is correct, but they are run like hotels. I am not really trying to sway your decision one way or another, just giving more options than the chain hotels. FWIW, I have heard decent things about the 4-pts there, I just won't stay in one anymore unless I have to because of one too many bad experiences.


[This message has been edited by Darren (edited 08-19-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Eastbay1K:
If you want to see glaciers, etc., you really need more than 2 nights in PUQ.</font>

Why? the time to get to them, traverse/see them or? I had read it is a 3 1/2 hour drive to get to the national park that the glaciers are in.

did you visit a National Park while in PUQ?