Travel to Santiago

a really lovely location for a major city

Set around 100 km inland from the historic port of Valparaiso and lying up against the snow-capped Andes Mountains, Santiago is the historic and bustling capital of Chile.

The city was founded in 1541 by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia and has been the capital of Chile ever since.

The old city is centred on the historic Plaza de Armas, featuring some impressive neoclassical architecture from the 1800s. Surrounding that are broad avenues and narrow side-streets, dotted with good examples of art deco, neo-gothic and other styles of architecture.

This central area is packed with interesting historic buildings, museums and markets.

The upmarket suburb of Providencia is filled with decent hotels, trendy bars and sophisticated restaurants, whilst the nearby barrios of Lastarria is renowned for being a Bohemian enclave, featuring small boutiques and antique stores.

Both these areas lie just to the south of the Cerro San Cristobal, a leafy hilltop oasis which can be reached by cable car, funicular trail or on foot and which offers splendid views of the old city.

Other parts of the city are filled with modern high-rise buildings, which has led to the modern nickname of ‘Sanhattan’.

When staying in Santiago it’s also possible to do day trips out to the surrounding winelands, down to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar on the coast or up into the mountains to the ski resorts of Valle Nevado, but more commonly we tend to include nights in those areas in order to enable a proper exploration.

The best time to visit Santiago is generally considered to be during the Oct-Apr warm dry summer season.
Santiago has a cool semi-arid climate, with two clearly defined seasons.

During the Oct-Apr summer conditions are usually warm and dry, with lots of sunshine. Average daytime temperatures usually reach around 29C/84F, with nighttime lows holding up around 10C/50F. Sunshine is up around 10-12 hours per day, peaking in Dec-Jan.

During the May-Sep winter the weather is usually cool and humid, but with rainfall remaining relatively light at 50mm (2”) per month. Average daytime temperatures usually manage to reach around 14C/57F, with nighttime lows dropping to around 2C/36F and with regular frosts. Sunshine drops to only around 4 hours per day in June.

Getting there

The Arturo Merino Benítez Airport (SCL) in Santiago is the main flight hub for Chile, with an extensive network of connections worldwide and to domestic airports throughout the country.

The airport is about 12 km northeast of the old city centre, about 15 km from the upmarket northwestern suburbs where most of the good hotels are located. Connecting transfers usually range between 30-90 minutes in duration, depending on the time of day and the levels of traffic.

Where to stay

The vast majority of visitors to Chile arrive or depart via Santiago.

Most end up staying in the city, choose to base themselves in the reasonably upmarket suburbs to the northeast.

It is also possible to connect from the airport by road out to the nearby Santiago Winelands or down at the historic port of Valparaiso, where there are some interesting accommodation options.

worth spending two nights if you enjoy cities