Great Introduction to Chile's Highlights
Chile
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Oct 22 - Oct 31, 2025
Absolutely loved our guide and driver in Santiago. They were both so friendly and informative and attentive to what we wanted to do. The Atacama desert was beautiful. Recommend staying close to town so can walk to restaurants. The Lake District was our favorite- so green and lovely and Puerto Varas is a lovely town to walk around. There were many days where we had to get up very early for flights or tours so be prepared for that. Having the What's Up group when we were there was terrific- we got reminders for our tours and could ask questions and get timely answers while on the trip. So we never felt we were "alone" in Chile.
Hotel Reviews
Such history in this building-- it was a pleasure to be in it and the neighborhood is terrific.
It was a bit of a far walk into town and did not have a restaurant for dinner - so it would take 20 minutes to walk to a nice restaurant. Room was spacious and nice outdoor sitting areas.
Loved this hotel. Great breakfast, good location, nice size room.
Activity Reviews
The winery was lovely and appreciated the cheese and chocolates with the wine. Valparaiso was pretty in spots but not worth as much time as I thought it would. Loved walking on the beach in Vina del Mar. The lunch restaurant was a very nice spot and the food was good.
I thought we would be using a higher grade of telescopes. We certainly saw planets, moon, etc., but it was not the incredible viewing I thought it would be.
Loved shopping in the market and having the picnic. The park isn't actually that nice but the view is fine. Our guide and driver were terrific in setting up the food and tables and we enjoyed eating and chatting with them.
Chiloe was very interesting and the ferry across the beautiful lake was lovely. Unfortunately it was raining when we went to see the penquins and they were hiding.
The National Park and all the waterfalls is just beautiful, a lovely little walk. On the mountain we chose to stay at the ski lodge and not take the lift up but it was still a great view.
A very full day with an excellent guide. The two meals, set up as a picnic, were just wonderful. Very windy during the walk but worth it. Guide gave us ample photo times. The scenery was just amazing. I mentioned to the guide that I was looking for wild flowers and he kept pointing them out to me. Very, very nice.
Be prepared to wake up very early for this tour. Guide was terrific and so knowledgeable of the science behind the geysers. And she prepared a great lunch for us. Plenty of opportunity to see flamingos.
Not really a tour. We slowly drove around Puerto Varas and driver pointed out a few sites. He seemed surprised that some things, such as the church, were closed for a holiday. He did take us to a market. We walked along the wharf in Puerto Montt. But instead of telling us where to eat in Puerto Montt, he told us to eat at the airport, which was disappointing and not right. None of this seemed like a tour of the two towns, but more like a leisurely drive to the airport.
