General: Chile

Chile is one of the best countries i have ever visited aswell and i too am very widely travelled.you must be a lover of the great outdoors and adventure though,to experience chile at its best.i can only speak for the southern part of chile that is santiago down to punta arenas,patagonia.in chile due to the thinness of the country and also due to the glaciation that still is found down south,flying is the best way around the country.one of the national carriers is lanchile (www.lanchile.com surprisingly!) and on their website you can obtain last minute offers or book super apex fares within chile-this is what i did.if i had have booked with lanchile offices in gatwick,surrey or one of the uks travel agencies my flight within chile would have cost about double what it did which is crazy!the reason is,lanchile's website is based in chile and all fares are the same discounted prices you would get,if you were actually staying in chile itself.
Also look out for lastminute specials with airlines from the uk to santiago from time to time.normally its not cheap to fly to,but iberia (via madrid)for example sometimes have fares for 270 pounds return plus 30 pounds tax which is a bargain(this is what i did)-just monitor sites like ebookers.com for specials.
As far as santiago is concerned,its a lovely city a mixture of colonial spanish and latin american in atmosphere.One of the must do sites is the cerro san cristobal for good views of the city and the surrounding stunning andes mountain chain(smog permitting in summer,which is our winter remember!!)you can go up by cable car or funicular which you do pay a little for ,or you can walk.Also visit cerro santa lucia for the beautiful colonial palace and gardens and admission is free to both.Both these sites are on green hills in the central area of santiago as cerro=spanish for hill!food in chile is good.go in our winter or spring and there is an abundance of fresh fruits from strawberries to oranges.chile produces fantastic red wine which even in my opinion puts french wine to shame!and great cheap local beer too.being by argentina beef is fantastic, and due to the richness of the surrounding ocean the seafood again is great and cheap too.(these statements apply throughout chile).
Places worth seeing in chile including puerto montt(halfway down to patagonia from santiago)as this is the main town in the lakes region and is similar to austria in scenery( except the population here is sparse and things are not very touristy.)there are many snowcapped volcanoes here some of which are still active and theres a fabulous trip you can make by taking a number of different boats accross the lakes( and buses inbetween) to take you into argentina too.However in my opinion, the best places chile has to offer are found in patagonia (farther south).
The main town in patagonia is Punta Arenas.on first impressions its like a modern low rise dump!however this is your gateway to the patagonian wilderness.Head for the town of puerto natales about 2 hours by public bus from punta arenas and use this as a base from which to explore the endless amount of national parks ,glaciers,icebergs,mountains etc.This town is on the shores of a fjord and surrounded by low rise mountains-which are the start of the Andes mountain range.theres a oneday boat trip up the fjord ,which you can arrange when you arrive ,along the fjord, into one of the national parks, where you get off and walk around a glacier ,for a few hours.its all like a picture postcard seting and you see seals,birds and sometimes dolphins en route.theres also a couple of really tall waterfalls that again you go right up to in the boat.the mountains start to get really tall as you approach the balmaceda and serrano glaciers respectively.if you get the weather ,like i was fortunate to have,you can be walking up to the glacier in a t shirt it seems so strange!and stunningly beautiful!
The torres del paine national park is also worth visiting for as many days as you can -i only had 4 days here but if you love wildlife and hiking and a true adventure you could do with at least a week here!this park stretches from chile to argentina and encompasses some of the andes aswell as lakes and glaciers and so on.if you want hotels there are only 4 expensive hotels found within the park itself-one of which is an all inclusive resort but very small scale!and a number of refugios or shelters along the numerous trails in the park.all these have a great website presence as chile is the south american leader in the internet revolution.
when entering the park you have to register with the park authorities and i would recommend advance booking in season as its so popular with the locals.wildlife include guanacos=like deer,ostriches,birds,puma,and so on and i would say the scenery is the most spectacular i have ever seen in my life.if you like mountains and glaciers etc you will never want too leave believe me!
i hope this gives at least a taster of how great a country this is,along with great genuine honest locals ,unspoilt by tourism to date.
Theres a lot more to say but i think i have waffled too much already!