Santiago

Santiago is the capital city of Chile We flew into Santiago Airport and the drive into the city was about half an hour. The airport was very clean and efficient. There were sniffer dogs in abundance all around the luggage carousel area, they walked ove the luggage and in amongst everybody very calmly - not sure whether it was drugs or something else they were after but they were not going to miss anything. THE GOOD: Santiago is a very modern bustling city with clean well organised streets. The fines for speeding, using the mobile phone while driving or drink driving are extremely severe as so ... more

Santiago is a little out of sync with the continent in finds itself in. Most South American cities are known for their bustle and ability to scare the living daylights out of freshly arrived travellers, yet Chile's capital has a somewhat restrained and openly friendly atmosphere. Just as well too, because we arrived in the city with barely a word of Spanish and nothing in the way of accommodation booked. Santiago's population of 6 million people is sprawled over a huge geographical area split into 32 districts called comunas. Paradoxically the city centre remains quite accessible by foot and ... more

About 2 hours east of Santiago are the ski resorts of La Parva, El Colorado and Valle Nevado. All 3 resorts are connected (you can ski between them if you have the right pass) and there are plenty of runs and some world-class off-piste. You can make the trip up and down from Santiago in a day but its worth taking two (at least) if you can ski or snowboard. As well as the resorts, there is a small town called Farrellones located next to the resort of El Colorado. You can walk from Farrellones to the lowest lift at el colorado, from where the lift attendants will let you on if you promise to buy ... more

Santiago is a fine city. We stayed in a hostel called the hotal Londres, a huge, elegant building with high ceilings and shutters with ensuite rooms and breakfast, for about 12 dollars a night. We managed to go skiing at a resort only an hour's drive from the city, and had a great day on the slopes. Then we came back to eat the best steak any of us has ever tasted at a huge steak house. We also went to the cinema one rainy afternoon, delighted to find that the films were shown in English with Spanish subtitles. Santiago also has a couple of nice parks - one of which has a funicular railway ... more