Things to do in and around Santiago: Travel adventure & wine tours

If you’re traveling to Chile and need information on what to do in and around Santiago, here are some of our top recommendations. From culture, restaurants and shopping in the capital of Santiago, to the snowcapped Andes mountains, the beaches of Pichilemu and the hills of Valparaíso, UNESCO Heritage of Humanity site, and the wine routes of the central valleys, the heart of Chile has something for everyone.

The following section will tell you about some of the places to visit in and around Santiago.

Santiago: food, culture and nightlife

If you want to see of one the most Bohemian neighborhoods in Santiago —and South America—, we recommend a stroll through Lastarria, a small and eclectic neighborhood in downtown Santiago (near the Bellas Artes metro station). The Lastarria neighborhood was declared a Traditional Zone in 1997, due to the large number of historical monuments found here, like Parque Forestal, Santa Lucía hill, the National Palace of Fine Arts and the Bruna Palace, among others.

Near Lastarria you can also find the El Biógrafo cinema, the Museum of Visual Arts and the art exhibitions of the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center, as well as hundreds of restaurants and bars to get a taste of the best food and wines Chile has to offer.

From Lastarria, you can walk towards the Santiago Plaza de Armas, where you’ll find coffee shops, stores, street art and a number of historical and cultural buildings like the original Post Office (Correos de Chile), Santiago city hall and the Cathedral. You can’t leave the area without visiting the La Moneda presidential palace and touring the nearby streets.

At the end of the day, take a fifteen minute walk to the Bellavista neighborhood, the nightlife center for Santiago residents and tourists alike. Here you can enjoy the local cuisine, nightlife, bars and much more. During the day, visit La Chascona, the Pablo Neruda home and museum, and take a ride in the funicular up to the top of San Cristóbal Hill, located in the Metropolitan Park.

If you come to Santiago during the winter, you can visit the ski centers located the Andes mountains. Here you’ll find slopes and excellent. 

Ski centers and Cajón del Maipo

The infrastructure at Valle Nevado, El Colorado, La Parva and Farellones. Portillo is another ski resort located an hour and a half from Santiago, on the road that connects Santiago and Mendoza, Argentina. This resort hosts international competitions, as it boasts specialized slopes for the most expert skiers, as well as wine tastings and other culinary events.

All of these centers have an excellent tourism infrastructure with hotels, specialized stores, equipment rental and ski and snowboard lessons, as well as modern ski slopes for all levels: easy, intermediate, difficult and expert. Portillo and El Colorado have machines to generate artificial snow if necessary.

If you want to go beyond the Santiago city limits, take a tour to Cajón del Maipo, just one hour outside Santiago. It is the perfect place for relaxing and enjoying the outdoors, with a large number of natural attractions including the Volcán, el Colorado and el Yeso rivers and the Manzano, San José, San Gabriel and Manzanito lagoons, among others.

If you’re looking for a scenic tour, take a full day excursion to the Yeso Dam, a lagoon nestled amongst the mountains that provides water to the capital, and visit the town of San José de Maipo with its local arts and crafts and restaurants. When it comes to adventure tourism, Cajón del Maipo is the place for you. You can raft the Maipo river, go mountain climbing or take a horseback ride to the La Calchona lookout point for one of the best views of the valley and the chance to see condors flying overhead.

Valparaíso: World Heritage Site

Valparaiso is an easy hour and a half drive from Santiago, and its historical center was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The so-called “Jewel of the Pacific” is known for its rustic funiculars and trolleys, and especially its colorful hills, cultural activities and bohemian nightlife.

For a spectacular view of the Port of Valparaíso, we recommend visiting Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion, where you’ll find a number of murals painted by street artists. The architecture is characterized by its vibrant colors and balconies full of flowers, a legacy left by Europeans who arrived to the city in the 19^th century. Here you can also learn more about the history of national poet, Pablo Neruda, and tour his home La Sebastiana in the hills of Valparaiso, or in Isla Negra.

You can take a day trip to Valparaiso, but we recommend staying for a few days to get the most out of your experience in the most emblematic port in Chile. Next to Valparaíso you’ll find the city of Viña del Mar, an excellent alternative if you’re looking to enjoy the beach during the summer or family activities.

Aconcagua Valley

In the Aconcagua Valley, also located in the Region of Valparaíso, you’ll find the Paidahuen Archaeological Park in the town of San Esteban. Here you’ll find a rock art exhibition including petroglyphs, figures sketched in stone and valuable remains of the former inhabitants of this area.

The park can be accessed through guided tours from the San Esteban Vineyard where Paidahuén is located.

Sewell: World Heritage Site

Located in the hillsides of Cerro Negro, just two hours south of Santiago, you’ll find Sewell, a city built to house the workers of El Teniente, the largest underground copper mine in the world. During the 1960s, Sewell was already an industrial city and home to more than 15 thousand residents. However, during the process to nationalize copper, the workers were transferred to Rancagua, abandoning the town that would be named a World Heritage Site in 1998.

You can take guided tours to Sewell from Santiago to know more about the history of copper and the people who inhabited this town nestled in the Andes Mountains of the O’Higgins Region.

Wine Tourism and Wine Routes

Chile is home to some of the best wines in the world, many from vineyards located in the central valleys like Colchagua valley with their vineyard, museum, tours.

Traveling towards the coast, you’ll find the famous beach town of Pichilemu, which attracts surfers from all over the world and all types of visitors who come to enjoy the beaches of La Puntilla, Punta de Lobos, Hermosa, and others. Here you can take a surf lesson and rent a surfboard for the day.

On the road that borders the Pichilemu coast, you’ll find local artisans, restaurants with fresh seafood and freshly squeezed fruit juices, like blueberry and strawberry.