Chile

[tucano]

We are considering Chile for our next trip in September after finding a really cheap fare (£175 rtn via Italy). For some reason it doesn’t appeal to me as much as the rest of South America but I’m not sure why; Valparaiso and the Atacama Desert look interesting. Have you been to Chile? What did you enjoy most?

Our other option is Indonesia but we can’t find anything under £400 rtn to fly in September.

[lillielangtry]

Chile was great! I had a lovely time.

It really only has two disadvantages: costs are higher than in many other South American countries, and distances are very long, so it's not easy to see everything in a short trip.

I had to choose north or south, so I went south and did Patagonia, but for a September trip I'd probably rather advise going north. I loved Patagonia but the weather at that time of year might be tough.

Santiago is not an absolutely spectacular city like Buenos Aires, but I still liked it, and Valparaiso was very interesting indeed.

I think I had a trip report here somewhere... I'll see if I can find it.

[sophie]

I loved Patagonia and the south of Chile. The parks, scenery, hiking...possibly the best in the world IMHO. Beautiful small cities frozen in time (as a result of the opening of the Panama Canal) are a living museum.

[sprite]

agree on the weather thing. it'll be the end of winter, and very wet.

san pedro de atacama is amazing, and you can just hire a bike and poodle around to the main sites. i didn't see the salt flats there because we'd just come from Uyuuni, which blows SPdA out of the water.

i would probably work out a flight or something to get there--it's far.

there are wine regions in chile which are nice. Santiago is very chill, and Valparaiso is charming for a couple of days. we stayed in a house belonging to an english guy, which was a fun blend of britain and chile, with a jukebox.

there was quite a bit of stuff south of that which i really enjoyed, but have to teach now, so must remember to come back to this.

[tucano]

Thanks for the replies and the weather advice. Keeping Chile as a possible option for now.

[rikita]

i know mainly the north (once went down to pucón and chiloé a couple of days, else stayed north, because of the aforementioned distances and time constraints). from what i hear, the south is more spectacular in a lot of respects, but also colder ... also everything is a long time ago in my case.

the part i found most beautiful in the north was the very north - the lauca national park, into the mountains from arica. san pedro the atacama was nice but a little bit disappointing for me, as due to bad weather all the really interesting tours were not possible (passes being closed etc.) and it was also quite expensive even for chilean standards. the pan de azucar national park (between copiapó and antofagasta) is also interesting. and i love iquique and copiapó, but that is more for personal reasons (did my high school exchange in copiapó and regularly visited friends in iquique). ah, and the bahia inglesa beach near caldera was nice too ... and la serena was nice too, as far as i remember ...