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Santiago to San Antonio by bus: anyone done that yet?


rome2009
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  • 1 month later...
Has anyone taken the bus from Santiago to San Antonio to board a cruise ship? If so, what can we expect when arriving in San Antonio?

We took two buses from Santiago to San Antonio, Chile. First bus is from the airport to the central bus station in Santiago. Look forTurbus. It was about $3 US. The girl selling the tickets at the window didn't speak English, but had a translating thing on her computer that she used to help us and sell us that first ticket to the central bus station, called Terminal Alameda Santiago. Second, from the central bus station, Terminal Alameda, we took a nice coach bus to San Antonio. Tickets are sold inside the central bus station. The bus company is Pullman. Just ask someone where the Pullman tickets are sold. They will point you in the right direction. Trip is about an hour and a half and about $8 US. Bus station is within walking distance of the port. I heard people paid $150 for transfers from the airport to the San Antonio. Take the bus. Way cheaper and a pleasant ride. When we got to the bus station in San Antonio, there were taxis around the other side of the building from where the buses come in. Since we were a day early for our cruise and exhausted, we took a taxi to our boutique hotel (the Terra Mia). The bus station is close to the port and I read on cruise embarkation day they have shuttles to the port, but I can't personally confirm that.

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At the Alameda terminal, the ticket window is not the easiest to locate. After you exit your bus from the airport, walk inside the terminal and go to the right down the hallway. The ticket window will be on your right at the end.

 

This really is a simple and cheap way to get to San Antonio. The motor coaches are just as nice as you'd find anywhere. Even with limited (or no) Spanish, you can do this with no problem. Buses run every 15 minutes.

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  • 2 months later...

I can echo Fred's comments. We took Turbus from Terminal Alameda in Santiago to the San Antonio bus terminal. Very nice buses -- better than the Greyhounds I used to ride in the 1980s -- and cheap! We were going to grab a taxi from the San Antonio terminal to the ship, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a courtesy van provided by the city, with helpful young people. They even loaded our luggage for us. (This was in January 2018.)

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Thanks for the information that has been provided! This is something I'm looking into for our cruise NEXT January.

 

Can you pay for the bus tickets to San Antonio with a credit card? If not, do they take US Dollars?

 

Was there room for luggage in the bus? (We don't travel light! :rolleyes:) We will each have one large piece of luggage and also a carry on rollerbag.

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Thanks for the information that has been provided! This is something I'm looking into for our cruise NEXT January.

 

Can you pay for the bus tickets to San Antonio with a credit card? If not, do they take US Dollars?

 

Was there room for luggage in the bus? (We don't travel light! :rolleyes:) We will each have one large piece of luggage and also a carry on rollerbag.

 

There's a lot more info in this thread (also started by rome2009) that will help

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2559833

 

Yes to credit cards and lots of luggage, but as others have mentioned here, you should look for Pullman buses.

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They took our two huge rolling duffels, stowed them under the bus, and gave us a claim check. We had to show the check and have it matched to claim our luggage at the side of the bus in San Antonio. Don't recall if they take credit cards, they but probably do; acceptance of MC/Visa is pretty wide in Chile. We pre-booked our tickets online and got the paper tickets printed out at the Turbus counter in the airport, but it was probably not necessary to pre-book, as the buses run frequently and the ones we took were not crowded. Others have mentioned Pullman as the best, and they are probably very good, but I can speak only to Turbus and they were great.

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  • 10 months later...

I posted detailed directions to taking the bus from San Antonio cruise port > to the San Antonio bus station >  to the Santiago bus station > to the Santiago airport at this link.  Pics too. Hope it helps!  🙂

 

 

 

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On 5/14/2018 at 9:54 AM, AryMay said:

Thanks for the information that has been provided! This is something I'm looking into for our cruise NEXT January.

 

Can you pay for the bus tickets to San Antonio with a credit card? If not, do they take US Dollars?

 

Was there room for luggage in the bus? (We don't travel light! :rolleyes:) We will each have one large piece of luggage and also a carry on rollerbag.

 

I am back from our cruise and wanted to report that taking the bus from Santiago to San Antonio was a great alternative to the more expensive transfers. I wrote a blog post about our experience with lots of details that might be helpful if you are planning to do the same. Here is the link:  https://mysouvenirmemories.blogspot.com/2019/01/santiago-to-san-antoniolets-cruise-1-30.html

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