Santiago, Chile Hotels

[mertziek]

We have a cruise out of San Antonio, Chile next March but fly into Santiago.  We want to go a couple of days early to do some local touring before embarking on our cruise and it looks like tours from Santiago are easier/better to book and then arrange a transfer on cruise embarkation day to the Cruiseport rather than staying in San Antonio.  Any suggestions on 5* hotels in Santiago?  Or do you suggest staying in San Antonio?  We are looking for a good hotel location for local site seeing as well as day touring out of Santiago or San Antonio.  Thank you in advance.

[Carnevale]

We returned home from Santiago 1.5 weeks ago after spending a few post cruise nights at the Hyatt Centric Las Condes. I am not sure, but it might have a 4.5 star rating however, it was better than some of the 5 star hotels we have stayed in while traveling in Europe. The room was exceptionally comfortable, the restaurant was great for dinner and breakfast, the staff were amazing, and the location was excellent (safe area with lots of restaurants nearby). We didn’t see much of San Antonio but what we did see made us glad we had elected to stay in Santiago.

[mertziek]

11 hours ago, Carnevale said:

….We didn’t see much of San Antonio but what we did see made us glad we had elected to stay in Santiago.

Thank you for the hotel suggestion. 
It sounds like San Antonio might be like why we stay in Rome and not Civitavecchia when we leave from there.  More happening in Rome.

[asnaleah]

Friends of ours stayed for a few days post cruise at the W in Santiago. They enjoyed it.

[mertziek]

1 hour ago, asnaleah said:

Friends of ours stayed for a few days post cruise at the W in Santiago. They enjoyed it.

Thank you.

[jwindham]

I just stayed in the W in Santiago and would never recommend it. First the bathrooms are all open to the room with absolutely no privacy at all. I was lucky that I was alone but the comments from others on this cruise (Silversea) that were put up here had a lot of issues, like a father and daughter duo. Also they have no air in the lobby as they have an open terrace restaurant at one end and it was in the 90s when we were there. Miserable place to be. Julia

[mertziek]

35 minutes ago, jwindham said:

I just stayed in the W in Santiago and would never recommend it. First the bathrooms are all open to the room with absolutely no privacy at all. I was lucky that I was alone but the comments from others on this cruise (Silversea) that were put up here had a lot of issues, like a father and daughter duo. Also they have no air in the lobby as they have an open terrace restaurant at one end and it was in the 90s when we were there. Miserable place to be. Julia

Thank you.

[SophieM]

We just ended a cruise in Santiago a few weeks ago and stayed at Hotel Le Rêve. It’s a small boutique hotel in a neighborhood with a number of restaurants nearby. We were quite happy with it. 

[Traveling Fools]

Ritz Carlton.  Very nice hotel...defiantly 5 star.  It is relatively easy to get around in Santiago.  It is almost European.  Museums are closed on Mondays.  

[FlyerTalker]

AC Costanera Center.  Convenient to many things, right at the mall and restaurants, plus plenty of places for an easy stroll.  Part of the Marriott umbrella

[Torquer]

We actually stayed in San Antonio before a recent cruise.  We had a full-day tour of Santiago after our plane landed, and then our guide drove us to San Antonio to our hotel.

 

There is only one hotel worth mentioning in San Antonio, the Enjoy Casino Hotel.  The hotel is more like a typical 3-star European hotel....nothing special.  However, the view and price is amazing.  We had their best room on the 12th floor, which I think they called a junior suite.  There are floor to ceiling windows and it was a corner room so we had sweeping views of the town and harbor.  We woke up early the next morning to watch our O ship sail into the port, then went back to bed.  The price was only $99 USD for the room which we considered an absolute steal (we were worried at first why it was so cheap).  You could easily walk to the port terminal from the hotel for embarkation, but we had a lot of luggage so we took a cab.

 

On the other hand, there is nothing to do in San Antonio the night before.  We walked along the harbor and looked at all the vendors and fisherman selling there wares, and strolled the adjoining shopping mall.  The only place to eat is at the hotel restaurant or the food court at the mall.  I would not recommend any of the so-called restaurants in the town.  You would definitely not want to stay in San Antonio for more than the one night before the cruise.

 

So staying in San Antonio definitely has some pretty big pros and cons for staying there the night before a cruise.  But we would do it again.

Edited March 9 by Torquer