Post cruise stay - Valpariso or Santiago?

[Jiminkcmo]

I will be ending a South American cruise next January in Valpariso.

 

Would like to stay for a day and see some sights, maybe wine tasting, before an evening flight back to the US.

 

For those of you who have been there before, which city would be best to travel to after disembarking the ship, stay the night, have a tour the following day and arrive at the airport in Santiago late in the afternoon for the evening flight?

 

Any suggestions for hotels and tour/transfer companies would also be appreciated.

 

If it makes any difference, I'm a solo traveler so I can structure any sorts of options accordingly.

 

And, I don't have a suitcase full of money. <G>

 

Thanks much.

 

Jim

[greatam]

Just a suggestion:

 

Get off the ship in Valparaiso-take a day tour or just wander around Vina, then rent a car about 4:30PM. Spend the night in Vina del Mar.

 

Next morning, drive yourself around Vina/Valparaiso. Drive the wineries-easy to find, all on the way to Santiago. There are even maps for self drive winery tours. You can make reservations for lunch at two or three of them (make them well in advance)

 

When you get to Santaigo, you can go to the crafts market, go to Plaza de Armas, look at the Cathedral if interested.

 

Driving around Chile is as easy as driving up and down I-35. Part of the road to Santiago is toll road, so you need Chilean pesos. Other than that, the tours drop you off at the airport about 4-5:00PM. WAAAAY too early for most of the flights to the USA.

 

Advantage rent a car is about $100.00 per day, pick up in Vina, drop at the Santiago airport.

 

Enjoy!!!

[CathyK2]

Jim,

 

I just got back from the Santiago to Buenos Aires cruise two days ago. I did it backwards from you, so had my Santiago time before the cruise. Since I couldn't make up my mind, I ended up doing one night in Santiago at Hotel Orly and one night in Vina del Mar at Cap Ducal.

 

We did a private tour with ChileAbout and in our case, did it from Santiago, a tour of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar and had them drop us off at the hotel in Vina del Mar. Then we just took a cab over to the ship the next morning which is just up the coast from Valparaiso.

 

To me, Valparaiso is an interesting place to visit but many will say that the hotel choices and some areas may not have as much as you may be looking for. Also, some areas may be more unsafe at night...unlike the areas we stayed in in both Vina del Mar and Cap Ducal. But ChileAbout will arange a tour in the manner you want and if you want a vineyard or whatever... we were extremely impressed with them. Carla was very helpful even before we got there.

 

So just from my own personal opinion.....if you are looking for city life, Santiago would be a better choice. And if you want a kick back and relax atmosphere, I'd say that Vina del Mar may be better. But no matter what, do take a tour through Valparaiso before heading out. It's a fascinating place for a tour. Just my two cents.

 

Cathy

[makai 7]

Hi Jim-

Our cruise ended in Valpariaso and we stayed two nights in Vina del Mar at the Hotel del Mar. 5-star hotel for much less than you would pay in the USA.

 

We hired a private guide for 2 1/2 days. Let me know if you want his name, he was Fantastic! He is based in Santiago so it would work out regardless of where you choose to stay.

 

If you want to stay in Valpo, we saw the inside of two boutique hotels (B&B's) that were between $130 & $165 US per night and I can give you the contact information. Hotel del Mar was around $260US per night including breakfast but the rates vary depending on the season and if you can catch one of their 'specials'. We also were given 12000 pesos in casino credits (about $30US) that we never used.

 

We stayed in Vina Del Mar because we prefer the coast to the city, and we had been in Santiago overnight before a previous cruise.

 

Our guide picked us up at the ship. A quick run over to the hotel to drop off our bags and check in (too early for the room but ensured our reservation, etc.).

 

We then had a walking tour of the Unesco heritage site in Valpo, including some rides on the funiculars and tours inside a few newly restored boutique hotels.

 

Then we began a tour of the coast, stopping for lunch at a seaside restaurant. I can't remember if we were in Renaca or Con-Con. Just be aware: "Oysters" in Spanish on a menu are Scallops in English!:D I thought I ordered oysters but got scallops. No problems, the meal was delicious!

He then took us further up the coast to some rugged, beautiful beaches.

The next two days we toured the wine regions. Maipo Valley the first day (red wine region). One commercial vineyard Concha & Toro, and one fantastic local vineyard where the owner gave us a private tour and tasting. We bought some late harvest Syrah to take home in our luggage. Lunch at a local restaurant, for a taste of 'normal' Chilean food, instead of a tourist restaurant. (and very inexpensive!)

 

The second day we went to the Casablanca Valley (white wine region) and toured some large & small vineyards (Matetic organic vineyard and Del Mar vineyard), with a late lunch at Indominita. The food here was incredible! Probably the best meal of our entire 3 week trip.

 

After a tour of Santiago he dropped us off at the airport for our evening flight home.

 

Our guide designed the tour for us based on our interests, and I'm sure he could do the same for you.

 

I'm sure anything you choose would be enjoyable.

 

Please note that all the vineyards charge for the tastings, anywhere from $10US to $25US per person(current exchange rate is very poor at approx 420 Chilean Pesos to the US$)

 

Also, many of the restaurants provide free meals to the licensed tour guides when you go there to eat, so you don't have to worry about the expense of buying all his/her meals.

[driftychick]

Makai7:

 

Great info and just what I am looking for next year. We will be leaving from Valparaiso on April 26th of 2009 so would like a pick up at the Santiago Airport, tour of the wine country and then to stay in Vina del Mar prior to boarding the ship. Will you please forward me contact info on your guide and also contact info for the Del Mar Hotel? Thank you, all info is appreciated. you can reach me at sherbin at pacbell dot net. (please use typical email addressing, with the @ and the.) Thank you!

[batoryfirst]

Makai7,

 

Great info. Could you tell us the name of your tour guide for Santiago/Vina del Mar? If time is of the essence for us, which wine valley requires the least amount of time to get there? We are spending our first night in Santiago and the second night before boarding the cruise ship in Vina, so wondered how early we should leave Santiago to get to Vina. We could go directly to Vina and drop our luggage at hotel and do wine tours from there or do you suggest that we do them on the way down from Santiago?

 

Thanks,

Nancy

[CathyK2]

Nancy,

 

Since we too did exactly the same thing as you as far as spending the first night in Santiago and the next in Vina del Mar, I can tell you what we did.

 

We stayed at Hotel Orly in Santiago and then the next morning at 9 am, someone from ChileAbout picked us up. They had a driver and a guide, so they took all of our luggage, put it in the car and the driver stayed with it at all times so even when we were getting out of the car to look around with our guide, it was secured. From there, we made a stop to a vineyard along the way. I would recommend doing it on the way to Vina del Mar since otherwise you will just be going to the coast and then driving back the way you just came. From there, we had a tour of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar and we were dropped off at our hotel in Vina del Mar. I believe we paide $83 per person but with the dollar going down the tubes, I do believe prices have gone up. But it worked out nicely since we got our transfer AND we got to tour. I think we got to our hotel in the mid afternoon ...perhaps 3 or 4. It was a full day but we covered a lot of ground and had a great time.

 

We used http://www.chileabout.com/ and all correspondences went through Carla. She's is one of the owners. The guide we had was Alejandro and he was excellent. Hope this helps.

 

Cathy

[makai 7]

In response to your request for our guides name...

We had a fabulous tour with Mauricio Molina.

His company is Bestour Chile and Teletrans.

The website is www.bestour.cl, and his email address is mauricio at teletrans dot cl (replacing the at and dot with the appropriate symbols).

 

The Casablanca valley is on the route between Santiago and Vina/Valpo. This is where we went to Matetic (excellent), Vina Mar (nice tour, average (young) wines), and Indominita - we didn't do a tour and tasting at Indominita, but we had wine with an incredible lunch. We just had too much to eat and drink by the time we would have taken the tour and really couldn't drink another drop!

 

Since it is about a 2 hour drive from Santiago to Vina and the valley is about 1/2way in between, I would suggest doing the tours on the way.

 

The Maipo valley (red wine region) is on the other side of Santiago, so it is about a 3 hour drive from the vineyards to Valpo.

 

If you want to go to both, I would suggest Maipo Valley the first day and Casablanca the second day (on the way to Vina)

 

If you can spare the time to see the Unesco heritage area in Valpo, it is worth it!

 

Any GOOD tour guide with review your arrival and departure times with you and make recommendations for the best scheduling options.

 

Our entire vacation was so incredible, we are still amazed at all we saw and did.;)