Valparaiso & Santiago

We will be on a B2B cruise February/March 2014 (BA-Valp/Valp-Miami) and are wanting to make plans for our day in Valparaiso.

Valparaiso is the turnaround day where one cruise finishes and the other one starts and hence the ship is not offering tours apart from the ones for terminating passengers - the ones that drop off at either a hotel or the airport.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to make the most of the day?

Is it worth trying to get to Santiago or is Santiago just another big city and we would be better staying in Valparaiso?

We've heard about visiting wineries which is not really a proirity for us as we live in a large wine growong state and see wineries all the time.

We also have concerns as to how easy it would be to get around on our own as we don't speak any Spanish :(

Any advice or ideas would be appreciated!

While Santiago is actually a nice place to visit it makes for a very long day to try to do it in one day. The drive is around 90 minutes each way.

I would instead go into downtown Valparaiso. There is much to see. You could look into getting a private guide.

Keith

While Santiago is actually a nice place to visit it makes for a very long day to try to do it in one day. The drive is around 90 minutes each way.

 

I would instead go into downtown Valparaiso. There is much to see. You could look into getting a private guide.

 

Keith

So do you think a tour/transfer from Santiago to Valparaiso which includes lunch in the vineyards and a tour of both places is too much in one day and should be split into 2 days?

So do you think a tour/transfer from Santiago to Valparaiso which includes lunch in the vineyards and a tour of both places is too much in one day and should be split into 2 days?

You cannot do justice to all three places in one day.

I would do it over a couple of days.

Keith

While Santiago is actually a nice place to visit it makes for a very long day to try to do it in one day. The drive is around 90 minutes each way.

 

I would instead go into downtown Valparaiso. There is much to see. You could look into getting a private guide.

 

Keith

Thanks for this advise Keith, I am certainly leading to the idea of forgetting about Santiago!

Is there much English spoken in Valparaiso?, We don't speak any Spanish and wonder how we would go if we were on our own........ie taxi's or buses to get us around. Or do you think that due to language barriers we really should get a guide or take an organised tour.

Agree, see Valparaiso and perhaps a vineyard. English is widely spoken. Chile is a prosperous country, more like Spain than Mexico.

We disembarked in Valparisio last February and had a flight out of Santiago late afternoon. We booked a guide with driver for our transfer and tour. We spent a few hours in both Valparisio and Santiago with a short stop in Vin del Mar. We picked up empanadas enroute and ate them in the car.

Although Santiago was interesting as an older city (architecture, etc.) - it was/is an older city, with newer modern buildings developing on it's borders.

Hindsight: I wish we would have spent more time in Valparisio - interesting city/sea/landscapes. Twisting streets going up down and all around! Murals more than graffiti adorned the buildings. Buildings seem to have been built on top of one another on the very steep streets.

Perhaps get a guide in the am for an overview of the city. This would give you time in the afternoon for going back to areas that you would like to cover in more depth.

Take a funicular, visit Nerudas home (one of his three that are now museums - we didn't have a chance to do this, but it did look interesting).

Go to the roll call for your cruise, perhaps you can join up with fellow passengers doing the back to back and you can group together for discounts with a tour.

Go online and check out tripadvisor for other things to do in Valparisio. They also have boards where people discuss their experiences in Valparisio.

Whatever you do, enjoy - it is a beautiful place with very kind beautiful peoples.

We spent three days in Santiago and one in Valparaiso prior to boarding our cruise last December. Santiago is huge, modern and historic. We used public transport and walking to explore on our own and really enjoyed our time there.

For us, Santiago was a perfect place to recover from a long flight, and a gentle introduction to Chile.

In Valparaiso we booked a walking tour through Ruta. We choose the half day tour beginning in the morning, and with no extra cost it extended into the afternoon. The guide met us at the cruise ship terminal and from there we took public transport and walked - far superior to the bus tours as you get into areas that are not accessible to vehicles. The guide spoke excellent English and he customized the tour to our preferences. We were absolutely not interested in shopping and there was no pressure to visit shops which was perfect.

In hindsight, I wish we had spent more time in Valparaiso than in Santiago. Santiago has some beautiful historic buildings, a huge market area and the view from the hill with the statue on top (I forget the name) is really worth a visit. However, we preferred the color, energy, variety and quirkiness of Valparaiso. For us, Valparaiso is far more interesting but then we prefer the odd and the offbeat.

No matter which city you choose, you will enjoy your stay - you cannot make a bad choice.

Valparaiso is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is more interesting

than Santiago for a short visit.

Here's my suggestion:

The ship will berth almost opposite the main square of Valparaiso

(Plaza Sotomayor) but you will have to board a bus that will take you

a mile or so to the left to reach the port building where you exit.

As you exit the port building you will cross the Merval (light rail)

tracks; walk to the nearest stop (it could be left or right depending

where you emerge) and take it a couple of stops to Puerto (the

terminus, near where the ship is). Walk to Plaza Sotomayor (the

obvious Plaza with the statue in the middle and the dignified blue

building in the rear) and wait by the statue for someone to turn up

from tours4tips. The tour starts at 10am and lasts for 3 hours

(there's another at 3pm). This will give you an excellent

introduction to the city, including a ride on an ascensor. Then have

lunch and visit (or revisit) a few places on your own (e.g., Naruda's

house), and return to the ship at leisure (the Merval stop for the

port entrance is Baron).

http://tours4tips.com/index-3.html

Alternatively, from the port you can take the Merval in the other

direction to Vina del Mar, where there are beaches, and the Museo

Fonck, which has an Easter Island moai (and lots of information about

these, and about Easter Island generally), and two shrunken heads.

I've no connection to tours4tips or the Museo Fonck other than as

a satisfied customer.

We will be on a B2B cruise February/March 2014 (BA-Valp/Valp-Miami) and are wanting to make plans for our day in Valparaiso.

Valparaiso is the turnaround day where one cruise finishes and the other one starts and hence the ship is not offering tours apart from the ones for terminating passengers - the ones that drop off at either a hotel or the airport.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to make the most of the day?

Is it worth trying to get to Santiago or is Santiago just another big city and we would be better staying in Valparaiso?

We've heard about visiting wineries which is not really a proirity for us as we live in a large wine growong state and see wineries all the time.

We also have concerns as to how easy it would be to get around on our own as we don't speak any Spanish :(

Any advice or ideas would be appreciated!

Contact Jamie at Patagoniashorex dot com he is fabulous and so knowledgeable he will custom make you a tour

if anyone has experienced debarking in Valparaiso can you tell me how it went?

we have booked a group tour from Valparaiso to Santiago. We are supposed to meet our guide at 9am. I would love to hear how anyone arranged their group to all disembark together, how long it takes to get your luggage, to clear customs, did you have to pay the Chilean reciprocity fee - if so how long did that take?

We just got off in Valparasio and booked a tour that also went to a winery, short drive around Santiago, and too us to the airport.

I loved Valparasio, very scenic, historic and we had a great walking tour. The winery tour was interesting and it was nice to get out into the country.

Santiago did not impress me that much--mostly just another big city--but I admit that we just did a short driving tour around the main sites, to fill time before our late flight. Probably if we had had time to visit various areas in depth, it would have been more interesting.

We had a free day in Valparaiso since we were doing a B2B. I booked a full day walking tour with Cristian of Ruta Valparaiso and had a wonderful day touring both the hidden and well known sites of this beautiful and fascinating city. Cristian is Chilean, but spent his formative years in the US and lived his adult life in Valparaiso, and speaks perfect American English. He loves his city and knows all the back streets. We took a combination of local transportation - bus, trolley, funicular and collectivo to get around the city. He took us to the different neighborhoods to see the unique architecture, giving relevant historical information. We had ample opportunity for photographing views, street art, and street markets. We felt that we had gained a lot of insight into the city and it's people, much more than if we had try to navigate it on our own. This was one of the best city tours that we have had during our travels.

We found Santiago to be an very interesting city in which to spend several days between two cruises -- both historic and modern, easy to get around "on your own" even without knowing Spanish, much to see and do. However, as others have said, Santiago is in our opinion too far from Valparaiso to be a good choice as a day-tour destination from Valparaiso. Valpo is also interesting and colourful (though much smaller). Better to spend the available hours there, perhaps with a side-trip to nearby Vina del Mar or a nearby winery, and plan another trip that allows you a few days in Santiago.

John

Santiago is a great city. Valparaiso is a smaller beach town. We stayed in Santiago and did a two day wine tour with Luz Caskey - fabulous!,

I would take a pass on Santiago. It's about 70 miles from Valpo. Not a bad city, but in my mind, not worth the trip.

A walking tour starts in Valpo at 10AM everyday, near the ship. See: http://www.freetourvalparaiso.cl/portada.html

Valparaiso is interesting, but it is a port city, so it can be a little rough around the edges. Just north of Valpo is Vina del Mar, which is the beach resort for Santiago. You can arrange a tour or hire a cab to drive you around.

Tours4Tips is highly recommended on Trip Advisor. They offer 2 tours per day ... one at 10AM and one at 3PM. And they are free .... except for the tip part. We plan to use them in March.

Discover the Secret Soul of Chile: Valpariso and Santiago

by Susan M. White

I found this short informative book on Amazon for Kindle. It's apparently only available to Kindle/Kindle app users, and costs about $5.

We did a Celebrity land tour in December 2013 after disembarkment on a Sunday morning.

We took the ship all day tour which was a driving tour through run-down downtown Valparaiso and Vina del Mar all in the fog and light rain. Then a drive for lunch at a vineyard banquet center (nice but too long) and then a driving tour through parts of Santiago with too few stops, including a way too brief stop in the center of the city at its plaza cut short by the tour guide because we had spent too long at lunch. And she did well to scare the heck out of you regarding repeated cautions about pick pocketers. And then getting us to the airport at about 4:30 when she knew no one had a plane before 8 PM and all we did was wait in lines and confusion. Can't recommend the ship tour.

But in short, if you don't see Valparaiso when there are actually people downtown, i.e. business hours, the downtown is depressing due to all the grafitti and earth quake destroyed buildings not rebuilt. I can't tell you about the hillside, but from comments above sounds like we missed something.

I think Santiagio would be worth seeing but not if you only have a single day to tour it from Valparaiso.

Valparaiso is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is more interesting

than Santiago for a short visit.

 

Here's my suggestion:

 

The ship will berth almost opposite the main square of Valparaiso

(Plaza Sotomayor) but you will have to board a bus that will take you

a mile or so to the left to reach the port building where you exit.

 

As you exit the port building you will cross the Merval (light rail)

tracks; walk to the nearest stop (it could be left or right depending

where you emerge) and take it a couple of stops to Puerto (the

terminus, near where the ship is). Walk to Plaza Sotomayor (the

obvious Plaza with the statue in the middle and the dignified blue

building in the rear) and wait by the statue for someone to turn up

from tours4tips. The tour starts at 10am and lasts for 3 hours

(there's another at 3pm). This will give you an excellent

introduction to the city, including a ride on an ascensor. Then have

lunch and visit (or revisit) a few places on your own (e.g., Naruda's

house), and return to the ship at leisure (the Merval stop for the

port entrance is Baron).

 

http://tours4tips.com/index-3.html

 

Alternatively, from the port you can take the Merval in the other

direction to Vina del Mar, where there are beaches, and the Museo

Fonck, which has an Easter Island moai (and lots of information about

these, and about Easter Island generally), and two shrunken heads.

 

I've no connection to tours4tips or the Museo Fonck other than as

a satisfied customer.

This sounds perfect; we're doing a B:B in December, and will have the turnaround day to explore on our own.