San Antonio Chile Bus Station to Cruise Port

Has anyone taken the bus from Santiago to San Antonio?

If so, what is the best way to get from the bus terminal to the cruise ship? Taxi, Walk?

Does the taxi take you right to the cruise ship or to the port entrance?

And if the port entrance, how does one then get to the ship?

Thanks for your answers.

We haven't been yet but we are planning on taking this bus in February. I've been told that you can walk from the final bus stop to the cruise port and it is just a couple of blocks. I've checked it out on google maps and this appears to be correct so we're going to go ahead and give it a try. It is by far the best value way to get to the port from Santiago.

arthurstance,

Would you know if there is transportation to the ship from the port entrance? From the map, I think you walk to your right two to three blocks. Is this what you have found out as well?

I'm sorry but I don't know about transport from the port entrance. We've turned up at several cruise ports worldwide on foot from public transport and the only one where they've put on a shuttle bus was Barcelona. Otherwise we've always been able to walk right to the check in desk. We will just make sure we leave Santiago in plenty of time in case it is further than we thought. Yes, head right from the bus station and keep going and you should come to the port entrance.

Sounds easy enough. Will you be able to post your experience before March 2018? That's when we will be doing our cruise.

Our cruise is 17th Feb so I will let you know how we get on before your cruise.

From Google Maps there seems to be a rail line between the bus terminal and the port entrance. To walk one has to take a long detour to cross over the line. The distance is about 1.6 km or a mile with luggage.

Awesome. I'm sure others will be interested in the information as well. Enjoy your trip.

From Google Maps there seems to be a rail line between the bus terminal and the port entrance. To walk one has to take a long detour to cross over the line. The distance is about 1.6 km or a mile with luggage.

I did this as well but I think the entrance is at the top of the loop that google maps gives you so a 10 min walk. I have not been able to find out where you are likely to check in for a cruise but I assume they will put some signs up when a cruise ship is in port telling you where to go.

I'm not sure if they will let you wander around inside the port itself as it is a busy working container port so if they won't allow it there will be some kind of shuttle bus available if you need to walk down through the port. Apparently, they are building a new cruise terminal but I have not been able to find any info on where exactly it is going to be placed. Hopefully before I set off on my cruise in Feb there will have been several other cruises already docking here so I'm hoping for more information before I go.

It can't be as bad as when we had to hunt down the ferry port in Shanghai - which didn't seem to be where it ought to me according to the map until we discovered you had to walk through an underground car park to the check in area. At least I speak enough Spanish to ask directions - my Chinese is limited to hello and thank you!!

Lol:)

We plan to take a bus to Santiago when we debark on Jan 28. Will report back.

I'm on the Emerald Princess arriving in San Antonio on December 20th. I'll report once we're in Santiago. Also, the Holland America Zaandam will be docking in San Antonio on November 17th. Hopefully some of the cruisers will let us know about their first hand experience. Also, Tripadvisor Travel forum has some information on San Antonio.

Just keeping this alive hoping someone will eventually have detailed information:)

Hi. Just bumping this post up. Waiting for first hand experience.

Bumping again, hoping someone has first hand details :)

We arrived in San Antonio on Friday 8th December from Celebrity Infinity. Celebrity had made the decision two weeks prior to the cruise starting to switch from Valparaiso to San antonio. I had intended to stay one night in Valparaiso followed by a night in Santiago but made last minute cancellations and amendments to spend two nights in Santiago and to use the Pullman coach service from San Antonio to Santiago. I booked the Pullman tickets online and paid $6 US per person through Paypal. I researched the port and could find little information, as previous posters have mentioned the bus station looks like a short walk through a dodgy area.

Well, everything went very well, the town of San Antonio are very keen and on arrival the ship is welcomed with a flood of very helpful, mostly English speaking tourist information people and they even had them at the bus station to make sure people got the right bus, although that couldn’t be easier as each bus is quite obvious with destination and departure time clearly display in large letters on the front. The buses are tourist type coaches, similar to any on an excursion, clean and comfortable. Luggage tags are issued for each item that goes in the hold. The buses run every 15 minutes and we gave ourselves plenty of time by booking a coach at 11.00 getting of the ship at 9.30. We got to the bus station and watched several buses depart all exactly on time and mostly only having a few people on board, only 6 people on our bus. For the first time for a ship the tourist people laid on a small shuttle bus,with guide to take people to the bus station, a great help if you have heavy luggage. It is however only a 10 min walk. Only a few people were using the buses but I’m sure that will increase as it becomes established that this is a cheap ($6US per person) service. The buses are great but the bus station at San Antonio it has to be said is very basic as is the port terminal, however they are functional and efficient.

For Google users, the port exit/entrance is at junction of Alan Macowan and Angamos, the bus station is clearly marked and there are entrances on Angamos, Tres Nte and Sanfuentes. When we arrived there were only a a few odd passengers around. The tourist guide who was local and spoke perfect English informed us that the bus service was so regular because San Antonio although not a tourist destination a large portion of the population worked in Santiago and the buses were the commuter transport for workers and students, so pick time of day as earlier buses may be busier.

The journey was very relaxing through beautiful countryside and took about 90 minutes. Santiago Almeda bus terminal however is a very different proposition, it is a heaving mass of people with many many buses from Pullman, Turbus and several other companies as it’s the main terminal for transport all over Chile. The journey in the opposite direction we have not done but I imagine finding the right bus is the only problem but they are clearly marked.

The only upsetting thing was that two days before the cruise ended Celebrity told us they would lay on a complimentary bus after all to Valpo for those that had arrangements there but it was way too late as we already reorganised things ourselves, pretty annoying but we had a fantastic time in Santiago anyway.

Has anyone taken the bus from Santiago to San Antonio?

If so, what is the best way to get from the bus terminal to the cruise ship? Taxi, Walk?

Does the taxi take you right to the cruise ship or to the port entrance?

And if the port entrance, how does one then get to the ship?

Thanks for your answers.

Walk is possible its 500 metres but the pavement is rough and wheelie bags might be tricky along Angamos, the road SAnfuentes has a better pavement. The area looks rough but on cruise ship days the port has extensive police presence in evidence and we felt completely safe. Taxis are around there were a couple waiting at the bus terminal, wait should not be long as its about 2 mins by vehicle, as I said earlier for the first time for our cruise they laid on a shuttle to and from port entrance, a tatty mini bus but functional and free.

At the port entrance there is a very short walk with your luggage to the terminal building and then you have to be taken to the ship by bus as its a container port.

There are many people around to assist with info and luggage, it seemed a very smooth operation even if the outward appearance of the facilities leaves a little to be desired. Its new to San Antonio but the guide we spoke to said things get better for every ship that arrives.

Thank you so much, JBare, for the detailed info. This sounds like something that could be easily dealt with. May I ask who is providing the minibus to port of entry, city of San Antonio or cruise ship? I would guess it’s the former. Also, how long does it take to reach Santiago? Did you take a cab or metro from there to your hotel?

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The minibus to/from the bus station was provided by San Antonio tourist people, who told me it was the first time they had done it and they are trying to improve their service to cruise ships all the time. So its likely that it will be a future feature if enough demand. There are many tourist info people available at the port to help with maps advice etc as well as porters and people selling tours and transfers just like any other major port.

The journey to Santiago took approx 90 mins and while at first there appear to be no taxis at the Alameda bus station (which is huge) they pull up on the main road (Bernard Higgins) outside on a regular basis so theres no issue there. The cabs are metered and it cost us $4000 chilean pesos including tip to get to El Centro district nr Santa Lucia metro station where our hotel was, thats $6US.

By the way, if you have large luggage don't attempt to use the metro, we used the metro a lot once there and its an excellent service to get around but not luggage friendly.

Thank you JBare. Excellent review of how to get to and from San Antonio from Santiago. Also, thank you for the advice regarding the metro and luggage. We got caught doing that in Europe. Many stations had no escalators / elevators resulting in having to carry large suitcases up and down many flights of stairs. Not a major problem, but totally unexpected.

We will be travelling in the opposite direction. Santiago to San Antonio. In your opinion, will we need advance reservations for the bus? Is there a difference between bus companies? Did the tour people indicate the free transport between the bus terminal and the port will continue indefinitely?

Once again, thank you so much for your post.

I would recommend advance booking of your tickets, although all of the coaches we saw were nowhere near full at the time of day we travelled (11:00am) that might not always be the case. Some people boarded and just paid the driver.

Use the website Recorrido.cl to book your tickets, very easy English website unlike Turbus site, may need Paypal though. The summary of the booking you will get is NOT the ticket, you will need to print out a copy of your tickets before boarding the bus, the Recorrido receipt is not the ticket as we found out at the San Antonio bus station. However they very happily printed out the tickets for us. If you have the tickets you just go straight to the bus and present them to the driver before boarding. At San Antonio this was easy but I would definitely recommend pre printing tickets if travelling from Santiago as the bus station there is huge and there are many long queues at the ticket office. Having your tickets you can go straight to the bus.

As far as I know the only bus company that goes to San Antonio is Pullman with a bus every 15 mins. The Alameda bus station is huge with many bus companies having their own stands, Turbus, Pullman etc. The Pullman bus stands are the furthest to the left under a very large canopy if viewed from the main road Bernardo O’Higgins and near the Universidad de Santiago metro station entrance. The bus stands are clearly marked for destination, walk past the hundreds of people easily enough to the queue for San Antonio, I think the bus stand was or near No 15.

The minibus to the port gates was new but the tourist lady had no idea if that service would continue, she thought it would as many passengers on the cruise ships were Chilean and expected to use the buses they were familiar with rather than the rather extortionate fees the cruise companies charge,

Thank you JBare. I am sure that we, and I mean all the people who have been waiting to hear back from someone with first hand experience, appreciate you taking the time to inform the rest of us how it all works. Onward and forward :)

Once again, excellent info. Thank you so much JBare. We will give it a try.

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BTW, I just bought the tickets! Very easy. Thanks again!

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