Chile runs 4,300 kilometres. Pick your latitude first.
Which day out of Santiago is worth the 6am pickup. What the geyser run costs before dawn at 4,300 metres. Whether Torres del Paine works in one day from Puerto Natales. Reviews of every tour you can book in Chile.
Four days that decide the shape of a Chilean trip.
A canyon morning above Santiago, a dawn geyser field, the coast at Valparaíso and the towers at the far south. What each costs, and what the people who went say.
01The first day outCajon del Maipo/Embalse del Yeso Tour with PicnicUp the Maipo canyon to a reservoir the colour of antifreeze, with a picnic laid out at the top. Leaves Santiago early and gets back for dinner.
02The 4am startEl Tatio Geysers TourEl Tatio steams hardest just after sunrise, which is why the minibus leaves San Pedro in the dark. Layers, not jumpers: the field sits at 4,300 metres.
03The coast dayValparaiso, Viña del Mar, & Casablanca Valley TourCasablanca vineyards on the way out, Valparaíso hills on the way back, Viña del Mar in between. The long version of the Pacific.
04The one long hikeBase of the Towers Day HikePuerto Natales to the base of the towers and back inside a day. Fifteen hours door to door, and the reason most people come this far south.
Six places in Chile worth building a week around.
A capital wedged against the cordillera, a desert town that sells sunrises, two Patagonian ports, the painted hills above the Pacific and an island that belongs to nobody nearby. Pick the latitude, then pick the day.
Mountains, coast, vineyards or snow. Santiago gives you all four within two hours.
The capital is a basecamp more than a destination. Four directions out of it, what boarding each one costs, and what you get back by dinner.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · Cajon del Maipo/Embalse del Yeso Tour with Picnic
Up the Maipo canyonHairpins, a turquoise reservoir, a picnic above the treeline.
West to the PacificPainted hills, funiculars, an afternoon on the Viña seafront.
Into the valleysMaipo and Casablanca cellars, tasted properly, driven home for you.
Straight up the cordilleraSnow at 3,000 metres, an hour and a half from the city.
All 76 days out of Santiago →
The driest desert on earth sells its mornings and its nights.
San Pedro is a dust-and-adobe town at 2,400 metres that exists to send people out: geyser fields before sunrise, red rock at golden hour, salt lagoons you float in, then a sky with no moisture in it at all.
The Chilean days out more travellers take than any other.
Every Chilean tour we have reviewed →Demand is lopsided here. The same handful of canyon runs, coast days and desert mornings carry most of the country, and these are them.
1
Cajon del Maipo/Embalse del Yeso Tour with Picnic
Spend about eight hours leaving Santiago for Cajón del Maipo and Embalse del Yeso in an air-conditioned van. Expect mountain roads, small Andean towns, the Tinoco Tunnel, a reservoir walk, and a picnic with cheese, salami, olives, juice, and wine. Guides may include Francisco, Diego, Edison, or Gonzalo, with commentary in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.
From · $37
Read our review →
2
Vina Del Mar, Valparaiso, Casablanca & Reñaca Tour
from $39
3
Small-Group Cajón del Maipo Full-Day Tour and Picnic
from $41
4
Cajon del Maipo & Embalse El Yeso Trip with Picnic
from $38
5
Tourist bus around Santiago for a day
from $50
6
Valparaiso -Casablanca -Reñaca-Oceanic Rock-Concon
from $40
7
Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, & Casablanca Valley Tour
from $72
8
El Tatio Geysers Tour
from $70
Valparaíso is a port city built up a hillside and painted over.
Fifteen creaking funiculars, murals that change between visits, and a container port working away underneath it all. Most people arrive on a Casablanca wine run and wish they had booked the night.
Every day on the Pacific coast →
Patagonia is a season, not a place you can visit whenever.
Puerto Natales feeds Torres del Paine and Punta Arenas feeds the penguin islands, and both run hardest from October to April. The towers are a fifteen-hour day on foot; the boat to Grey Glacier is three hours and no less Patagonian for it.
- 1Base of the Towers Day Hikefrom $90
- 23-Hour Scenic Boat Tour to Grey Glacierfrom $120
- 3Full Day Torres del Paine + Milodon Cavefrom $83
What a Chilean day out actually costs, top to bottom.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The gap between a city walk and a Patagonian charter is wider here than almost anywhere.
City walks, Moon Valley shuttles, ski-day transfers and the shared minibus up the canyon.
The full-day standards: geyser fields, the coast run, Torres del Paine from Natales, penguin crossings.
- 1Tourist bus around Santiago for a dayfrom $50
- 2Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, & Casablanca Valley Tourfrom $72
- 3El Tatio Geysers Tourfrom $70
Private drivers, glacier charters, volcano climbs with a guide and the Tierra del Fuego crossings.
Three things Chile has that nowhere else does.
Deserts, mountains and penguins turn up on plenty of itineraries. A sky with no water vapour in it, a colony you walk into on foot and nine hundred carved ancestors on a Pacific island do not.
The Moai of Easter Island
Nearly nine hundred carved figures stand on an island the size of a small county, five hours out over the Pacific from Santiago. Most were quarried at Rano Raraku and dragged to platforms around the coast, and the ones still lying in the quarry show every stage of the work. Guides are Rapa Nui and the park ticket is checked at each site, so the tour and the entry are one decision.
- 1Rapa Nui Culture Sightseeing Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 307 reviews
- 2Easter Island Highlights 2-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 205 reviews
- 3Easter Island Sightseeing Full Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 189 reviews
The Atacama Night Sky
The desert sits high, far from cities and gets almost no rainfall, which is why the world parks its telescopes here. Small operators run their own instruments outside San Pedro, and on a new moon the Magellanic Clouds are plainly visible to the naked eye. Trips cancel around a full moon rather than dressing up a washed-out sky as a viewing night.
- 1Etno-Stargazing Tour with Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 629 reviews
- 2Stargazing Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 489 reviews
- 3Astronomical Tour with Guide and Pick Up San Pedro de Atacama★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 145 reviews
Walking Into a Penguin Colony
On Magdalena Island the Magellanic penguins nest in burrows either side of a roped path, and in summer the colony runs to tens of thousands of birds. Boats leave Punta Arenas and the crossing is at the mercy of the Strait, so sailings are cancelled for wind more often than anyone tells you in advance. The season runs roughly November to March.
- 1Walk with Penguins on Magdalena & Marta Island★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 611 reviews
- 2Full-Day Whales, Penguins, and Glaciers Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 325 reviews
- 3Full Day Tierra del Fuego & King Penguins★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 179 reviews
Four Chilean bookings that run on somebody else’s clock.
Most of this country can be sorted the night before over a pisco sour. These four are tied to daylight, altitude, weather windows and a single daily flight, and none of them care when you land.
- 01El Tatio Geysers TourThe geysers steam hardest at first light, so pickups leave San Pedro around four in the morning. Go late and the field is just a wet plain.
- 02Base of the Towers Day HikeA day at the base of the towers is fifteen hours door to door, weather-dependent, and the park runs its season from roughly October to April.
- 03Rapa Nui Culture Sightseeing TourEaster Island has one flight a day from Santiago and a park ticket checked at every site. Neither is an arrival-day decision.
- 04Villarrica Volcano ClimbThe Villarrica climb only runs when the mountain and the weather allow it, and the call is made the evening before.
The far south closes for winter. Santiago and the desert never do.
Chile spans nearly forty degrees of latitude, so a single season covers it badly. Torres del Paine and the penguin islands run October to April. Ski season is June to September, ninety minutes from the capital. The Atacama and the central valleys work all twelve months, which is why a winter trip here is a wine, city and desert trip.
The valleys that feed Santiago are half an hour from its ring road.
Maipo reds within sight of the city, Casablanca whites on the way to the coast, and a long lunch at the end of both. The driver is the point: nobody tastes properly and then drives back over the cordillera.
Down the map, north to south
By kind of day — canyon, cellar, crater or colony
Santiago, the coast, the desert, then as far south as your days allow.
Just reviewed in Chile.
The rest of the new ones →
Walking Tour Valparaiso, History & Art – Private Optional
Read our review →
Private Horseback Adventure in the Andes, with Picnic & Wine
Read our review →
Horseback Private Wine Tour and Country Grill from Santiago
Read our review →
The Essentials City Tour & Optional Concha y Toro
Read our review →
Atacama Desert: Horseback Adventure with Scenic Views
Read our review →
Valpo in 1 day: Authentic + Famous! Semi-private walking tour & public transport
Read our review →
Famous Valparaíso! Premium Walking Tour with a Native Guide
Read our review →
Santiago de Chile Private Walking Tour-5 Hours with Hotel Pick-up
Read our review →
SIB Viña Del Mar and Valparaiso Day Trip from Santiago
Read our review →