Welcome back for another 24 hours in… this time in in a whole new continent exploring the incredible Santiago! Whilst we had more than 24 hours in Santiago, a lot can be done in the city in a short space of time. Santiago has plenty to do to keep you busy for a few days, but if you’re short on time a day is definitely enough time to have an explore and see the highlights before heading on to explore the rest of the Chile. So either way, if you’re fancying a whistle stop tour or looking to plan a few days, here’s the highlights of this incredibly dynamic city.  

As always with my 24 hours in, I fit in as much exploring as I can throughout my visit and usually this equates to about 24 hours of exploring.

Santiago is full of history and culture, and the people are incredibly resilient. So much has happened in the city, some in really recent times. You can find out so much from the many museums; Chile Museum of Pre-Colombian Art, Museum of Memory and Human Rights and the Museum of Natural History or by partaking in a walking tour. I’d start your day off with a walking tour of the city, as this gives you a great over view of the area, the best bits to see and what you want to come back to and it’s great to learn some of the city’s history from a local. The walking tour that we booked on was a free one recommended by Where Goes Rose, and we booked online with GuruWalk. Our guide was really knowledgable and his English was fantastic. Whilst we might have seen some of the areas on a walk around on our own, we wouldn’t have necessarily noticed things that our guide pointed out. One of the things that we were aware of but we learnt about because of the tour was the stop at Plaza De La Moneda. Here our guide told us of his parent’s and grandparents first hand accounts of the fairly recent coup d’erat in 1973. Hearing this from a local was really incredible and gave us such a unique first hand experience of this time in Chile. To fit this all in, get on the earliest tour of the day you can do, there’s loads to see – you’ll likely pass through the buzzing areas of Bella vista and Barrio Alto so you can tick that off your list of ‘to see’, or maybe eye up some cafe’s to come back to later! 

After the walking tour, I’d head over to one of the museums and give yourself a good amount of time dive further into the history of Chile. I didn’t get the chance to go to all the museums, but Mike (my partner) was here on this trip too and he was thoroughly impressed with the Museum of Memory and Human Rights and the Museum of Natural History. When I had the time for a museum trip, we opted to go to the Chile Museum of Pre-Colombian Art which was really interesting. There were so many things about the creation of Chile as we now know it that I would have never known without visiting this museum. Depending on when you’re in the city, it’s worth checking the opening times and days of each of the museums. 

Once you’ve exhausted your feet and brain with the walking tour and museum visit, it’s time to head over to La Piojera for it’s famous cocktail, the Terremoto! Since its creation in La Piojera in 1985, this earthquake named cocktail has become a huge part of Chilean culture. Made with white wine, grenadine and pineapple ice cream, it seems like an odd combination that I was so unsure of trying – I am not a fan of wine (a disgrace in Chile, I know) but once the ice cream had melted a little and it mixed together, it was really good. Everyone at the table managed to cover themselves in the drink as the plastic cup is absolutely filled to the brim, so just a future warning in case if you’re wearing something light coloured! 

We also enjoyed food at La Piojera as they served a famous dish, Chilean Chorrillana which is nicknamed the ’heart attack on a plate’. A loaded plate of chips, meat, fried eggs and fried onions, this was a HUGE dish. If you’re hungry you might want one each, but I would suggest sharing one of these and trying something else alongside it. As this bar is a ‘dive bar’ it’s very rustic, you had to pay additional for the loos and it was in a slightly rogue area that I wouldn’t recommend heading to at night but it was fine during the day and such an experience to try this famous cocktail and have a good olde hearty plate of chorrillana! 

Hopefully you’re feeling comfortably stuffed, so now it’s time to head over to the San Cristobal Hill to see the sights of Santiago from the famous viewing platform. We walked from La Piojera as it wasn’t too far, around 30 minutes, to the funicular entrance which is located next to the zoo. Here you can purchase your tickets for both the cable car, the bus and the funicular, we opted to do the funicular up as the sun was going down, so we wanted to get up to the top quickly. 

I would say, if you’re short of time and you’re going to only get one way in the daylight, I’d recommend taking an uber to the cable car terminal and using that to get up the hill as the ride is longer and you can see more of the city than you’ll see on the funicular. The queue down for the funicular was much shorter than the queue for the cable car too. At the top, enjoy the sights of Santiago! 

This is also a good place to try one of the famous deserts, which is a actually a drink, called Mote con Huesillo. It’s a mixture of dried peaches, clear nectar syrup and wheat berries. It sounds a little unusual, but is really popular and probably quite refreshing on a hot, sunny day. We didn’t get a chance to try one, possibly because it was late or during the winter months, so I think it’ll be something on my list when I return to Chile. 

Once you’ve finished with your day exploring – there is more to do in the city too, I’ll pop a summary in another blog, for the sunset there is only one place you want to be and that is at the top of the Sky Costanera. 

The highest point in Latin America is a must visit, if you can handle the 300m high viewpoint! Offering 360º view of the city, you can see right across the bustling streets, historical landmarks, parks and more out to the surrounding valley that Santiago is located, and watch the sun turn The Andes shades of pink and orange as it sets. I’ve seen a lot of sunsets, but this one was particularly spectacular. 

It does get busy at the viewing platform at the top, especially during sunset, so I’d recommend booking a slot before the expected sunset time and getting comfy up there. It took a while to get up to the platform, so you don’t want to be stuck in the queue downstairs as the sun is setting. Also book your tickets in advance, it’ll save you the queue as you can head straight to security and lift queue. We didn’t know you could skip the first queue as it wasn’t clear and so we ended queued for the ticket desk, but we were early enough that we didn’t miss the sunset.

Han’s Hint: The location of the tower entrance can be a little confusing. The tower is attached to the Mall Costanera Centre and accessed from the 4th floor of the mall, behind the Starbucks at the back of the food court. I’d give yourselves plenty of time to navigate the shopping centre, it can get so busy! 

Once you’ve enjoyed the sunset, I’d recommend heading to dinner. Our favourite spot was ‘Tiramisu’ about 15 minutes walk from the Sky Costanera. It’s not local cuisine but after a lunchtime chorrillana we fancied something non-local. We ate here so many times, the pizza is SO good, as are the cocktails! It’s a really reasonable price point too and I left stuffed every time we visited. It can get quite busy so if you’re thinking of heading here, you might want to see if you can reserve a table. We didn’t reserve a table, but we were out of season and happy to sit outside and enjoy the heaters as it was still reasonably warm. 

So, that’s a full day in Santiago! I hope it has inspired you to get out and explore this incredible city and what it has to offer. There’s definitely more you can add to your city plans too, I’ll pop the rest in another blog, along with our itinerary from the incredible Atacama Desert trip. 

Thanks for reading!