Chile Tips:

Chilean Spanish is INTENSE! Chileanos speak extremely fast, they don’t pronounce the letter ‘s’, they throw ‘po’ to the end of a lot of words sporadically, and there is a ton of slang.
The most common food you’ll see across the country is completos—they are hot dogs with a variety of toppings. There are also amazing empanadas and sopapillas on the streets. Highly recommend street food here.

Beer is the same price as water. Drink beer.
The Museum of Memory and Human Rights was absolutely amazing. Highly recommend it! Definitely a dark historical overview of the Pinochet dictatorship, but extremely good.
- After the museum if you need something bright and cheery I would recommend going to Quinta Normal, a huge park right across from the museum, and sit by the fountains and watch the kids and dogs playing for a while!
Bellavista neighborhood: The artsy part of town with lots of bars and restaurants.
Climb San Cristobal Hill: There is also a furnicular you can ride up/down if you prefer. The top provides amazing views of the Santiago skyline and the surrounding Andes!
- Pro-tip: Get yourself some Mote once you make it to the top! A delicious part tea/part fruit/part granola-esque drink.
La Vega Central: A veggie market near El Mercado Central. Everyone talks about Mercado Central like it is some amazing place but it is really just a fish market, bleh. Lots of markets are lined up in this area so wander around and grab lunch!
- The markets are near Plaza de Armas, home to some beautiful churches and people watching.

Take a day trip to Valparaíso! Chile’s historic and colorful port city just an hour and a half long bus ride from Santiago.

I’d recommend starting your adventure in Plaza Mayor
Tours for Tips provides a very informational, but fun tour of the city
Valpo is deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site which has brought the tourism industry and greatly helped the city’s economy. The ascensores are a major part of the UNESCO site, elevators that lift you up or down Valpo’s crazy steep hillside
Check out El Pimiento restaurant, delicious food & beers!

Beach it up! The Pacific Ocean is fabulous
Check out the sea lions! Near the port the sea lions gather and wait for fish as the fishermen come in for the day. They are super cute!
Climb El Morro. The hill overlooking the city provides great views of the town, ocean, and surrounding desert.

Terremoto: grenadine, white wine (Pipeño), fernet and pineapple ice cream piled together for a delicious–and super strong–drink. Terremoto means earthquake in Spanish, which is the appropriate name for what you feel after you drink just one of these.
Pisco Sour: Both Chile and Peru claim the pisco sour as their national drink, Chile’s uses Pisco, sugar, lemon juice, and bitters, and is served in champagne flutes. Peru uses Pisco, simple syrup, key lime juice, egg whites, and bitters, and is served in a normal bar glass. Both recipes are strong and delicious, but I think Peru wins based off of taste and size—just don’t tell anyone in Chile!
Carménère: A red wine the world thought was extinct until they found some more grapes in Chile, this fruity drink is extremely good.
Schops: beer is served in schops most of the time in Chile, basically like giant liter sized bottles. Nom. Sometimes they put salt on the rim of the glasses they serve it with, which is also surprisingly fantastic.
On the non-alcoholic end, if you order a jugo (juice) don’t expect it to taste like juice. Jugo is incredibly sugary in Chile—you can feel the grains of sugar in your mouth with each sip, so don’t sit down to breakfast and expect a nice smooth OJ.