Start in Santiago with a city tour that includes visits to the historic old quarter, government buildings, museums, historic and residential neighborhoods, San Cristobal Hill with its spectacular panoramic view of the city and Andes. Then, spend two full days touring wineries in the Maipo and Colchagua valleys on private tours with tastings.
Leave Santiago and spend a couple of nights at the intimate La Casona Matetic winery in the Casablanca Valley. Your stay at La Casona includes delicious meals with wine, a tour of their cellar with tastings, and a list of optional activities such as horseback riding, cycling, walking the surrounding trails. Finish the trip with a couple of nights in nearby Valparaíso, a busy port city and World Heritage Site.
On a private tour you will admire historic architecture, ride the funiculars up and down the colorful hills, relax at famous cafés. You will also visit the beautiful city of Viña del Mar, also known as the Garden City, for a visit of its main streets and avenues, museums, and its large homes and palaces. You may opt for a visit to Isla Negra, one of renowned poet Pablo Neruda´s three houses in Chile.
After your orientation there will be time to wander the charming hills of 'Valpo' on your own. On the next day venture north along the Pacific coast on a road trip to Con-Con, the Mantagua Dune Field, the beach resort area of Maitencillo, Cachagua Island and Las Cujas Beach.
Our 'Santiago, Wineries & the Coast' itinerary is an overland trip with comfortable and scenic drives, no domestic flights or airport hassles; just capital city culture, world-class wineries and a busy port city with charming hills and historic architecture.
Lost World Adventures itineraries can be tailor-made according to your plans and preferences: budget, hotel selections, travel dates, optional excursions, length of trip, etc.
Arrive Santiago. Airport reception and transfer to your hotel.
CasaSur Charming Hotel is located in the heart of Barrio Italia, a stylish neighborhood where historic homes share the block with design and antique shops, art galleries, bars, restaurants, small markets, cafes and furniture restorers.
Just a 3-minute walk to the Santa Isabel subway station, a 4-minute walk to Parque Bustamante, one of the city’s most important parks, a 15-minute walk to Plaza Italia, an iconic urban landmark marking the center of the city.
Hotel facilities and services include free wi-fi available throughout the hotel, lounge area, laundry service, complimentary 24-hour self-service tea, coffee, water.
The hotel has five lovely rooms, each equipped with central heating, private bathrooms, premium cotton sheets and towels, in-room safety box, hair dryer. Daily breakfast included.
You will be picked up at your hotel and set off on a private half-day city tour of Santiago, beginning in the historic old quarter of the capital. Continuing to the city center, observe the La Moneda palace, the former Congress building, the Supreme Court, the Cathedral, and the recently restored Plaza de Armas square.
You will visit the Archeological museum of Santiago (M.A.S.), located in the cultural and historical Lastarria neighborhood near the Visual Arts Museum.
The M.A.S. shows exhibitions of ancestral Chile with a tour through the Pre-Columbian art, from north to south with displays of ceremonial and daily use objects.
Textile, ceramic, and jewelry pieces are a reflection of the women and men who lived during the period prior to the Spanish conquest of America. Proceeding along the Alameda, Santiago's main artery, you can see the Union Club, the Universidad de Chile, the San Francisco Church, and Santa Lucia Hill, site of Santiago's foundation in 1541.
You will then drive up to San Cristobal Hill for a spectacular panoramic view of Santiago and the impressive Andes mountain range. Crowning the hill is the imposing statue of Virgin Mary. To end the tour, you will drive through the upper residential districts of the city and Providencia, an area renowned for its shopping and nightlife. On the outskirts of the city you will pass Parque Forestal and the beautiful Mapocho Station.
You will be met by your guide and depart from your hotel in Santiago and travel east to the Maipo Valley. Located less than an hour’s drive from Santiago, the valley is famous for its well-balanced red wines.
The salts carried in the water of the River Maipo irrigate the fields, creating a unique balance between flavor and acidity in the resulting wines. Start off by visiting the Pérez Cruz winery; a family winery specialized in producing red wines.
Here find a careful blend of tradition and modernity. Its wines are synonyms of quality, elegance and modernity. In Pérez Cruz you are going to be able to tour the wine cellar and taste their best reserve wines.
Continue to the Santa Rita Winery, founded in 1880 by Domingo Fernandez Concha. At the time, they had brought the latest French technology for its construction.
French and American oak were used in its wine cellar, where the wines take a complex body with a taste of wood and smooth, delicate smell. Tour the wine cellar, declared a National Monument. The vineyards restaurant was named after Paula Jaraquemada, a woman who sheltered General O´Higgins and 120 of his men, during the independence time. One of the Winery’s most renowned wines honors this episode in Chile´s history.
Finally, visit the Museo Andino with its wide collection of 1800´s Pre-Columbian pieces of art. Once the visit is over, return to your hotel in Santiago.
Lunch is included at Doña Paula restaurant at the Santa Rita Winery.
You will depart your Santiago hotel with your guide on a three-hour drive towards one of Chile’s best known wine valleys and home to award-winning, full-bodied Cabernet, Carménère, Syrah and Malbec wines.
The Colchagua valley is the best place to discover the real Chilean countryside. There you can find the beauty of a region that is rich in traditions and folklore. The main feature of Colchagua is its red wine, favored by the warm and dry climate. Enjoy the Chilean culture, pretty estates and the best wines offered by this region.
You will visit a family-owned vineyard, Viu Manent. The old house, where the cafeteria and the restaurant are located, is an elegant property to relax and enjoy a simple coffee or a more sophisticated meal. A horse-drawn carriage takes you through the vineyard as part of the tour, before finishing with a wine tasting.
Continue to Estampa, a premium Chilean vineyard, pioneer, and avant-gardist in the expression of the art of “Assemblage,” the art of combining two or more noble varieties so that each contributes its best characteristics to our wines. Enjoy a tour of through the winery and finish with a wine tasting.
Lunch is included at a local restaurant.
Afterwards, you will return to your Santiago hotel.
You will be met at your hotel and transferred to the Matetic Vineyards, located in the Casablanca Valley.
La Casona at Matetic Vineyards has ten large rooms, all of them with private bathroom and fitted with a king size bed or two single beds, central heating, private terrace and an elegant and sophisticate decoration. There is a reading/living room, pool table, bar.
You can relax at the spectacular pool surrounded by beautiful gardens, enjoying the beautiful sights to the vineyards. Matetic Vineyards is in the Valparaíso Region near the city of Casablanca, 60 miles from Santiago and 24 miles from Valparaíso or Viña del Mar.
While at the Casona, enjoy a variety of activities that connect the visitor with the natural wonders of the Rosario Valley. Some of the highlights include: Walking on Las Palmas trail, the “Trail of the Senses” or simply enjoy the rolling hills and beautiful valley while observing the local flora and fauna. Visits to wineries are a must.
Full-board plan includes daily breakfast buffet, 2 lunches, 2 dinners, tour of the wine cellar with tasting of 4 ultra-premium EQ line wines, guided excursions.
Tonight's dinner menu includes a half-bottle of red or white wine.
Today's services and activities include: breakfast buffet, guided excursion (horseback riding, cycling, hiking, vehicle tour), special lunch paired with premium and ultra-premium EQ line wines, afternoon cocktail, dinner menu with a half-bottle of red or white wine.
Breakfast buffet followed by an outdoor guided excursion (horseback riding, cycling, trekking or scenic van tour). Afterward, Rosario lunch menu served with Corralillo wines.
This afternoon you will transfer to Valparaiso, approximately 25 miles away.
Casa Higueras is a spacious, bright and comfortable boutique hotel located in Valparaiso. Casa Higueras has 20 individual guestrooms distributed on four floors, with all the comfort to make you feel at home. Several of them have individual terraces, with views to the Valparaíso Bay and Cordillera and Concepción Hills.
Amenities include: telephone with direct dial and voicemail, cable TV with LCD screen, DVD player, in-room safe, independently controlled heat/AC in rooms and bathrooms, hairdryer, minibar, Wi-Fi throughout the hotel.
Casa Higueras' swimming pool and spa are located in the terraced garden, surrounded by fig trees, elms, ombu, and an enormous araucaria. It offers sauna, open-air roofed Jacuzzi and massages, with natural products and a pleasant atmosphere that renews body and spirit.
On the hotel's top floor, the panoramic terrace is the perfect place to watch the sunset, and enjoy the quiet show of hundreds of lights turning on in the hills of Valparaíso. Hotel services also include guided walking tours of Valparaiso
The Casa Higueras' Montealegre Restaurant offers you a contemporary cuisine that captures traditional ingredients of the area, with a special emphasis in sea products. The warm interior dining room, and the open-air terrace, create the perfect atmosphere to enjoy your meal with a view to the port.
The restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner à la carte (open every day), bar and tea service, light dishes, beverages and drinks in the panoramic terrace or by the swimming pool.
Daily breakfast is included.
You will be picked up in the morning from your Valparaiso hotel and begin the private-guided tour of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar.
Valparaíso, a busy port city with charming hills. You will pass by Chile’s parliament building as well as other examples of the historical architecture that have made Valparaíso a World Heritage Site since 2003. The first stop is a must; the “Artillería” lift will take you to the 21 de Mayo lookout point.
There is no other place in Valparaiso with this view. You can watch the port activity, the rolling hills full of color, and see how the city has developed over recent years. You will continue around the “cerros” or hills of the city to the San Luis square.
Come across Cerro Concepción, and discover on foot its Anglican and Lutheran churches and the Paseo Atkinson alleyway with its famous Brighton Restaurant.
Walk over to Paseo Gervasoni where the famous Café Turri and the house of the cartoonist Lukas are located. Cross over to Cerro Alegre where the Paseo Yugoslavo and Baburitza Palace, once home to a Croatian immigrant and now the recently renovated Fine Arts museum of Valparaiso, are situated. From here you will descend on the “El Peral” lift to the Plaza Sotomayor where you will see the Monument to the Fallen Heroes of Iquique.
You will then visit the beautiful city of Viña del Mar, also known as the Garden City, for a visit of its main streets and avenues, museums, and its large homes and palaces.
Afterward, you will return to your hotel.
The tour can include (at additional cost) a visit to Isla Negra, where one of Pablo Neruda´s three houses in Chile is situated. Located about 85 km south of Valparaíso and 110 km west of Santiago, it was his favorite house and where he and his third wife, Matilde Urrutia, spent the majority of their time in Chile.
In English, Isla Negra means "Black Island," which refers to a rock outcropping nearby; however Isla Negra is not, in fact, an island. Neruda, a lover of the sea and all maritime things, built the home to resemble a ship with low ceilings, creaking wooden floors, and narrow passageways.
A passionate collector, every room has a different collection of bottles, ship figureheads, maps, ships in bottles, and an impressive array of shells, which are located in their own "Under the Sea" room. Neruda and his wife Matilde Urrutia are buried there, with a clear view of their beach.
Depart with your guide from your Valparaiso hotel towards the North Coast of the Region. You will pass along Con-Con and the Mantagua Dune Field, large sand extensions dragged by the wind.
You will also pass by a beautiful chain of resorts, such as Maitencillo, small and charming places, houses and log cabins on the hills with magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean. Continue to Cachagua where you will visit Las Cujas Beach, enclosed in a small bay.
You may walk to the mirador on Cachagua Island. Here you will see lots of birds, sea otters and a Humboldt Penguin colony.
Continue to Zapallar, a resort area with interesting seaside buildings surrounded by gardens and woods. There will be time for lunch (not included) and leisure on your own when you may walk along the paths and the beach. Return in the evening to Valparaíso.
You will be met at your hotel by your private driver and guide and transferred to the Santiago Airport. Int'l Departure
| Price from | $4,082.00 per person, based on double occupancy |
|---|---|
| Days | 10 |
| Nights | 9 |
| Includes: | Based on double occupancy for 2 travelers, reduced prices for parties of 3 or more.
|
| Excludes: | International and domestic airfare |
