Chile adventure travel tips and adviceChile is considered one of the best holiday destinations in the world for adventure travel. With a coastline that stretches 4,300 kilometres along the Pacific Ocean, this South American country boasts a dazzling choice of landscapes, geology and weather patterns, varying from the northern desert volcanoes of Atacama to the dramatic plains and granite peaks of Patagonia and the ski resorts of southern Chile. For adventure travel with skiing or snowboarding, Chile has various great snow resorts and slopes - the most challenging being the steep chutes of Portillo (great resort hotel!) where the speed-skiing record has been broken. If your adventure travel demands something more challenging than climbing a mountain or wearing skis, Chile even has plenty of volcanoes where you can conquer the summit. Several are active volcanoes with gaseous craters.
Chile travel tip ... An offshore earthquake measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale rocked central Chile on February 27, 2010, killing more than a thousand people and causing widespread, catastrophic structural damage. The quake struck about 115km (70 miles) north-east of the city of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital, Santiago. There was widespread damage to infrastructure such as bridges and about two million Chileans, or one eighth of the population, were believed to have been affected by the earthquake, with about 1.5 million buildings destroyed or damaged. Two of the worst-hit areas were the central Maule region and the city/province of Concepcion. Chile is expected to suffer the consequences of the earthquake for several years. |
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CLICK ON THE PICTURE above for more world travel photos with tips and advice about cheap vacation spots and travel agency links for the cheapest tickets, hotel reservations and car rentals. What's on the next page? More Cheap Chile Travel Tips If you're looking for the cheapest Chile tickets, discount hotel rooms, car rentals or adventure travel packages, visit our Travel Shop. Thumbnail Picture Index Last Minute Travel Tips Useful Chile Links Map of Chile |
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Chile travel guide Perhaps the most spectacular trekking holiday in the world can be enjoyed at Torres del Paine national park, a magnet for adventure travel backpackers because of its awesome mountain peaks above 3000 metres (picture above), forests, glaciers, glacier lakes, meadows and rivers covering 180,000 hectares. Hundreds of kilometres of trails run through Torres del Paine, which has an efficient system of camping grounds as well as hotels for tourists. The Torres del Paine can either be walked as a fully-supported hike with lodge accommodation or as a more challenging wilderness adventure hike with food supplies. Among the most stunning of Chile's numerous tourist attractions is the Perito Moreno Glacier. Travellers can drive right up to the glacier and use crampons to more intimately explore the turquoise ice walls and caves on its surface. Apart from glaciers, the Patagonia region boasts a surreal landscape of penguins, icefloes, ancient forests, Andean volcanos, wild rivers and rocky beaches. This is a land of extremes where mountains soar 3000 metres and then drop into the Pacific Ocean as thousands of islands and archipelagos. Patagonia's wildlife is unique. If you need some exercise to counter your holiday travel indulgence, you might enjoy bushwalking in the spectacular Paine national park, where huge granite towers rise from emerald-coloured lakes to create some of the best bushwalking adventures anywhere in the world. Rafting and kayaking adventure travel can easily be organised in Chile. The canyon rivers of Chile are among the most challenging and dangerous in the world (particularly the Futaleufu River). Another magnet for Chile adventure travel is the town of Pucon, which is ideally located for numerous outdoor activities and which is near the shore of a lake with a nearby smoking volcano. Chile travel advice If you travel through the Andes mountain range, experience traveller advice is that you should make sure you ascend slowly so your body can adjust to the high altitude without nauseous side-effects. Take a strong sun screen as there's a greater risk of sunburn at such high altitudes. Incidentally, a great way to enjoy adventure travel through the Andes is on horseback, even if you only hire a saddle for a full or half day.
Northern Chile regions such as San Pedro de Atacama have blistering heat at the height of summer while the southern Patagonian region suffers very strong winds in December, January and February. The driest desert in the world can be found in the north of Chile, where summer temperatures can exceed 38 degrees Celsius during the day but plunge to near-freezing at night. About 10,000 tourists a month visit the spectacular Atacama Desert in the north of Chile, one of the driest places on earth. Desert tours can be organised to see the 3000 year old ruins of Tulor, one of the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic villages in South America. Northern Chile winters are sunny and pleasant for holiday travel, although the nights are very cold. Along Chile's northern coastline, the temperatures are much more stable than inland but the weather is still dry. Chile travel tips The central Chile region including the capital city of Santiago is much more Mediterranean with winter temperatures from 0 to 13 degrees Celsius and summer temperatures from 16 to 35 degrees Celsius. The Carretera Austral and Lake District have very wet winters, and the southern Patagonia region has an unpredictable climate at any time of the year. Patagonian winters see occasional snowfall and temperatures well below freezing. Blistering winds are a major headache if you travel in southern Chile at the height of summer, particularly in the Magellanic region. The southern Lakes district is home to the Villarrica volcano, which usually has a cap of snow even at the height of summer but with a peak that glows red at night. Chile south of Peurto Monte and into Patagonia is breathtakingly beautiful but adventure travel can be rough and there are few luxuries. The skyline of Santiago is dominated by the Andes mountain range but the city itself reverberates to a European ambience. Many of Santiago's churches and other buildings look as though they were designed in Spain. The city, founded in 1541, has wide boulevards and plazas with plenty of parks and colonial buildings, and is enjoyable to explore on foot. Santiago's main square is Plaza de Armas, which is surrounded by colonial buildings including the Town Hall, Cathedral de Santiago and National Museum. Nearby is the Plaza Constitucion and the Palacio de La Moneda presidential palace where Salvador Allende was overthrown by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. Worth visiting during your travel is the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago, which is a huge urban park with a zoo, gardens, fountains and a furnicular cable car that climbs the steep San Cristobel Hill to a 22 metre statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the city. For music, cafes, galleries, breweries and salsa nightlife in Santiago, the bohemian hotspots are Providencia, Plaza Nunoa and Barrio Bellavista, and the city has an efficient and affordable underground Metro. Smog can be a problem in the Chile capital, which also experiences intermittent earth tremors and occasional quakes as Chile sits on the Pacific Ocean's so-called Ring of Fire. Santiago has a population of six million and is a comparatively safe city for travel. Critics claim Santiago lacks the elegant, charming and flirtatious Latin vibe of other South American cities such as Buenos Aires and Rio. The Chilean economy has been booming for more than 20 years and prices in shops and cafes are generally higher than you'll find elsewhere during your South America travel. Worth visiting is Chile's main port and second city, Valparaiso, populated by 600,000 residents and 120 kilometres north west of Santiago. Valparaiso, know as Valpo to most Chileans, is built on a spectacular landscape of 48 hills peppered with brightly painted, traditional 19th century mansions, and there are fantastic views in all directions. Valparaiso has very steep streets similar to San Francisco and is regarded as Chile's cultural capital. Fifteen funiculars can carry you up the hills for 100-250 pesos (2011 prices) but these cable cars can be sporadic and difficult to find. Pacific fog often swamps the city, which has a fairly run-down facade. The old town of Valparaiso is a World Heritage site. Chile travel advice Banks in Chile are open Monday to Friday from 9am to 2pm, and are closed on weekends. Chile's currency is the peso, which comes in bills of 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000. Five coins are in circulation with denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100. You'll rarely see a 1 or 5 peso coin. Chile has become a sophisticated country and is no longer one of the cheapest holiday travel destinations in South America. However, the peso has been fairly weak against the American dollar in recent years, cutting the price of holidays in Chile. The Chilean Government imposes a whopping 18% value added tax on all goods and services, but this is often waived when paying in American dollars for travel services such as hotels and hire cars. Often but not always, so it's worth checking before you buy or book in. As usual, the best exchange rate can be found at a casa de cambio, or money exchanger, which can usually be found in the central area of all major Chile cities but not necessarily in small towns. Bank and hotel exchange rates in Chile are usually miserable or loaded with fees. The best rates can normally be enjoyed at Automatic Teller Machines, which are called Redbancs, where networks such as Cirrus, Visa and MasterCard can be accessed. Most hotels, restaurants and other service industries in Chile accept the major credit card brands. Chile travel information Thanks to its long coastline, Chile has a rich variety of seafood you'll find on hotel menus during your travel. The legal drinking age in Chile is 18 and you can buy alcohol just about anywhere, anytime. Pickpockets can sometimes be a worry but Santiago generally has a low rate of violent crime compared to other South American cities and is probably safer for tourists than New York. Chile has an increasingly sophisticated public and private health system but medical travel insurance is nevertheless strongly recommended, particularly if you are planning adventure travel in a remote area. Our travel tip is that additional travel insurance should be sought if you plan travel to Easter Island or the Antarctic, where emergency air evacuation costs a small fortune. Pharmacies in Chile are called "farmacia" and are generally reliable for drug quality. Most pharmacies open from 8am to 11pm Monday through Friday with an after-hours roster system. Prescription medicines require a doctor's script, as in most countries, although the regulations are not as strict. Travellers should beware that English is not widely spoken in Chile so you might have trouble communicating with pharmacy staff. Bring an anti-diarrheal medication in your travel kit only if you have a sensitive tummy as the quality of food and sanitation is generally pretty good for tourists in Chile. Nevertheless, you may find that because of poor plumbing you're asked to deposit your used toilet paper in a bin rather than flushing it away, although this won't happen in your hotel or in restaurants. Chile travel tips Businesses generally operate from mid-morning till about 7pm, often with very long lunch breaks from 1pm. Making national or international phone calls from Chile can be a little confusing for tourists as you must use a number prefix dependent upon the private carrier you wish to use. Their rates are similar. The quality of Chilean wines has been improving in recent years. Casablanca Valley near Santiago has more than 20 wineries and is one of the country's most famous wine regions. Most telephone booths have a list of company prefixes on the wall. The country code for Chile is 56 and in 2006 a local telephone call cost 100 pesos. A tip isn't generally expected in Chile except in restaurants, where a tip of at least 10% is expected. Don't worry about a tip for taxi drivers and do so in hotels only if you wish to reward quality service. Being a stout Roman Catholic country, most Chilean domestic holidays follow the Christian calendar which should be considered when planning your travel in Chile if you want to avoid large crowds of tourists. Chile gained its independence from Spain in 1810. Independence Day on September 18 is usually a major excuse for Chileans to let their hair down. If you plan travel to Chile, it's worth packing a plug adapter because electrical sockets in Chile have two inserts for tubular rather than flat prongs. The electricity standard in Chile is 220 volts at 50hz. You can buy most types of camera film throughout Chile. National emergency numbers in Chile are 133 for police, 132 for fire and 131 for an ambulance. There's no guarantee the operator will speak English. Remember, it's worth learning at least a few dozen phrases in Spanish before you buy your plane tickets or start packing your bags for adventure travel in Chile. To book the cheapest tickets, hotels, car rentals, etc. for most South American cities, visit our Travel Shop.
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