One of Latin America’s most modern and cosmopolitan cities, Santiago comes to life during the southern summer months, when music fills the streets, kitchens cook up a storm and locals celebrate their place between the towering San Andres and expansive Pacific.
9 am
Check into the chic boutique hotel The Aubrey, a 15-room former regal mansion that has been loving restored. While many of the guest rooms have terraces or patios, our favorite, the Art Deco Suite, is a chic, spacious hideaway with plenty of natural light, 300-thread count linen, high-speed wireless internet, and a warm, bright design persona. Be sure to make time in the evening for your complimentary Pisco Sour cocktail, made with South American sugarcane brandy and best enjoyed beside the hotel’s outdoor heated swimming pool.
10 am
Head out on one of the three free walking tours conducted by Spicy Chile. The tours start from Salvador Allende’s statue next to La Moneda Palace and delve into the local markets, old neighborhoods, and key tourist attractions of Santiago over three to four hours. The highly entertaining guides all speak fluent English and if you’re looking for something a bit more bespoke, they also do private tours.
1 pm
You’ve worked up a hunger and the place to go is the Mercado Central de Santiago, the city’s central markets. Opened in 1872, this maze of stalls and stands serves as a central grocery for the city’s kitchens, and a palate pleaser for gastro tourists looking for fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as the city’s best seafood. A few casual restaurants are located within the former railway station, serving up the likes of almejas con limón, raw clams with lemon juice; empanada de mariscos, a traditional turnover filled with chopped seafood, onions and seasoning; and eye-catching pastel de jaiba, Chilean crab pie served in its own shell.
4 pm
Walk off your lunch in the Parque Metropolitano, a vast park with the peak of Cerro San Cristóbal at its center. Take the funicular to the top for stunning views of the Andres from outside the summit’s Catholic church, where Pope John Paul II once gave mass, and while away the afternoon heat in the botanical gardens or the park’s two public swimming pools.
6 pm
Spend the cooler part of the day exploring Santiago’s emerging arts scene in the chic neighborhood of Vitacura, where contemporary galleries like Sala Cero and Galeria Animal are turning artsy heads and drawing in the punters shopping on the Avenida Alonso de Córdova, one of the city’s top luxury retail precincts. If the art doesn’t catch your fancy the fashion in the local and international boutiques, which line the avenue and its narrow side streets, are bound to.
9 pm
South Americans tend to dine late but the wait will be worth it at Aquí Está Coco, an eclectic and lively eatery housed in a 140-year-old family manor. Arrive early and sip aperitifs or local reds in the subterranean cellar lounge. Then head upstairs to select from one of the city’s top seafood menus, laced with freshly caught specialties like octopus carpaccio with black olive sauce; seared swordfish with black butter; and Chilean buckwheat risotto with Patagonian scallops.
11 pm
Finish your day off at the stylish Whiskey Blue nightclub at the lavish W Santiago to dance the night away with the city’s A-listers. The first bar to be opened in South America by Midnight Oil chain founder Rande Gerber, expect floor-to-ceiling mirrors, plush interiors, a roster of international DJs, and an innovative list of pisco-laced concoctions.
10 am
Sample a South American take on tapas and one of the city’s best breakfasts at Arola at The Ritz-Carlton Santiago. Call ahead for one of the coveted terrace tables and enjoy the likes of endives, chicken, and Roquefort salad; suckling pig with mashed potatoes, cherries, and coconut; and Chilean sea bass with caviar and seawater veil. Match the meal with DJ spun tracks and a bottle of local Undurraga Brut NV for an early tipple.
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