Here goes our one-day trip in Santiago de Chile, capital of the country. The best way to quickly get around town is an Uber. Taking a regular taxi would be more expensive and taking a bus would take more time. If you are staying away from the city center taking a bus would also mean losing more than one hour to reach the center.
One sure thing is that you don’t need to wake up too early. Nothing is open before 9 or 10am. So, getting an early breakfast is not really possible, especially if you desire a cool coffee shop.
Mapping the day
We began our day in “Wonderland café” in the Bohemian district, we then walked to la plaza de Armas, stroll to the central market, circuit to the barista district, hike to San Cristobal, sat the aerial tramway, jaunt through the parks to end in the Bohemian district for a glass of wine.
Breakfast
We picked “Wonderland café” for breakfast, a cozy coffee shop in the bohemian district. The rooms take you in Alice in Wonderland from the furniture to the menu. Even the dishes have various shapes and colors.
We opted for the humus bagel and the smoked salmon bagel followed by a “Torta de chocolate”. Everything was super-duper yummy. And we had the best Americano so far in south America.
We can’t recommend it more! Go for it but be aware that we found it quite expensive. As all restaurants and coffee shops seems to be in Chile.
Plaza de Armas
The Bohemian district is not lively in the morning, so after breakfast we directly walked to la “Plaza de Armas” where we visited the Santiago metropolitan cathedral, home of the Archbishop of Santiago de Chile. The monument was built between the year 1753 and 1799.
Around the “Plaza de Armas”, you will also find the National history museum and other main building of the city.
We didn’t stay long, as Santiago’s plaza de Armas didn’t really have much charm for us. It feels like a big and modern place and we prefer rustic and authentic place.
Later we stroll through the main street that was like “les champs Elysée”, a big commercial street perfect for shopping and where some street performance can be found.
Centrale Mercado
At the end we reached the “Centrale Mercado” or central market where many fish shops and restaurants are located. Another market is present across the river the “Mercado Tirso de Molina” where companies are making their purchase.
Around the central market meat, cheese, herbs. shops are but not many of them… We were not amaze by this market but that would also come that there was not a huge fruit & veggies section nor various stuff market as we experience in other cities. It was oriented as a fish market. Not as colorful as fruit, innit!?
San Cristobal
Two options to reach the top of the San Cristobal hill:
- Using the funicular or hike it up. The funicular is of course not free and has a long waiting line.
- Using your feet to hike you way up as we did.
To begin, we first reached the zoo and take the path on the left. We continue until the trail from the main road to the top of the hill.
The hike itself is great, it takes some time and we had to take breaks to rest. We must admit that we sweated a bit to reach the top.
Once up there, we found:
- Virgin of the Immaculate Conception is a 14m tall white statue of Marie where a small chapel is located on its feet.
- Sanctuary on San Cristóbal Hill which is a Catholic church and one of the principal places of worship in Chile
- Terraza Bellavista: nice place to seat with some shops. From there you can enjoy the view of the city.
One thing that surprised us was how much the city is polluted. But apart of this this place is amazing to visit 🙂
Park
From there we sat on the “teleférico” for one stop out of 2. It is not something you must do, the ride is over the park and actually you can only gaze upon the park and a part of the city. But nothing more than the San Cristobal hill.
If you don’t wish to use the aerial tramway, you can reach out the other part of the park by walking.
The park is immense, there are road going everywhere and many different spots to see. So just hang around and get lost.
hanging around
From there we inspect the surrounding neighborhood and started returning along the “Parque de Las Esculturas” and “Parque Urugay” where many statues can be found and is cool to stroll around. It is also there that we found out a spot with lots of people asking for autograph and stuff, seems like a local celebrity was around. We didn’t recognize him but guess he was famous.
On our way we also find a cool organic and bio market near a shopping mal.
Bohemian district
We finally arrived where we started our day. Only now it was much livelier. Small shops were around and it was full of people. It is also there that we tried some of the best Empanadas! Vegan one. The shop is called Madhu and is a little one but with really yummy food.
To finish the day, what could be better than a glass a wine with an avocado toast at “Colmado coffee”.
Recommendation
From all our trips, it is Santiago de Chile that we found the less interesting. Our impression was that it is just a big metropole as you can have everywhere.
We wouldn’t recommend spending more than one or two days there.
“Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” – Roy M. Goodman
