Santiago is young, vibrant, noisy and hip. Within walking distance, you find yourself on streets filled with hipster coffee shops, and 5 minutes later in a chaotic typical south american food market. Just choose whatever you like the most! Or like us wander through both.

The city is bursting with recent political events, which you can feel while walking through the graffitied streets of the city centre. The 2019 protests left a very visible mark, with some businesses closing permanently.

What to do in Santiago

It is very easy to navigate Santiago’s top sights on foot, as the city centre is quite flat and the visiting points are relatively close to each other. Most cultural sights are free to visit so you can easily run through them all.

Here are our top sights for Santiago:
List of what to do in Santiago de Chile for google maps

• Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral – Free exhibits. Checkout their agenda for interesting shows
• Museum of Memory and Human Rights – to deep dive into the recent history of Chile. From the coup d’etat until today. FREE
• Cerro Santa Luzia – Nice walkable paths and good views of the neighbourhood. FREE
• Museu Histórico Nacional – For a better understanding of Chile’s earlier history. FREE
• Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago – FREE
• Biblioteca Nacional de Chile – FREE
• Palácio de La Moneda – iconic landmark of the Chilean coup d’etat
• Walk around the Bellavista, Lastarria and Belas Artes neighbourhoods for young crowds and eating hotspots
• Centro Cultural Palácio de la Moneda – Free exhibits
• Cerro San Cristobal – for views of the city $$
• La Chascona – one of Pablo Neruda’s house $$$. Even if you don’t want to pay for entry, it is worth it to checkout from the outside
• Museu da Solidariedade Salvador Allende – has a collection of art donated to Salvador Allende. FREE (Closed at the time of our visit)

Where to eat in Santiago

In the country of holly sandwiches, Santiago sure packs some divine ones. As we were coming from South Chile when we visited Santiago, we where already acquainted with Completos (hot dogs with avocado – to die for), Chacareros (barbacue sandwiches with green sprouts) and so many other delicious combinations. Check out our guide on all the intricates of chilean sandwiches

In Santiago, with only two days, we visited the unmissable spots for food:
List of recommended restaurants in Santiago de Chile for google maps

• La Vega Chica – local market with super cheap traditional lunch combinations $
• Antigua Fuente/Fuente Alemana – best sandwiches we’ve had! Seat around the cooking area to watch the magic happen $$
• Confiteria Torres – for the original and cheesy Barros Luco $$
• Liguria – for fried fish exquisite sandwiches $$$
• Emporio Zunino – delicious and cheap empanadas. For a different twist try the cheese one $
• El rápido – for cheap fried empanadas $

The ones we missed but were also highly recommended:

• Chipre Libre – for pisco sour
• Galindo – for traditional food in a restaurant setting
• La picada de Jaime – for any sandwich combo. This one is a bit off hand

Moving around in Santiago de Chile

Most of Santiago’s sights are within walking distance, the “visiting” area of the city is quite compact. Still, if you don’t feel like walking, the subway and buses are easy to navigate. Buy a card on a subway station and recharge as needed.

Ride-hailling apps such as Cabify and Uber are also available and can come in hand during the nigh.

How to go from the airport to Santiago de Chile city centre

There are two bus companies that run the route between the city centre and the airpor:

1. Centro Puerto: leaves every 15 minutes and stops at a central metro station (Los Heroes) or at the bus terminal (Terminal Sur), which has subway connection.
2. Turbus: leaves every 15 minutes and stops at the Alameda bus terminal, which is not far from a subway station.

Both this options would set you back around 2000 CLP, much cheaper than the 14000 CLP that an uber/cabify would charge. The route to the airport takes around 45 minutes.

Visiting Valparaíso and Viña del Mar

While in Santiago, you could take a day trip to Valparaíso, and get to know the Cerros, the street art and the fish. A bus from Terminal Sur would take around 1,5 hours and cost about 6000 CLP. Buses leave every 30 -45 min.

Viña del Mar is the neighbouring town and when you could hit the beach. From Valparíso you can reach Viña del Mar on (super fast) colectivo buses for 500 CLP or by subway, in which case you would need to buy and load a card. For the colectivos, catch any going in Viña del Mar’s direction on the main streets of Valparaíso.

For more detail on Valparaíso and Viña del Mar check-out our full guide