Chile runs 4,300 km. Pick your stretch.
Which day trip out of Santiago is worth the early start. How many nights San Pedro really needs. When Patagonia is open, and whether Rapa Nui earns the flight. Every tour in Chile, reviewed and ranked.
Chile, north to south, in the order most trips take it.
Four thousand three hundred kilometres, top to bottom. Almost nobody does all of it in one go — these are the stretches, in geographical order, and what each one is actually for.
Santiago is the city Chile is easiest to leave.
The capital is worth two days and a funicular. What makes it the anchor of a Chile trip is everything inside three hours of it: a port city painted up its own hillsides, a canyon reservoir the colour of antifreeze, three wine valleys pointing three different ways, and a ski road that climbs to 3,000 m in forty numbered switchbacks.
- 1Valparaiso Port and Viña del Mar with Casablanca Wine Tastingfrom $75
- 2Cajon del Maipo/Embalse del Yeso Tour with Picnicfrom $37
- 3Vina Del Mar, Valparaiso, Casablanca & Reñaca Tourfrom $39
San Pedro de Atacama is a basecamp, not a day trip.
Everything here runs on altitude and light. The geysers only steam at dawn, the salt lagoons only float you in the middle of the day, and the sky goes properly dark by nine. Three nights is the minimum that gets you the big sights without walking yourself into altitude sickness on the first one.
Which Atacama day do you actually want?
El Tatio at first steam
Leaves San Pedro in the dark and climbs to the highest geyser field in the southern hemisphere, arriving while the cold still turns every vent into a column. Breakfast off the tailgate, back in town before lunch.
See all 34 →
Moon Valley as the light goes
Salt ridges that crack audibly as the day cools, then the Cordillera de la Sal turning orange and then violet with Licancabur standing behind it. The one everybody photographs and nobody regrets.
See all 25 →
Baltinache and the salt lagoons
Water saltier than the sea in a chain of hidden lagoons an hour out of town. You do not really swim in it, you sit in it. Rinse showers at the far end, because the crust sets hard on your skin.
See all 26 →The tours more travellers take than anything else in Chile.
Every review →Ranked by how many people have been and said so. Notice how far down the list you get before Chile stops being a day trip out of Santiago.
1
Valparaiso Port and Viña del Mar with Casablanca Wine Tasting
Small-group full day from Santiago to Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, then Casablanca wine tasting, street art, views, and funicular ride.
From · $75
Read our review →
2
Cajon del Maipo/Embalse del Yeso Tour with Picnic
from $37
3
Vina Del Mar, Valparaiso, Casablanca & Reñaca Tour
from $39
4
Cable Car, Funicular and Sightseeing Bus in Santiago one day
from $60
5
Small-Group Cajón del Maipo Full-Day Tour and Picnic
from $41
6
Tour to Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Pablo Neruda Museum and Vineyard
from $111
7
Maipo Valley Wine Tour with 4 vineyards from Santiago.
from $135
8
Inca Lagoon in Andes Mountain Range – Visit Local Vineyard with Tasting included
from $79
Valparaíso is two different trips, and the difference matters.
Most people see it in a day from Santiago: the port, Cerro Alegre, a plate of chorrillana, back before dark. Staying the night buys you the ascensores before the coaches arrive, the mural stairways empty, and the boats unloading at Caleta Portales at six in the morning. Book the one you are actually doing.
Out of Santiago, the vines point three different ways.
Maipo, Casablanca and Colchagua are three separate days on three separate roads, and they do not make the same wine. Choose by the grape and the drive.
Maipo: the Cabernet valley
Chile’s oldest wine region starts where Santiago’s southern suburbs stop, which is why it is the half-day almost everyone does. Cabernet Sauvignon is what it does properly — river gravel off the Maipo ripens it hard and dry. Concha y Toro’s cellar is here, and so is the queue for it; the smaller Puente Alto houses pour the better tasting.
- 1Maipo Valley Wine Tour with 4 vineyards from Santiago.★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,983 reviews
- 2Marquis de Casa Concha: Wine tasting in Concha y Toro★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,086 reviews
- 3Viña Concha y Toro: Premium Wine Center Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 714 reviews
Casablanca: the cold-coast whites
The valley you cross on the way to the sea, and the reason Chilean Sauvignon Blanc tastes the way it does. Fog comes up off the Pacific overnight and holds the temperature down until late morning, so the grapes keep their acid. Most coast day trips can stop here; it costs an hour and improves the day.
- 1Valparaiso Port and Viña del Mar with Casablanca Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,110 reviews
- 2Vina Del Mar, Valparaiso, Casablanca & Reñaca Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 2,838 reviews
- 3Valparaiso -Casablanca -Reñaca-Oceanic Rock-Concon★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,564 reviews
Colchagua: Carménère and a full day
Colchagua is the one you give a whole day to, or a night in Santa Cruz. Warm, dry and built for Carménère — the grape Chile grew for well over a century while believing it was Merlot, until it was correctly identified in 1994. Every Colchagua day here runs private, and is priced like it.
- 1Private Colchagua VIK and Montes Wineries Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 19 reviews
- 2Full Day Private Colchagua Wine Tour from Santiago★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 16 reviews
- 3Viu Manent and Montes Winery, Colchagua Valley from semi-private★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7 reviews
What a day in Chile actually costs.
Every published tour, sorted by price. Half of them come in under $90 — it is the long days in the far south that pull the average up.
City walks, the funicular day, a winery an hour out of Santiago, the half-day desert runs.
The standard full day: the coast and Valparaíso, Cajón del Maipo with a picnic, El Tatio before dawn.
Long-haul days and small groups — Torres del Paine out of Puerto Natales, the penguin islands, private wine days.
Private guiding, multi-day Patagonia and Rapa Nui, and the glacier boats out of the fjords.
Patagonia has a season, and it is not the one you are used to.
Torres del Paine sits at 51° south. The wind arrives in the afternoon and it is not a breeze — it is the reason the guanaco lie down. November to March is when the refugios are open, the boats run up to Grey Glacier, and the walk to the base of the towers is a long day rather than an expedition.
Easter Island is 3,700 km offshore. Plan it like a separate country.
One runway, one town, and something close to 900 moai lying where they were left. Ahu Tongariki stands fifteen of them in a row facing inland; Rano Raraku is the quarry where the rest never finished the journey. Two full days is the floor, and the park ticket gets checked at the gate of every site.
All 96 Rapa Nui tours →
Three Chiles that are nowhere near each other.
A desert sky, a penguin island in the Strait of Magellan, and an archipelago of wooden churches. Nothing about a Chile itinerary is compact.
The Atacama sky
Chile carries more of the world’s professional telescope capacity than any other country, for a plain reason: the high desert gets around 300 cloudless nights a year and almost no humidity. You do not need an observatory to feel it — a folding chair outside San Pedro will do. The tours run on the lunar calendar, so check which half of the month you are booking.
- 1Etno-Stargazing Tour with Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 629 reviews
- 2The Roofless Experience San Pedro de Atacama Stargazing Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 522 reviews
- 3Stargazing Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 489 reviews
The penguin islands
Magdalena Island sits in the middle of the strait and holds tens of thousands of breeding pairs of Magellanic penguins. You land, you walk a roped path, and they walk across it. The season runs roughly October to March; outside it the birds are at sea and the boats stay tied up. King penguins are a different trip again, over on Tierra del Fuego.
- 1Walk with Penguins on Magdalena & Marta Island★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 611 reviews
- 2Full-Day Whales, Penguins, and Glaciers Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 325 reviews
- 3Full Day Tierra del Fuego & King Penguins★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 179 reviews
Chiloé
A ferry south of Puerto Montt puts you on an island that kept its own everything: sixteen wooden churches on the World Heritage list, raised by missionaries and Chilote boatwrights using shipbuilding joints instead of nails, palafito houses on stilts over the water at Castro, and curanto cooked in a pit under leaves. It rains. Bring the coat.
- 1Chiloe Island Full-day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 3.6 · 77 reviews
- 2Full day Chiloe Island visiting Penguins in Puñihuil★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 38 reviews
- 3Chiloe Island – Puñihuil Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 21 reviews
Chile’s seasons run backwards, and it is too long to have only one.
December to February is high summer: Patagonia is open, the Lake District is warm, and Santiago is in the thirties and half empty because everyone has gone to the coast. June to September flips it — the Andes resorts an hour above the capital get their season and the far south largely shuts. The Atacama does not care, and works in any month, though the desert nights run cold all year.
- 1El Tatio Geysers Tourfrom $70
- 2Farellones Park Tourfrom $54
- 3Valle Nevado and Farellones Small Group Tourfrom $35
The Chile bookings that close before you land.
Most of this country can be arranged from your hotel the night before. These cannot. They run on park quotas, a single airline and a snow season that opens and shuts on its own schedule.
- 01Full Day Tour to Torres del Paine National ParkPark entry is capped and bought ahead, and every bed inside the park — refugio or campsite — is reserved separately from the tour. For January they are gone by spring.
- 02Easter Island Highlights 2-Day TourOne airline flies there and the aircraft is not large. You also need the national park ticket, and at check-in a return seat and proof of where you are staying.
- 03Valle Nevado and Farellones Small Group TourThe Andes resorts above Santiago run roughly mid-June to early October and nothing either side of it. Out of season the road is a scenic drive with no snow on it.
- 04Walk with Penguins on Magdalena & Marta IslandThe Strait of Magellan penguin boats sail October to March only, and weather cancels them at short notice. Leave a spare day in Punta Arenas.
By region — where you would be based
Santiago570 tours
San Pedro de Atacama219 tours
Easter Island96 tours
Puerto Natales73 tours
Punta Arenas63 tours
Valparaíso66 tours
Puerto Varas40 tours
Pucón24 tours
La Serena16 tours- All 11 regions →
By day — what kind of day out is it?
Latest Chile tour reviews.
All recent →
Colchagua Full Day Wine Tour: Casa Silva & L’Apostolle Wineries
Read our review →
Easter Island 2 Half Days and 2 Full Days Private Trekking Tour
Read our review →
Santiago De Chile Highlights Walking Tour with a Guide
Read our review →
Portillo & Laguna del Inca with Lunch at the Hotel Portillo
Read our review →
Cajon del Maipo & Embalse El Yeso Tour from Santiago
Read our review →
Full day hike to the viewpoint of Condores, Cajon del Maipo
Read our review →