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Chile is still fresh in people’s memories because of the dramatic rescue that recently took place at the San Jose Mine in Copiapo, Chile, but this long and skinny South American nation is still relatively unknown as a travel destination. With 4300km of coastline, Chile takes up over half of the South American continent, but culturally, it has more in common with Europe than with its Latin American neighbors. Chile is geographically isolated, as it is wedged between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountain range, and its diverse landscapes are made up of stunning volcanoes, steppes, geysers, and alpine lakes.

Weather-wise, the best time to visit Chile is between November and March, which is summertime in the southern hemisphere. However, keep in mind that mid-December to the end of February is summer vacation season for Chileans and Argentines, so prices are high and tourist attractions get crowded with locals and tourists alike. To avoid the crowds and high season prices while still enjoying mild weather, visit Chile during the shoulder season, which runs from September to early December and from March to June. If you want to ski in Chile, the best time to visit is in August and September.

Check out the following 10 travel tips if you’re planning to visit Chile or you’re curious about exploring this South American gem.

1. Take a Tour of a Chilean Winery

Learn about Chilean culture and history while admiring scenic landscapes, touring vineyards, and tasting fine wines. Chile’s top wine-growing regions, such as Casablanca Valley and Aconcagua Valley, are only a day trip away from the capital of Santiago. Travel agencies in Santiago offer day trips that are led by English speaking guides with experience in the wine business. If you’d prefer to travel to the wineries independently, reserve a spot in advance by contacting them directly. Bilingual guides are only available at the larger wineries.

2. Visit the Mercado Central (Central Market) in Santiago

This colorful, bustling central market is a must-see for any visitor to Chile. It boasts a dizzying variety of fish and seafood, complete with an array of excellent, on-site dining options. If you love seafood or you simply delight in wandering through the stalls of lively, picturesque markets, don’t miss a visit to Santiago’s Mercado Central.

3. Visit the Driest Desert on Earth: The Atacama Desert

Not only is the Atacama Desert in northern Chile one of the driest locations in the world, it is also one of the most visually stunning. Featuring volcanoes, salt flats, cultural landmarks, geysers, and more, the Atacama Desert is packed with astonishing sights.

4. Learn Some Basic ‘Chilenismos.’

Chilean Spanish is not your average Spanish. Grab a Spaniard and ask him to listen in on a conversation between two Chileans to see if he can understand what they’re saying… chances are that he won’t! A crash course in Chilean Spanish: some basic Chilenismos you can spout to impress your new amigos include, cachar, which means “to get” or “to understand”, al tiro, which means “right away,” and fome, which means “lame” or “boring.”

5. Eat Curanto, a Traditional Indigenous Food That’s Cooked in a Hole in the Ground.

Curanto is a traditional meal from the Chiloé archipelago. Eating curanto, which consists of potatoes, meat, shellfish, vegetables, and potato bread, is a cultural experience in itself. To make curanto, locals dig a hole that’s 15cm deep in the ground and place red hot stones in the it. A blanket of leaves is placed on the stones and then the ingredients are laid on top. Leaves, grass chunks, wet sacks, and soil are placed on top of the ingredients to trap the heat, and the food takes about an hour to cook. If you have non-adventurous taste buds and are reluctant to eat food that was cooked in soil, you could try the city version of curanto, which is cooked over the stove.

6. Visit One of Pablo Neruda’s Ornate Homes.

Pablo Neruda, one of Chile’s most famous poets, owned three beautiful houses in Chile, which have been converted to museums and opened to the public. Exploring the artifacts in Neruda’s homes, you can get a better sense of his life’s passions and learn more about his juicy love affairs.

7. Swim in the Largest Pool in the World.

In the San Alfonso Del Mar Resort in Algarrobo, Chile, you can leisurely swim in an artificial lagoon that also happens to be the largest swimming pool in the entire world. The expansive views of the lagoon and the ocean backdrop from rooms on the 5th to 9th floors of the San Alfonso Del Mar Resort are stunning.

8. Get a Visit South America Air Pass from LAN.

If the idea of taking 20 hour-long bus trips during your trip to Chile doesn’t particularly entice you, consider getting a Visit South America Pass from LAN Airlines. Bus trips in Chile are affordable and pleasant, but because of the country’s geography, cross-country trips mean long hours, a neck ache, and lots of stale sandwiches. A Visit South America Pass from LAN Airlines is valid for travel within Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and Argentina.

9. Eat a Completo.

Think that hot dogs are only an American thing? Well, you might want to think again because Chileans go loco for hot dogs. A completo is the Chilean version of the hot dog that’s topped with chopped tomato, avocado, and sauerkraut, and slathered with nauseating portions of mayonnaise. Completos are both an eyeful and a mouthful.

10. Explore the Ice Fields of Northern Patagonia on a Glacier Cruise

View some of the most breathtaking natural splendors in Chile aboard a glacier cruise. Glacier cruises pass through fjords, glacial valleys, and huge icebergs. From listening to the sound of giant slabs of ice falling into the lagoons to admiring whales and penguins in their natural habitat, the experiences you’ll have while cruising through the glaciers of Patagonia are once-in-a-lifetime moments.

Visit Chile, or a number of other South American countries, and check out these South America flight deals.

Because of language barriers a lot of people have trouble finding the really great hotel deals that are out there.  If you find that you’re the type of person that goes for whatever is easiest you might be paying too much.  First, some good advice is to broaden your scope, in Spanish a hotel is ‘hotel’ but an Inn is a ‘posada’, accommodations is ‘hospedaje’ and a hostel is ‘hostal’ or ‘residencia’.  By including these terms in your search for affordable fares your search results are going to triple.

Secondly, in most places in South America they are open to bargaining, especially in the off season.  Possibly less so in the big name hotels, but this is when you can make a big splash in savings.  Call up some posadas, residencias or even hostals that have caught your eye and give them a number that you’re willing to pay.  As long as it’s not too far in advance and they’ve got the availability, 9 times out of 10 they’ll reserve it for you.  Ask and you shall receive is a useful mantra to live by.

Next, if you think that there’s no possible way you’d ever stay in a hostel you might want to reconsider your position.  There are a lot of hostels out there and the smart ones are setting themselves apart from the crowd by offering more privacy and stylish rooms.  A private, ensuite bedroom in a hostel will typically cost you about $15-20 per night, and if you do your research (on any of the websites mentioned above) you can find accommodations better than you expected.  The other benefits of staying in a hostel is the fact that you’ll be able to ask other travelers like yourself about good places to stay, eat, see, do, etc.; learn from their mistakes and take advantage of their triumphs.

So there you have it, some easy ways to cast your net wider and hopefully come up with some great hotel finds for low, low prices.  The rest is up to you and bon voyage!

One of the most popular vacation destinations in Chile is a small adobe village in the middle of the Atacama Desert called San Pedro. It has become so popular that this tiny square-mile village of 1,500 is surrounded by 12 hotels and about twice as many hostels. The town features an impressive archaeological museum of pre-Colombian artifacts and a beautiful adobe church that sits prominently in the main square. But the main attraction here isn’t the culture; people come here for the landscape.

San Pedro has been inhabited in one way or another for the last 11,000 years by the Atacama people and is known as the archaeological center of Chile. It’s easy to see why people have consistently been coming back here millennia after millennia, as the area is famous for having one of the world’s most unearthly landscapes. Through the Cordilla section of the Andes, just south of Licancabur Volcano, you come across Moon Valley which has been photographed innumerable times and used as the set for space scenes in film and TV for its startling resemblance to the surface of the moon. Sharp, jagged rock burst out of the ground at random and the mountains are cut with shockingly vibrant and defined strata that stand out against the reddish-brownish sand that persists throughout the valley.

Moon Valley

Just SE of Moon Valley is Death Valley, one of the best spots for dune boarding enthusiasts. It’s possible to book a tour and lessons out to the dunes in the town, which has its upside for various reasons: 1. You ride out there in a car. 2. Often times they bring along an ATV so you don’t have to walk up the dune once you’ve hurled yourself down it. 3. There’s no possibility of getting lost in a place called Death Valley. However, if you’re confident of your map reading skills it’s a far cheaper endeavor to rent a bike and a board and get out there yourself. Just be sure that everyone in your group wears a backpack so you have someway of strapping the board to your back, otherwise there’s going to be one very unlucky and unhappy backpack-wearing member of your group hauling everyone else’s boards and probably plotting to throw you off the dunes once you get there.

Sand Dunes

Dune Boarding

Atacama is also known for its geysers. One of the most amazing things you can do whilst here is to take a tour out to Geyser del Tatio just before the sun rises, when the air is still cool, and watch the vapor explode up out of the earth through vents dotted around the landscape. From there, only a short distance away lies the thermal springs of Puritama where people go to soak up the restoring minerals found in the water.

Just 55 km south of San Pedro is the largest salt flat in Chile and the second largest in the world. During the winter months shallow waters cover the flats and the best time to visit them is just before sunset. As the sun goes down it casts a purple and pink light against the Cordilla mountain range that is perfectly reflected in the still waters above the flats. The view, the altitude, and the winding down of the day make it the perfect time to enjoy the national drink of choice, the Pisco Sour.

Salt Flats

Lagunas Cejas are only 18 km from San Pedro and are perfect for a refreshing dip even amongst non-swimmers. Since the lagoons are located in the same area of the salt flats, and the whole area used to be a lake that evaporated 8000 years ago, the lagoons have about 40% salinity producing the same floating effect that the Dead Sea is famous for. Another reason why the lagoon is so popular is for its proximity to the Andean Flamingos Reserve, a few kilometers west at Laguna Chaxa. Every now and then a flock of brilliant bright pink flamingos fly overhead on their way home and the effect against the electric blue sky is shocking.

Floating in the laguna

Once the sun has gone down and the moon is up, some people say that’s the best time of day in the Atacama Desert. At the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory, a submillimeter astronomical observatory federally funded by the US government, you can sign up to star gaze through some of the best and most technologically advanced telescopes on earth. However, without a single city light for hundreds of miles in any direction, the night sky is just as beautiful when viewed with the naked eye.

The cheapest way to do all the activities above would be to rent a car and read a map and just do it, which is 100% possible due to numerous rental agencies in town that rent midsize sedans for about $25 US a day. However, the down side to that is that you’re missing interesting information about the landscape, geological features, and cultural customs that comes with a guided tour. The best way to get the most for your money is to head to town, find a tour agency and bundle the activities and sights that you want to do. If you can get a group of people together who want to do the same things that’s even better because almost all the agencies offer group discounts. Furthermore, if you stray off the main street, Caracoles, where the majority of the agencies are and stick to the little side streets, you’ll find agencies that are willing to go a lot cheaper than their better-located competition.

Finally, researching a place to stay before you get there can be a little tricky as most of the hotels and hostels are not registered with popular booking websites like hostelworld.com or hotels.com, so the best thing to do is to go to www.sanpedrodeatacama.com and browse their registry of accommodations which is all encompassing. Since the town is in the middle of the desert most hotels do have quite high rates, but don’t let that deter you because most of the hostels in town offer great quality; they offer private rooms with bathrooms and decent breakfasts. The main difference between hotels and hostels in town is the presence of pools in the former. Other than that, the hostels are like small hotels for small budgets.

Getting around South America by air can be expensive, prohibitively expensive really. A quick search on the internet turns up fares typically between $250-$500 for a one hour flight, one-way. With prices this steep it can dissuade a lot of budget-bound people from moving between countries and even within certain large countries. However, if you don’t mind sacrificing a bit of time it is possible to travel great distances for low prices with another method of transportation, bus transportation.

The old saying, ‘When in Rome…’ is generally a good rule of thumb to stick to when traveling, especially when you haven’t got a whole lot of money to throw around. The most common method of traveling large and small distances in Southern South America is by bus, and it’s become a major business down here. Throw out what stereotypes you may have, these buses aren’t old, re-comissioned school buses bumping along dusty roads; in most cases these buses top of the line double deckers and are more lux than first class on your favorite air carrier.

There are three levels of comfort that are available to the plane weary traveler. ‘Semi-Cama’, ‘Cama’, and ‘Cama Ejecutivo/Deluxe/Suite’ or some other variation that denotes superiority. The different names denote the different degrees to which the chairs recline. ‘Semi-Cama’ buses are equipped with chairs that recline 45 degrees back. ‘Cama’ buses have chairs that recline 45-90 degrees (depending on the company) and the ‘Cama Ejecutivo’ line typically comes with free booze and a better meal to put you to sleep faster. If you find it difficult to fall asleep in chairs then you’ll be glad you paid for an Ejecutivo ticket because bus trips can run up to 30 hours long depending on how far you’re going.

For a trip from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Bariloche, Argentina, which is a distance of 1,571 km (976 miles) the trip takes 20 hours. For this reason most long distance bus trips are done overnight, which is why it’s important to make sure you’re comfortable enough to pass out. Here’s a general outline of what you get for each class of bus.

Semi-Cama:

· 140 degree reclining seats

· Footrests

· Heating and A/C

· Music and video

Cama:

· 140 degree reclining seats

· Footrests

· Heating and A/C

· Hot meal service

· Breakfast the next morning

· Pillow and blanket

· MP3 and DVD system

· Wide seats

Cama-Superior:

· Leather seats

· 180 degree reclining seats

· Footrests

· Privacy curtains between seats

· Heating and A/C

· Drinks service

· Hot meal service

· Breakfast the next morning

· Pillow and blanket

· MP3 and DVD system

There are literally hundreds of bus companies to choose from and your first trip to the bus terminal can be a dizzying experience if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Sites like www.omnilineas.com run bus schedules and ticket prices for all the buses that run through Buenos Aires, Argentina. However, even if you’re not in the city it’s a great source for cultivating a sense of what’s out there in terms of companies, prices and options. If you’re looking for a starting point the biggest names in bus travel in Argentina seem to be Nueva Chevallier, AndesMar, Cata Internacional and Rutamar but don’t stop there because there are dozens of fleets that are site specific and offer lower prices than the more recognizable names.