Our 2 Week Chile Travel Guide: The Best Things To Do On A Budget
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Our 2 Week Chile Travel Guide
After an epic time in the Bolivian Salt Flats, we entered Chile through the super cute San Pedro de Atacama desert – the driest desert in the world! We loved it here, it’s very small but a great place to warm our bones after the icy conditions of being 2500+ meters above sea level and spend some quality time with our newfound friends. In fact, we had such a nice, chilled time here that we didn’t even take any photos! But sometimes that’s what travelling is all about eh? After San Pedro, we headed to beach town La Serena (which we personally wouldn’t recommend) and the AWESOME Valparaiso before finishing off in cool Santiago. If you go further north there’s great surf up there, highly recommended by our friends who went there! Overall, we loved backpacking Chile so read on to discover our 2 week travel guide for the best things to do on a budget:
In total we went to:
visiting SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA
We first arrived in Chile in this tiny desert town with a real joy, after 3 intensive days in the salt flats we were looking forward to a bit of chill time. The buildings are mostly vibey lowrise brick structures and there’s often a cute market in the main square as well as a cool covered market leading just off of it. Around the back of the main square, further along from where the bus stops, there’s a DELICIOUS local food market. It’s very small, consisting of only a few shacks, but well worth it. It’s super affordable and they do a great soup starter with their Menu del Dias (Set Menus- which we recommend hunting out on all your travels across Chile and South America).
San Pedro is also where we got our first taste of two of the finest things Chile has to offer: empanadas and wine!! The wine is seriously so so good, as is the price. Sadly we learnt the hard way that empanadas are generally only available at lunchtimes…
We stayed in a nice hostel on Calle Toconao, close to the square, with a lovely inner courtyard complete with multiple hammocks for ultimate chilling. We just wandered around for a bit when we arrived because there’s plenty of options to choose from.
One activity that we did, which we wouldn’t recommend, was hiring bikes to visit Laguna Cejar. Bear in mind that this is the driest desert in the world. We don’t know what possessed us to think it would be a good idea to ride for 2+ hours on dirt roads each way. It was not. On the way back we got caught in a sandstorm (which happens most days after lunch apparently so plan accordingly if you do go), ran out of water, almost got attacked by a humongous swarm of bees that had the same idea as we did to try and use a tree as shelter, and subsequently had the only panic attack of my life. So, you can see why we don’t recommend it haha. We ended up flagging down an amazing couple with a pickup truck to bring us back to the town, a perfect example of Chile hospitality! They told us they had saved some American guys at the other tourist attraction, Moon Valley, the day before! Needless to say, we didn’t go and visit there either (we didn’t even see the Laguna in the end because there was an £18/hour entrance fee and we didn’t bring enough cash on us at the time). They do both look beautiful, however, so if you’re used to off-road biking it’s probably worth a shot! If not, driving is your safest bet.
Overall, 2-3 days is definitely more than enough to enjoy your stay here. We moved onto La Serena (we think due to Lonely Planet recommendations?) because we were craving some much-needed beach time. The overnight bus takes about 16 hours.
LA SERENA + TORTORALILLO BEACH
This is the only place we were slightly underwhelmed with in Chile, it was nice but we felt it didn’t have much to offer us. It had suffered a large earthquake several years before and so the beach looked a bit rundown (we felt a small earthquake whilst we were there too!). We also didn’t feel like swimming because the water was so cold and a bit murky due to the strong waves. There’s a nice market running through the main square where you can find handmade jewellery and other bits and bobs, and a lovely Japanese garden nearby. Whilst we were there a notorious football match was on and so we were advised by our hostel not to leave the property one evening! Chileans are pretty passionate about their football, there was another match on when we were in Valparaiso and the aftermath saw smashed windows all along the main street from the Armada Square. We didn’t go to the Elqui Valley but it’s supposed to be very picturesque.
Our hostel advised us to visit the beautiful Totoralillo beach, and it was well worth the double bus journey (changing in Coquimbo), and roughly 1 hour travel time in total. They have lots of cute straw umbrellas and the water is a lovely blue- albeit freezing! There’s a long walk down from where the bus drops you off (about half an hour) and you have to wait on the side of the highway to catch it on the way back (even though it seems desperately long, they do pass eventually). If you hire a car it’s more accessible, or you can take a taxi- they have shared taxis as well for cheaper prices.
We also stopped off at Guanaqueros beach but we wouldn’t recommend it because it’s dirty, quite close to the main road and overrun with wild dogs.
Overall, we don’t think La Serena is a must-do in Chile but nice if you’re craving some Vitamin Sea like we were! From here, we got the bus to colourful Valparaiso, 7 hours away.
going to awesome VALPARAISO
We absolutely LOVED it here! It is so super cool and definitely worth the visit! You’ll most likely be staying at the top of the hill where all the art is (which we recommend) and so as soon as you leave your hostel you’re bombarded with awesome murals everywhere you look. We enjoyed spending our days just aimlessly wandering around, taking turns as and when we felt like it, sans map. It’s so much fun to discover all the quaint streets and buildings, and because you’re high up the view is always amazing as well! There are loads of cute cafes and restaurants too. Give yourself a good few free days here to ramble about to your heart’s desire, uninterrupted by fixed plans, you’ll thank yourselves.
We also visited the historical Armada Square which has some nice buildings, as does the rest of Valparaiso scattered about here and there. Their massively long outdoor street market was recommended but we personally didn’t rate it much, it is good for snacks though!
We stayed in a cute hostel in the centre of the street art hubbub and had yummy empanadas right around the corner (made fresh daily but frequently sold out well before lunch time so get there early!). The place is halfway up some stairs on road Bavestrello and is practically just a hole in the wall, you’ll spot it thanks to the queues. The owner also gifted me the most adorable kitten outside his shop that I was already contemplating how I could sneak across the border haha.
There’s a nice long walk that you can do high up around the edge of the city to see all the colourful buildings and amazing scenery. At about midway, you’ll find Pablo Neruda’s house which is pretty cool. Be careful with your route here as it’s easy to go off track to some slightly dodgy looking spots.
If you go anywhere in Chile, go here. You can also book a tour to make sure you don’t miss a single thing. We then took the bus on to Santiago, about 4 hours away.
visiting SANTIAGO
Our final stop in Chile was Santiago, which pleasantly surprised us! We stay at the awesome Chile Pepper hostel, the owner is super friendly and we were even invited to a BBQ with him and his friends one night. The hostel itself has a nice homely vibe with a good chill out area and the included breakfast is decent.
We visited the cute Cerro Santa Lucia park which was really nice with some interesting sculptures and buildings scattered around in it. It was a public holiday when we were there so everything was closed, so we just spent our time walking around the city, which was pretty cool. Our favourite neighbourhood was the boho bar and restaurant area Bellavista, from there you can also take the funicular up to the top of the San Cristobal hill for the best views of the city.
This was also where we tried the national drink of Chile, Mote con Huesillos. At first we thought it was some kind of sweet and sour dumpling soup or something and were confused as to why everyone would be “refreshing” themselves with that in such hot weather. We couldn’t have been more wrong, it’s actually a delicious peach drink with (random) barley at the bottom so it’s both a beverage and a snack!
We highly recommend the covered Mercado Central for the food and experience, but beware- it’s INCREDIBLY hot in there. We had the national crab dish, Pastel de Jaiba, and weren’t honestly too crazy about its creamy consistency- had we known it was a casserole beforehand maybe our opinion would have been different though.
We only stayed here a couple of days before moving on by bus to Argentinian wine-region town Mendoza – with a stop at the top of the Andes mountains so pack accordingly for when you have to get off for passport control! We totally did not and were stuck in shorts and flip-flops in the middle of a blizzard…. The whole journey takes about 8 hours, but you can choose several different locations in Argentina as your destination.
Overall we were really impressed with Santiago’s vibe and loved Chile in general. Of course, in the future, we’ll definitely be back to visit the incredible Patagonia (we’d love to see Torres del Paine national park) and maybe even see Easter Island one day, but for now, we were very pleased with our route!
So that’s our 2 week Chile itinerary of the best things to do on a budget. We really loved the vibe, culture, architecture, and landscape of this country so hope our tips help you have an awesome trip too! If you’ve been to Chile before, what else would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.
