One of the best Tours. Highly Recommended! My wife and I were picked up at our hotel in Santiago promptly. After collecting 6 other people, we were first taken to a winery where we given the option to join a wine tasting session (my wife and I opted out). Then on we went around Via del Mar making several stops along the way for photo ops. We were then taken to a wonderful restaurant in Valparaiso with great view and excellent food. After lunch, we were taken on a walking tour of the streets of Valparaiso with its vibrant street art. Our guides Vanessa and Patrick were excellent. The tour felt felt very casual and un-rushed (in fact I'm pretty sure we exceed the number of hours stated in the tour promo). Unlike other tours where schedules are quite rigid and by the numbers, this tour felt more like a day out with friends showing you around. Vanessa made us feel at ease and relaxed from the get go and made sure everyone was enjoying the tour. Overall, this was one of the best tours we've had -- thanks to our guides. Highly recommend.
What a great tour, recommended! We went to Santiago, Chile for a visit and we decided to get out of the city and see the countryside and the seaside cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. The hotel pick up very timely and very comfortable van. The 1-1/2 hour trip to the coastal cities was through beautiful valleys surrounded by foothills of the Andes. Our guide provided interesting commentary. He had a great sense of humor. Our tour stops offered panoramic views, interesting historical sites, and the beauty of Chile's Pacific coast. There were frequent bathroom stops, which is always good on a long trip (9 hours). The restaurant that we ate in Vina del Mar had spectacular views and delicious sea food. We loved the tour, which was the highlight of our trip to Chile.
A very average coast tour of Valparaiso & Vina Del Mar We were picked up slightly early from our hotel (which suited us, as 10am seems a little late to be starting an 8-9 hour tour). Our guide Sebastian spoke good English and provided lots of good information enroute. We were expecting a wine tasting at a winery in the Casablanca Valley, but only got a small plastic cup of grape chicha at a roadside diner, which was extremely disappointing as the wine tasting was going to be a highlight for us (and the chicha was not nice at all...) We then drove to Valparaiso and stopped at Pablo Neruda's house - the entry fee was not included and very little information was provided, we were left to our own devices.The driving tour of Valparaiso was OK, but I think we spent a little too long in the car when we could have walked some of the interesting streets. We stopped twice, once at the port (nothing interesting to see there unless you are a ship spotter) and a lookout overlooking the port - which didn't add anything to the tour. At each stop, we were left to walk around by ourselves, with no advice or timeframes for the stops given. Lunch was at a tourist hotel overlooking the water - nice view and the food was good, but very expensive and we would rather have been given other options, especially to eat some of the local street food that the guide had talked about. Vina Del Mar was average - just a cold, windswept beach. Would rather have spent more time exploring Valparaiso on foot. The guide also spent a huge amount of time on his phone while driving - not very safe and also excluded his guests to a certain extent. A lot of the calls/messages seemed to be to the tour agency offices, which really should not be necessary while driving a tour group around and there was also a lot of checking of Instagram and Facebook, which was entirely inappropriate and unsafe while driving. Overall, good to see some of Valparaiso, but the lack of a winery visit and the ability to explore some of the more interesting areas saw us come away a little disappointed. Average at best unfortunately.
James MackenderTravel Expert in Peru and Chile
Maria BarcielaTravel Expert in Argentina and Chile
Oxana ProtchenkoTravel Expert in Argentina and Chile
