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.
Good trek, great guides, too many people, and limited options I had a good time on this trek and greatly enjoyed the guides that were provided, but was disappointed with how many people were in our group and felt that additional opportunities could have been offered. Our group of 10 people was bound to have various levels of fitness, and were forced to hike at the pace of our slowest member which created some tension during the hike. Having an additional guide for this many people would have been greatly beneficial to allow for different paces. Additionally, I noticed that there were many opportunities offered to other trekkers (refugio lodging and massages) that we were unable to take advantage of.
‘Discover Chile’ was a fantastic holiday and certainly in my top three tours over the last 20+years. The main reason it was fantastic was that we had brilliant weather throughout and considering this holiday was to principally look at the natural landscapes within the country this was essential. Although it was a certainty that we would have clear weather in the desert which was confirmed, the bonus of views of the snow capped Mt Osorno and others in the Lake District, and also the fantastic Torres del Paine against cloudless backdrops was the icing on the cake.